Impact of COVID19-induced Lockdown on Air Quality in Ireland

TL;DR

This study examines how COVID-19 lockdown measures in Dublin, Ireland, led to a significant reduction in nitrogen dioxide levels, highlighting the impact of decreased vehicular and industrial activity on air quality.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence of the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on urban air pollution using satellite data for Dublin, Ireland.

Findings

Significant decrease in NO₂ levels during lockdown

Satellite data confirms reduction in vehicular pollution

Lockdown measures positively impacted air quality

Abstract

Air pollution has been a long-existing problem for most of the major metropolitan cities of the world. Several measures including strict climate laws and reduction in the number of vehicles were implemented by several nations. However, in the recent wake of the COVID19 pandemic, there has been a renewed interest in revisiting the problem of low air quality. Several countries implemented strict lockdown measures halting the vehicular traffic and other economic activities, in order to reduce the spread of COVID19. In this paper, we analyze the impact of such COVID19-induced lockdown on the air quality of the atmosphere. Our case study is based in the city of Dublin, Ireland. We analyze the average concentration of common gaseous pollutant majorly responsible for industrial and vehicular pollution, \textit{viz.} nitrogen dioxide (NO$_2$). These concentrations are obtained from the tropospheric column of the atmosphere collected by Sentinel-5P, which is an earth observation satellite of European Space Agency. We observe that Dublin had a significant drop in the level of NO$_2$ concentration, owing to the strict lockdown measures implemented across the nation.