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Showing 3 results for Covid-19
Bohloul Alijani,
Volume 7, Issue 4 (2-2021)
Volume 7, Issue 4 (2-2021)
Abstract
Abstract
Corona Virus pandemic outbreak is the counter act and warning of the natural environment for the destructive activities of man in the nature. Many researchers and specialists believe that a risk free and sustainable life is possible if we correct our behavior toward the nature. This research was carried out to substantiate this hypothesis and offer a reasonable and rationale solution. It is believed that the best way to solve this problem is the environmental ethics. Many other ways such as technology have been proposed, but until the mind and thought of man has not changed to good relation with the nature, it is not possible to reach a viable solution. For this end, the integrated system of earth was analyzed to understand mechanism of the relation between nature and human. Two supportive theories of Markov Blanket and Gaia were addressed here to explain the relation between nature and society. According to these theories the system of earth and society is live and any change in one will mirror itself on the other. As a result, the society models itself to the nature in long run. This means that to have a healthy society we should have a healthy nature and environment. Thus, the UNEP has suggested the integrated One Health program to save nature, humans and animals at the same time.
The distortions of the earth during the past 70 years were sampled and described as the footprints of mankind. Some examples of environmental disorders such as climate change, droughts, floods and diseases were analyzed and their impacts on the society were displayd. In order to demonstrate the environmental ethics as the only solution to the current crises, first the ethics in general were discussed and then the environmental ethics were given a thorough explanation. Different underpinning philosophies are presented and accordingly different approaches to the nature such as development, preservation and conservation were discussed. A new philosophy, geocentrism, was suggested as the suitable and efficient thought. According to this philosophy it is the distributions which are in the forefront of human destruction. Therefore, we should try not to disturb the distributions of any kind. These include all ecosystems of any scale; because emphasizing on the ecosystems is not sufficient. The geocentrism philosophy covers all non - anthropocentrism philosophies such as biocentrism and ecocentrism. Of the different approaches, the conservation was selected as it assumes intrinsic value for the nature and sustainability of resources for ever.
To solve the problem and bring the earth system to sustainable state, the environmental ethics should be implemented. In terms of moral values, these include truth, good, duty and justice. The mankind should characterize himself with these genuine characters. He should do his duty as not making problem to the life of any creature; this being human, plant, animal or rock and soil and etc. He should do the good and justice. On the objective side, he should give intrinsic value for every creature on the earth including the environment and its components. In this way, we treat the environment with respect and dignity and not let ourselves to destroy or damage it. However, to achieve these goals we should use resources only as much as we need biologically, consider the long run benefits instead of short term benefits, treat the nature as having intrinsic value, implement the environmental distance from wild life, using vegetarian diet.
One important notice is the nature of human who we are asking to do these mandatories. Are we sure that what we are ordering human will be done by him. If he does not do then none of these comments is valuable. Therefore, we first should understand the humans and educate them to accept our orders. This is why that the ethics become important. We should train moral humans and then ask them to do. He will do only when he gets overarching and believed knowledge about the subjects we are offering. The main reason for the distortion of the nature is that the humans are not aware of the value of nature and the long run results of their actions. This is possible only through the good and responsible training of man. We are now missing this education. In brief, we understand that the main solution for the destruction of nature is empowering the humans with morals, especially environmental ethics. But to implement this objective, at the first point we need a wise and understandable human. Therefore, first we should train people and ask them to act as a moral and generous person and care for the nature and all creatures of the universe.
