How COVID-19 Lockdown Impacted on Mobility and Environmental data

Buildings and Cities, 2021

In 2020, Covid-19-related mobility restrictions resulted in the most extensive humanmade air-quality changes ever recorded. The changes in mobility are quantified in terms of outdoor air pollution (concentrations of PM 2.5 and NO 2) and the associated health impacts in four UK cities (Greater London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast). After applying a weather-corrected machine learning (ML) technique, all four cities show NO 2 and PM 2.5 concentration anomalies in 2020 when compared with the ML-predicted values for that year. The NO 2 anomalies are-21% for Greater London,-19% for Cardiff,-27% for Belfast and-41% for Edinburgh. The PM 2.5 anomalies are 7% for Greater London,-1% for Cardiff,-15% for Edinburgh,-14% for Belfast. All the negative anomalies, which indicate air pollution at a lower level than expected from the weather conditions, are attributable to the mobility restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 lockdowns. Spearman rank-order correlations show a significant correlation between the lowering of NO 2 levels and reduction in public transport (p < 0.05) and driving (p < 0.05), which is associated with a decline in NO 2-attributable mortality. These positive effects of the mobility restrictions on public health can be used to evaluate policies for improved outdoor air quality. POLICY RELEVANCE Finding the means to curb air pollution is very important for public health. Empirical evidence at a city scale reveals significant correlations between the reduction in vehicular transport and in ambient NO 2 concentrations. The results provide justification for city-level initiatives to reduce vehicular traffic. Well-designed and effective policy interventions (e.g. the promotion of walking and cycling, remote working, local availability of services) can substantially reduce long-term air pollution and have positive health impacts.

This study provides valuable insight into impacts of COVID-19 emergency public health “lockdown” measures upon traffic flow, active travel and gaseous pollutant concentrations (NO, NO2, and O3) in Oxford city centre during 2020. Comparisons of traffic counts indicated pronounced changes in traffic volume associated with national lockdown periods. Car volume reduced by 77.5% (statistically significant) during the first national lockdown, with lesser changes in goods vehicles and public transport (bus) activity during the second lockdown. Cycle flow reduced substantively during the first lockdown only. These changes resulted in a reduction in nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations of 75.1% and 47.4%, respectively at roadside, and 71.8% and 34.1% at urban background during the first lockdown period. In contrast ozone (O3) concentrations increased at the urban background site by 22.3% during the first lockdown period, with no significant changes in gaseous concentra...

Energy Research &amp; Social Science, 2020

This paper analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on the transportation sector and subsequent implications on the sectoral energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions in some selected cities worldwide. A model for smart transportation is proposed by considering four indicators, including transport efficiency, technology integration, traffic congestion rate, and accessibility ratio. While prior health crises, such as SARS, impacted the transportation sector, the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented, resulting in exceptional impacts on this sector. Canadian Civil Aviation activities dropped by 71%, compared to business as usual, whereas military aviation activities declined by 27%. As of the end of June 2020, cities with higher than 50% mobility index include Brussels, Singapore, Stockholm, Lyon, Paris, Moscow, and Hong Kong with the highest mobility index of 76%. American cities have the lowest mobility indexes as of the end of June with mobility indexes lower than 20%. It is expected and reasonable to assume that the public's response to COVID-19 will exceed that of SARS. While Britons and Canadians are the biggest supporters of keeping the economy and businesses shut until COVID-19 is fully contained, the Chinese, Russians, Indians, and Italians find it vital to restart the economy regardless. Results show that the majority of the world is in a state of mental distress and will face nervousness and anxiety issues post-COVID-19. This sentiment is strongest in India, Japan, China, the U.K., Brazil and Canada, ranging between 68% and 78%. The trucking industry is the main contributor to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the Canadian transportation sector, accounting for more than 62% of the total emissions in 2019. Given the impact of COVID-19, forecasted GHG emissions of the Canadian transportation sector for 2020is evaluated to be 93 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents.

