Do the positive effects of the Corona Lock-Down offset the health issues caused by the pandemic?

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A deeper analysis for Munich

The COVID-19 pandemic has infected about 13 million people and claimed more than 550 thousand deaths worldwide by 14 July 2020. It has been reported in research that high air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors to deaths from COVID-19”. Studies show a positive correlation between particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide to health damage and, more specifically, to diseases related to the lungs like pneumonia, which makes people suffering from these ailments more susceptible to COVID 19. On the other hand, due to the lockdown measures, significant improvement in air quality has been witnessed. Read more

Time series comparison of pre- and post-lockdown for German cities

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In general all graphs show that the mean NO2 concentration after the lockdown date has decreased – at some stations the effect is larger than at others. Concentration peaks with similar amplitudes, compared to before the lockdown, persist. The overall patterns would require a more detailed analysis of the locations e.g. considering mobility behaviour.

  • Berlin
  • Dresden
  • Hamburg
  • Suttgart

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Time series comparison of pre- and post-lockdown for sample cities show that the lockdown impact on NO2 concentrations varies

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Cities worldwide have been imposing lockdowns due to coronavirus, leading to traffic reductions and related to that, less NO2 pollution. The strength of the effect is not the same everywhere, being dependent on a number of variables, such as pollution levels and amount of traffic before the lockdown at the particular location, fleet composition, weather conditions and topography and urban architecture. Furthermore, the measures defining the “lockdown” were not the same everywhere and were also implemented with different levels of rigour. Without analyzing in-depth the factors at play at different places across the world, here just a few examples of what the change in NO2 pollution looked like in a few cities:

  • Wuhan
  • Paris
  • London
  • Fresno
  • Dehli
  • Boston

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NO2 concentrations during the lockdown in Munich

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I have recently heard people uttering disappointment regarding the rather small effect they have observed at official measurement stations in Munich during the time of the lockdown due to the coronavirus. Looking at the raw hourly measurement traces at different locations in and around Munich, we can see a very clear drop during the initial phase of the lockdown, with concentrations coming up again after that. So we decided to take a deeper look. We considered impacts from weather conditions, season-specific influences as well as mobility behaviour. Read more