The distortions of the earth during the past 70 years were sampled and described as the footprints of mankind. Some examples of environmental disorders such as climate change, droughts, floods and diseases were analyzed and their impacts on the society were displayd. In order to demonstrate the environmental ethics as the only solution to the current crises, first the ethics in general were discussed and then the environmental ethics were given a thorough explanation. Different underpinning philosophies are presented and accordingly different approaches to the nature such as development, preservation and conservation were discussed. A new philosophy, geocentrism, was suggested as the suitable and efficient thought. According to this philosophy it is the distributions which are in the forefront of human destruction. Therefore, we should try not to disturb the distributions of any kind. These include all ecosystems of any scale; because emphasizing on the ecosystems is not sufficient. The geocentrism philosophy covers all non - anthropocentrism philosophies such as biocentrism and ecocentrism. Of the different approaches, the conservation was selected as it assumes intrinsic value for the nature and sustainability of resources for ever.
To solve the problem and bring the earth system to sustainable state, the environmental ethics should be implemented. In terms of moral values, these include truth, good, duty and justice. The mankind should characterize himself with these genuine characters. He should do his duty as not making problem to the life of any creature; this being human, plant, animal or rock and soil and etc. He should do the good and justice. On the objective side, he should give intrinsic value for every creature on the earth including the environment and its components. In this way, we treat the environment with respect and dignity and not let ourselves to destroy or damage it. However, to achieve these goals we should use resources only as much as we need biologically, consider the long run benefits instead of short term benefits, treat the nature as having intrinsic value, implement the environmental distance from wild life, using vegetarian diet.
One important notice is the nature of human who we are asking to do these mandatories. Are we sure that what we are ordering human will be done by him. If he does not do then none of these comments is valuable. Therefore, we first should understand the humans and educate them to accept our orders. This is why that the ethics become important. We should train moral humans and then ask them to do. He will do only when he gets overarching and believed knowledge about the subjects we are offering. The main reason for the distortion of the nature is that the humans are not aware of the value of nature and the long run results of their actions. This is possible only through the good and responsible training of man. We are now missing this education. In brief, we understand that the main solution for the destruction of nature is empowering the humans with morals, especially environmental ethics. But to implement this objective, at the first point we need a wise and understandable human. Therefore, first we should train people and ask them to act as a moral and generous person and care for the nature and all creatures of the universe.
Key words: Corona Virus, Covid-19, sustainability, environmental ethics, human-nature relation, Markov Blanket, natural resources, UNEP One Health program, Gaia, Anthroposcene.
Mrs Zeinab Shogrkhodaei, Dr. Amanollah Fathnia, Mr Vahid Razavi Termeh,
Volume 9, Issue 1 (5-2022)
Volume 9, Issue 1 (5-2022)
Abstract
Study the Effects of Covid-19 on Air Pollutants by Using Sentinel-5 Satellite Images (Case Study: Metropolises of Tehran, Isfahan, and Mashhad)
Zeinab shogrkhodaei, PHD. Student of Climatology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Department of Geography, Razi University
Amanollah Fathnia*, Assistant Professor of Climatology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Department of Geography, Razi University
Vahid Razavi Termeh, PHD. Student of GIS, Faculty of Geodesy and Geomantic, K. N. Toosi University.
Introduction
One of the challenges facing the international community right now is Covid-19. This pandemic has caused a comprehensive change in behavior contrary to the usual routine, which can lead to changes in people's lifestyles (Briz-Redón et al., 2021). The prevalence of this disease has not only affected the economy and health, but also the environment (Sohrabi et al., 2020). Among the effects of Covid-19 on the environment are the effects on beaches, noise, surface and groundwater, municipal solid waste, and air quality (Zambrano-Monserrate et al., 2020). The restrictions applied during the Covid-19 era were accompanied by a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by transport and industry, which affected air quality (Rybarczyk and Zalakeviciute, 2020). Air is a vital element for the survival of all living things, but human activities have caused the release of many harmful pollutants into the atmosphere and endangered human health (Ghorani-Azam et al., 2016). Among the causes of death, air pollution is the fourth leading cause of death in the world after tobacco (WHO, 2020a). Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone are some of the pollutants that cause short-term or long-term exposure to heart and lung disease (Briz-Redón et al., 2021). Human activities are one of the main sources of air pollutants, so their concentration is expected to decrease during the Covid-19 period (Ghahremanloo et al., 2021).
