Did Turkey Experience Reductions in Air Pollution During The Covid-19 Lockdown and Partial Lockdown?

Air pollution, one of humanity's essential environmental problems due to the increasing population and urbanization, negatively affects the ecosystem and public health. During reduced human activity, such as martial law, war, and pandemics like COVID-19, improvements in air quality may be obser...

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Main Authors: İsmet Yener, Kazım Onur Demirarslan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Artvin Coruh University 2024-01-01
Series:Doğal Afetler ve Çevre Dergisi
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Online Access:http://dacd.artvin.edu.tr/tr/download/article-file/331682510.21324/dacd.1339741
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author İsmet Yener
Kazım Onur Demirarslan
author_facet İsmet Yener
Kazım Onur Demirarslan
author_sort İsmet Yener
collection DOAJ
description Air pollution, one of humanity's essential environmental problems due to the increasing population and urbanization, negatively affects the ecosystem and public health. During reduced human activity, such as martial law, war, and pandemics like COVID-19, improvements in air quality may be observed due to diminished anthropogenic impact. The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has caused widespread illness and fatalities. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a state of emergency at the end of December 2019 following the first recognition of the virus in Wuhan. The Turkish government declared this state on March 11, 2020, and implemented some measures, including a lockdown (LD) and a partial lockdown (PLD), to protect public and human health. The present study aims to determine the impact of LD and PLD on the air quality of fourteen selected cities in Turkey that participated in all LDs during the state of emergency on weekends and national and religious holidays. The hourly air quality data used in the study were collected from 105 air monitoring stations in fourteen cities. The non-parametric Kruskal Wallis test, followed by the Dunn's Bonferroni test for pairwise comparison, was employed to determine the differences in air quality between years. The findings indicated significant reductions in air pollution during LD and PLD: 21.1-40.3% and 8.9-29.8% in PM10, respectively, and 30.2-50.8% and 2.6-22.4% in NOx, respectively. SO2 and CO also varied significantly. While the changes in SO2 during LD and PLD went from 0.0% to 5.7% and -2.4% to 1.2%, respectively, those in CO ranged from -6.6% to 29.6% and 1.3% to 33.2%, respectively.
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spelling doaj-art-48a66de9cac6445cafcd8f07163f45432025-02-03T10:00:52ZengArtvin Coruh UniversityDoğal Afetler ve Çevre Dergisi2528-96402024-01-0110117919110.21324/dacd.1339741Did Turkey Experience Reductions in Air Pollution During The Covid-19 Lockdown and Partial Lockdown?İsmet Yener0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6998-9791Kazım Onur Demirarslan1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1023-7584Artvin Coruh University, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Engineering, 08100, ArtvinArtvin Coruh University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Environmental Engineering, 08100, ArtvinAir pollution, one of humanity's essential environmental problems due to the increasing population and urbanization, negatively affects the ecosystem and public health. During reduced human activity, such as martial law, war, and pandemics like COVID-19, improvements in air quality may be observed due to diminished anthropogenic impact. The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has caused widespread illness and fatalities. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a state of emergency at the end of December 2019 following the first recognition of the virus in Wuhan. The Turkish government declared this state on March 11, 2020, and implemented some measures, including a lockdown (LD) and a partial lockdown (PLD), to protect public and human health. The present study aims to determine the impact of LD and PLD on the air quality of fourteen selected cities in Turkey that participated in all LDs during the state of emergency on weekends and national and religious holidays. The hourly air quality data used in the study were collected from 105 air monitoring stations in fourteen cities. The non-parametric Kruskal Wallis test, followed by the Dunn's Bonferroni test for pairwise comparison, was employed to determine the differences in air quality between years. The findings indicated significant reductions in air pollution during LD and PLD: 21.1-40.3% and 8.9-29.8% in PM10, respectively, and 30.2-50.8% and 2.6-22.4% in NOx, respectively. SO2 and CO also varied significantly. While the changes in SO2 during LD and PLD went from 0.0% to 5.7% and -2.4% to 1.2%, respectively, those in CO ranged from -6.6% to 29.6% and 1.3% to 33.2%, respectively. http://dacd.artvin.edu.tr/tr/download/article-file/331682510.21324/dacd.1339741pandemiccovid-19air qualitylockdownair pollutants
spellingShingle İsmet Yener
Kazım Onur Demirarslan
Did Turkey Experience Reductions in Air Pollution During The Covid-19 Lockdown and Partial Lockdown?
Doğal Afetler ve Çevre Dergisi
pandemic
covid-19
air quality
lockdown
air pollutants
title Did Turkey Experience Reductions in Air Pollution During The Covid-19 Lockdown and Partial Lockdown?
title_full Did Turkey Experience Reductions in Air Pollution During The Covid-19 Lockdown and Partial Lockdown?
title_fullStr Did Turkey Experience Reductions in Air Pollution During The Covid-19 Lockdown and Partial Lockdown?
title_full_unstemmed Did Turkey Experience Reductions in Air Pollution During The Covid-19 Lockdown and Partial Lockdown?
title_short Did Turkey Experience Reductions in Air Pollution During The Covid-19 Lockdown and Partial Lockdown?
title_sort did turkey experience reductions in air pollution during the covid 19 lockdown and partial lockdown
topic pandemic
covid-19
air quality
lockdown
air pollutants
url http://dacd.artvin.edu.tr/tr/download/article-file/331682510.21324/dacd.1339741
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