Impact of COVID-19 Induced Lockdown on Environmental Quality in Four Indian Megacities Using Landsat 8 OLI and TIRS-Derived Data and Mamdani Fuzzy Logic Modelling Approach

Sasanka Ghosh, Arijit Das, Tusar Kanti Hembram, Sunil Saha, Biswajeet Pradhan and Abdullah M. Alamri
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Sasanka Ghosh: Department of Geography, Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol 713340, West Bengal, India
Arijit Das: Department of Geography, University of Gour Banga, Malda 732103, West Bengal, India
Tusar Kanti Hembram: Department of Geography, University of Gour Banga, Malda 732103, West Bengal, India
Sunil Saha: Department of Geography, University of Gour Banga, Malda 732103, West Bengal, India
Biswajeet Pradhan: Centre for Advanced Modeling and Geospatial Information Systems (GIS), Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
Abdullah M. Alamri: Department of Geology & Geophysics, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 13, 1-24

Abstract: The deadly COVID-19 virus has caused a global pandemic health emergency. This COVID-19 has spread its arms to 200 countries globally and the megacities of the world were particularly affected with a large number of infections and deaths, which is still increasing day by day. On the other hand, the outbreak of COVID-19 has greatly impacted the global environment to regain its health. This study takes four megacities (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai) of India for a comprehensive assessment of the dynamicity of environmental quality resulting from the COVID-19 induced lockdown situation. An environmental quality index was formulated using remotely sensed biophysical parameters like Particulate Matters PM 10 concentration, Land Surface Temperature (LST), Normalized Different Moisture Index (NDMI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). Fuzzy-AHP, which is a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making process, has been utilized to derive the weight of the indicators and aggregation. The results showing that COVID-19 induced lockdown in the form of restrictions on human and vehicular movements and decreasing economic activities has improved the overall quality of the environment in the selected Indian cities for a short time span. Overall, the results indicate that lockdown is not only capable of controlling COVID-19 spread, but also helpful in minimizing environmental degradation. The findings of this study can be utilized for assessing and analyzing the impacts of COVID-19 induced lockdown situation on the overall environmental quality of other megacities of the world.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; spatiotemporal analysis; environmental quality; PM 10 concentration; GIS; remote sensing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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