Materials and methods
In this study, the required data were the average monthly pollutants of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone before (20 February 2019 to 20 February 2020) and after (20 February 2020 to 20 February 2021) the prevalence of Covid-19 virus. For this purpose, Sentinel-5P satellite images were used to prepare the required data set. The case study included three metropolises of Tehran, Mashhad, and Isfahan. Google Earth Engine was used to access Sentinel-5P satellite images. The final output of the images for each pollutant was interpolated for better display and exposure in GIS software using the kriging method. Then, a T-test was used to compare the differences between the concentrations of contaminants before and after the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus and to evaluate the mean correlation. Based on this test, values that were p-value <0.05 were considered significant. This was considered as a change in the concentration of the contaminant before and after the Covid-19 virus (decreasing or increasing). Those pollutants with a p-value <0.05 were considered unchanged.
Results and Discussion
Analysis of the T-test showed that for pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide in all three metropolises, there was no significant change in their concentration before and after the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus. However, significant changes were observed for ozone pollutants. Also, its concentration trend in all three metropolises has been a decreasing trend. The main sources of emissions of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and ozone are related to human activities, including transportation and industry (Ghahremanloo et al., 2021; Cárcel-Carras et al., 2021). Pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide are the primary pollutants; It means that they are emitted directly from sources, while ozone is a secondary pollutant and depends on complex and nonlinear atmospheric chemistry (Bekbulat et al., 2021). Given that the concentration of ozone surface decreases significantly with increasing concentration of nitrogen dioxide. When nitric oxide (NO) emissions are high enough, the NO released into the atmosphere converts a large portion of ozone to nitrogen dioxide (Hashim et al., 2021). In addition, in all three cities, when the concentration of nitrogen dioxide increased, we saw a decrease in the amount of ozone concentration. In addition, during the Covid-19 era, many industries that produced primary pollutants, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide, were not on the closure list or were telecommuted. Despite the decline in the performance of some activities, important sectors such as manufacturing plants, industrial and mining centers, agriculture, and public transportation have continued to operate even during severe restrictions. The mean difference between the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide before and after the outbreak of Covid-19 was positive. However, this average difference is small. However, the concentration of nitrogen dioxide is slightly increased, especially in cold seasons; Therefore, it can be said that ozone concentration has decreased.
Keywords: Covid-19, Air Pollutants, Remote Sensing, Sentinel-5.
, Dr Fatemeh Tabib Mahmoudi,
Volume 9, Issue 3 (12-2022)
Volume 9, Issue 3 (12-2022)
Abstract
Investigation of the effects of Covid-19 pandemic on UHI in residential, industrial and green spaces of Tehran
Abstract
Rapid urbanization in recent decades has been a major driver of ecosystems and environmental degradation, including changes in agricultural land use and forests. Urbanization is rapidly transforming ecosystems into buildings that increase heat storage capacity. Loss of vegetation and increase in built-up areas may ultimately affect climate variability and lead to the creation of urban heat islands. The occurrence of natural disasters such as flood, earthquake … is one of the most effecting factors on the changes in intensity of urban heat islands. So far, a lot of research has been done on how it is affected by various types of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, droughts and tsunamis.
Two major environmental challenges for many cities are preventing flooding after heavy rains and minimizing urban temperature rise due to the effects of heat islands. There is a close relationship between these two phenomena, because with increasing air temperature, the intensity of precipitation increases. Drought is also a phenomenon that is affected by rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration, water and soil conditions. One of the major differences between drought and other natural disasters is that they occur over a longer period of time and gradually than others that occur suddenly. Another natural disaster is the tsunami, which increases the area of water by turning wetlands into lakes, thereby increasing the index of normal water differences, which has a strong negative relationship with surface temperature. Ecosystems in urban areas play a role in reducing the impact of urban heat islands. This is because plants and trees regulate the temperature of their foliage by evaporation and transpiration, which leads to a decrease in air temperature.
