RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Impact of COVID-19 Strict Lockdown on the Air Quality of Smart Cities of Rajasthan, India
Tansukh Barupal1, Praveen Kumar Tak2, Mukesh Meena3, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2022Volume: 2
E-location ID: e266695872203030
Publisher ID: e266695872203030
DOI: 10.2174/26669587-v2-e2203030
Article History:
Received Date: 08/9/2021Revision Received Date: 9/12/2021
Acceptance Date: 6/1/2022
Electronic publication date: 27/04/2022
Collection year: 2022
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Aim:
The main focus of this study is to evaluate the air quality by comparing the concentration of particulate matter PM2.5, PM10, NO2, CO, SO2, and ozone of smart cities of Rajasthan before the lockdown and during the period of lockdown.
Background:
In India, the first case of the COVID-19 was reported on January 30th, 2020. Indian government declared strict lockdown, i.e., public health emergency in India on March 24th, 2020, which is implemented from March 25th, 2020, to April 14th, 2020, for 21 days.
Objective:
The objective of this study is to evaluate the air quality by comparing the levels of all parameters of air pollution during the COVID-19 lockdown period with values registered in the pre-lockdown period.
Methods:
Data were obtained from four automatic monitoring stations under the control of the Central Pollution Control Board, New Delhi (https://www.cpcb.nic.in/). Data regarding all the parameters were recorded as 24 hours average period.
Results:
CO levels showed the highest significant reduction in Udaipur (50.76%) followed by Jaipur (19.96%), Ajmer (17.11%), and Kota (5.51%) due to the ban on transport and driving. The levels of PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and SO2 were also decreased substantially for each smart city. Ozone concentrations were recorded greater than before due to decreased nitrogen oxides levels.
Conclusion:
This study can be useful considering our present role in environmental restoration or environmental destruction. It will also be helpful in updating our present plan toward the assurance and conservation of nature.
