Spatiotemporal Variations of Air Pollution during the COVID-19 Pandemic across Tehran, Iran: Commonalities with and Differences from Global Trends

Mohsen Maghrebi (), Ali Danandeh Mehr (), Seyed Mohsen Karrabi, Mojtaba Sadegh, Sadegh Partani, Behzad Ghiasi and Vahid Nourani
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Mohsen Maghrebi: School of Environment, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran 1417853111, Iran
Ali Danandeh Mehr: Civil Engineering Department, Antalya Bilim University, Antalya 07190, Turkey
Seyed Mohsen Karrabi: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad 9177948974, Iran
Mojtaba Sadegh: Civil Engineering Department, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725, USA
Sadegh Partani: Civil Engineering Department, University of Bojnord, Bojnord 9453155111, Iran
Behzad Ghiasi: School of Environment, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran 1417853111, Iran
Vahid Nourani: Centre of Excellence in Hydroinformatics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz 51666, Iran

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-23

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has induced changes in global air quality, mostly short-term improvements, through worldwide lockdowns and restrictions on human mobility and industrial enterprises. In this study, we explored the air pollution status in Tehran metropolitan, the capital city of Iran, during the COVID-19 outbreak. To this end, ambient air quality data (CO, NO 2 , O 3 , PM 10 , SO 2 , and AQI) from 14 monitoring stations across the city, together with global COVID-19-related records, were utilized. The results showed that only the annual mean concentration of SO 2 increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly due to burning fuel oil in power plants. The findings also demonstrated that the number of days with a good AQI has significantly decreased during the pandemic, despite the positive trend in the global AQI. Based on the spatial variation of the air quality data across the city, the results revealed that increasing pollution levels were more pronounced in low-income regions.

Keywords: COVID-19; air pollution; Tehran; AQI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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