Applied Sciences

During a pandemic, the mobility of people changes significantly from the normal situation (the number of trips made, the directions of travel and the modes of transport used). Changes in mobility depend on the scale of the pandemic threat and the scale of the restrictions introduced and assessing the impact of these changes is not straightforward. This raises the question of the social cost of changes in mobility and their impact on the environment, including air quality. The article shows that it is possible to determine this impact using big data from mobile operators’-SIM card movements and data from air quality monitoring stations. Data on SIM card movements allows for reconstructing the state of the transport system before and during the different phases of a pandemic. The changes in mobility of people determined in this way can be related to the results of measurements of pollutant concentrations in the air. In this way, it is possible to identify links between mobility change...

Applied Energy, 2021

New and real-time carbon estimates from surface passenger transport during COVID-19. • Emissions fell by half but almost completely recovered after strict lockdowns. • Private and public transport trends are not aligned with EU Green Deal goals. • The disruption of travel behaviour represents opportunities for structural changes.

E3S Web of Conferences

Covid-19 has impacted the world at a devastating level, with many sectors had been damaged quite badly, especially the transport sector. Transport provides basic movement that connects people and goods. With the lockdown and travel restriction, this sector has been hit badly. The travel and mobility pattern in Malaysia are changed as well. This paper studies the impact of various mode of transportation in Malaysia due to the lockdown which was implemented since March 2020. Results show that air transportation and land public transportation (such as LRT and bus) are impacted badly.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020

Impacts of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the transport sector and the corresponding policy measures have been investigated by more and more researchers and organizations. Considering the various uncertainties and unknowns about this virus and its impacts (especially long-term impacts), it is necessary and important to hear the opinions and suggestions from experts in the transport and related sectors. However, to date, there is no study from the perspective of experts in the field of transport and related disciplines. This study attempts to address this gap through a questionnaire survey of experts in the field of transportation and other relevant fields. The survey was conducted worldwide between the end of April and late May 2020, taking into account the need for balance between geographic regions, type of workplace and working duration, and so on. In particular, experts were requested to provide their opinions and suggestions as well as concerns via free answers. Based on extensive analyses of the survey results, this study first reveals the realities of lockdowns, restrictions of out-of-home activities and other physical distancing requirements, as well as modal shifts. Experts' agreements and disagreements to the structural questions about changes in lifestyles and society are then discussed. Furthermore, a qualitative analysis of the free answers from experts was conducted. Finally, findings are summarized and important research issues are extensively discussed.

Journal of Maritime &amp; Transportation Science, 2021

The Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) has a significant impact on countries around the world and many states have introduced restrictions to transport. This includes keeping essential transport moving, for example to transport medical supplies and other essential goods. Many countries have closed their borders and imposed curfews in sharp reductions in transport demand also on regional and continental level. Public transport but also shared mobility services are vectors for distribution of the virus, on the other hand, they are severely impacted by travel bans and individual concerns in order to avoid public gatherings leading to reduced travel and transport demand. Different countries have dealt with these challenging circumstances in different ways - and, in some cases, the directives vary from city to city. Cities in developing countries and emerging economies face bigger challenges than ever before. At the beginning of the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) google maps started to col...

ArXiv, 2021

COVID-19 is the first pandemic of the modern world causing significant changes to the everyday life of billions of people in all continents. To reduce its expansion, most governments decided to mitigate a great percentage of daily movements of their citizens. For instance, they enforced strict controls (in space, time, etc.) on urban movement whereas they selectively prohibited international air and ground connections. In this short study, we briefly discuss some lessons learned out of this process based on recorded mobility figures, and we raise challenges that are emerging in the post-pandemic era, in the intersection of the sustainable urban mobility and movement data science fields.

2020 International Conference on Smart Innovations in Design, Environment, Management, Planning and Computing (ICSIDEMPC), 2020

In the coming century’s earth will be the most crowded or populated environments where digital devices like sensors, cameras, and cloud-connected data are spread on every walk of life of human beings with the objective of betterment of human living. Smart City has been playing crucial in a pandemic situation. A smart city can be more effective when we have a predominant data platform and that data can be used in such a crisis effectively. To streamline urban operations, information and communication technology is used by the Smart city. In upcoming days, we can see most of the country will pay attention to smart city data so they can operate centrally.