Applying the locked down of the Covid-19 pandemic since the spring of 2020 has led to the global restoration of climatic elements such as air quality and temperature. In this study, the effects of Covid-19 locked down on the intensity of urban heat islands due to the limitations in industrial activities such as factories and power plants and the application of new laws to reduce traffic in Tehran were investigated. In this regard, the Landsat-8 satellite taken from a part of Tehran city has been used.
Materials and Methods
In order to investigate the effects of locked down in the spring of 2020 on the intensity of urban heat islands; the status of UHI maps in Tehran during the same period of locked down in three years before and one year after has been studied. The proposed method in this paper consists of two main steps. The first step is to generate UHI maps using land surface temperature (LST), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land use / land cover map analysis. In the second step, in order to analyze the behavioral changes in the intensity of urban heat islands during locked down and compare it with previous and subsequent years, changes in the intensity of UHIs are monitored.
UHI maps consist of three classes of high, medium and low intensities urban heat islands, which are based on performing the rule based analysis on land surface temperature characteristics and normal vegetation difference index derived from Landsat-8 satellite images as well as land use / land cover map. LULC maps are produced by support vector machine classification method consisting of three classes of soil, building and vegetation. In order to calculate the spectral features used in the rule based analysis, atmospheric and radiometric corrections must first be made on the red, near-infrared, and thermal spectral bands of the image captured by the Landsat-8 satellite. Then, vegetation spectral indices including NDVI and PV indices are generated.
Disscussion of Results
The capability of the proposed algorithm in this paper is first evaluated in the whole area covered by satellite images taken from the city of Tehran, and then in three areas including residential, industrial and green spaces. The data used in this article are images taken by the OLI sensor of Landsat-8 satellite in the spring of 2017-2021.
In the first step of the proposed method, maps of urban heat islands are generated based on multi-temporal satellite images of Landsat-8 taken in the years 2017to 2021 in the MATLAB programming software. Then, by comparing pairs of UHI maps in each of the residential, industrial and green space study areas, the trend of changes in the intensity of UHI is analyzed and the effects of locked down application in 2020 are evaluated.
The results of changes detection in urban heat islands in the period under consideration in this study showed that the percentage of areas that are in the class of high UHI in 2020 due to locked down of pandemic Covid-19 compared to the average of three years before that is 55.71%, has a decrease of 17.61%. The percentage of areas in the class of medium UHI intensity in 2020 due to locked down compared to the average of three years ago, which is 39%, increased by 4.8%, and in 2021 this amount again has decreased to less than the average. Also, the percentage of low intensity UHI class in 1399 compared to the average of three years ago, which is 5.3%, has increased by 12.8%.
Conclusion
In this study, the effect of locked down application due to the Covid-19 virus pandemic, which was applied in Iran in the spring of 2020 is investigated on the intensity of urban heat islands in a part of Tehran city and three selected areas with residential, industrial and green space. Detection of changes in the intensity of urban heat islands was done based on the post-classification method and on the UHI classification maps related to the years 2017 to 2021. In order to produce UHI maps, in addition to the land surface temperature, the amount of vegetation index and the type of land use / land cover class were also used in the form of a set of classification rules.
Comparing the results of the study areas of residential, industrial and green spaces, it is important to note that the rate of reduction of the area of UHI with high intensity in the residential area is 5.25% more than the industrial area and 6.1% more than the green space. However, the reduction of locked down restrictions in 2021 had the greatest effect on the return of the area of the high UHI class and caused the area of this class to increase by 23% compared to 2020. These results indicate the fact that restrictions on the activities of industrial units such as factories and power plants and the application of new laws to reduce traffic, despite the same weather conditions in an area have been able to significantly reduce the severity of urban heat islands.
Keywords: Urban Heat Islands, Land Surface Temperature, Vegetation Index, Change Detection, Covid-19
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