Abstract
The corona virus disease (COVID-19) was declared to be a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020 and the outbreak was declared a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health organization. COVID-19 affects people differently, with some people remaining asymptomatic, some exhibiting mild symptoms and others developing severe complications. As of November 2020, more than 61,000,000 people have been identified to have contracted the infection and more than 1,440,000 associated deaths have been confirmed globally. Given the varied response of infected people and the ease with which the disease is spreading, many measures have been adopted world wide to minimize the spread of the disease. These steps include lockdowns, controlled operations in cities, travel bans and restrictions, work from home, ban on gatherings, the use of masks, social distancing practices, isolation and quarantine practices and frequent washing of hands. The measures adopted have triggered a plethora of environmental effects some positive and some negative. The purpose of this paper is to highlight various environmental impacts of the COVID -19 globally and to recognize critical environmental issues magnified by the outbreak.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Dong E, Du H, Gardner L (2020) An interactive web-based dashboard to track COVID-19 in real time. Lancet Infect Dis 20(5):533–534
Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O’Neill N, Khan M, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A, Iosifidis C, Agha R (2020) World health organization declares global emergency: a review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Int J Surg 76:71–76
Bhat SA, Bashir O, Bilal M, Ishaq A, Dar MUD, Kumar R, Bhat RA, Sher F (2021) Impact of COVID-related lockdowns on environmental and climate change scenarios: a case study of New Delhi in India. Environ Res 110839
Chaudhry R, Dranitsaris G, Mubashir T, Bartoszko J, Riazi S (2020) A country level analysis measuring the impact of government actions, country preparedness and socioeconomic factors on COVID-19 mortality and related health outcomes. EClinicalMedicine 25:100464
Chen Y-T, Yen Y-F, Yu S-H, EC-Y Su (2020) An examination on the transmission of COVID-19 and the effect of response strategies: a comparative analysis. Int J Environ Res Publ Health 17(16):5687
de Moura Villela EF, López RVM, Sato APS, de Oliveira FM, Waldman EA, Van den Bergh R, Fodjo JNS, Colebunders R (2021) COVID-19 outbreak in Brazil: Adherence to national preventive measures and impact on people’s lives, an online survey. BMC Publ Health 21(1):1–10
Han E, Tan MMJ, Turk E, Sridhar D, Leung GM, Shibuya K, Asgari N, Oh J, GarcÃa-Basteiro AL, Hanefeld J (2020) Lessons learnt from easing COVID-19 restrictions: an analysis of countries and regions in Asia Pacific and Europe. The Lancet
Liao H, Zhang L, Marley G, Tang W (2020) Differentiating COVID-19 response strategies. The innovation 1(1):100003
Patrikar S, Deepti Poojary DR, Basannar DSF, Kunte R (2020) Projections for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and evaluation of epidemic response strategies for India. Med J Armed Forces India 76(3):268–275
Rohrich RJ, Hamilton KL, Avashia Y, Savetsky I (2020) The COVID-19 pandemic: changing lives and lessons learned. Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open 8(4)
World Health Organization (2020) Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) technical guidance: infection prevention and control Wash, Who
Xiao Y, Torok ME (2020) Taking the right measures to control COVID-19. Lancet Infect Dis 20(5):523–524
Bashir MF, Benjiang MA, Shahzad L (2020) A brief review of socio-economic and environmental impact of covid-19. Air Qual Atmos Health 13(12):1403–1409
Cheval S, Adamescu CM, Georgiadis T, Herrnegger M, Piticar A, Legates DR (2020) Observed and potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment. Int J Environ Res Publ Health 17(11):4140
Ayala A, Brauer M, Mauderly JL, Samet JM (2012) Air pollutants and sources associated with health effects. Air Qual Atmos Health 5(2):151–167
Espejo W, Celis JE, Chiang G, Bahamonde P (2020) Environment and COVID-19: pollutants, impacts, dissemination, management and recommendations for facing future epidemic threats. Sci Total Environ 747:141314
Kurt OK, Zhang J, Pinkerton KE (2016) Pulmonary health effects of air pollution. Curr Opin Pulm Med 22(2):138–143
Ching J, Kajino M (2020) Rethinking air quality and climate change after COVID-19. Int J Environ Res Public Health 17(14):5167
Connerton P, Vicente J, de Assunção R, de Miranda M, Slovic AD, Pérez-MartÃnez PJ, Ribeiro H (2020) Air quality during COVID-19 in four megacities: lessons and challenges for public health. Int J Environ Res Public Health 17(14):5067
Ghosh S, Ghosh S (2020) Air quality during COVID-19 lockdown: blessing in disguise
Hartmanns A (2014) A comparative assessment of the environmental and human health-related legislation on mixture Toxicity, in the USA and the EU. University of Gothenburg
Rume T, Islam SMDU (2020) Environmental effects of COVID-19 pandemic and potential strategies of sustainability. Heliyon e04965
Hallema DW, Robinne F-N, McNulty SG (2020) Pandemic spotlight on Urban water quality. Ecol Process 9:1–3
Rupani PF, Nilashi M, Abumalloh RA, Asadi S, Samad S, Wang S (2020) Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and its natural environmental impacts. Int J Environ Sci Technol 1–12
Isaifan RJ (2020) The dramatic impact of coronavirus outbreak on air quality: has it saved as much as it has killed so far? Glob J Environ Sci Manag 6(3):275–288
Mostafa MK, Gamal G, Wafiq A (2021) The impact of COVID 19 on air pollution levels and other environmental indicators-a case study of Egypt. J Environ Manag 277:111496
Zambrano-Monserrate MA, Ruano MA, Sanchez-Alcalde L (2020) Indirect effects of COVID-19 on the environment. Sci Total Environ 728:138813
Li D, Engel RA, Ma X, Porse E, Kaplan JD, Margulis SA, Lettenmaier DP (2021) Stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic reduced urban water use. Environ Sci Technol Lett
Ouhsine O, Ouigmane A, Layati E, Aba B, Isaifan R, Berkani M (2020) Impact of COVID-19 on the qualitative and quantitative aspect of household solid waste. Global J Environ Sci Manag 6 (Special Issue (Covid-19)):41–52
Sharma HB, Vanapalli KR, Cheela VRS, Ranjan VP, Jaglan AK, Dubey B, Goel S, Bhattacharya J (2020) Challenges, opportunities, and innovations for effective solid waste management during and post COVID-19 pandemic. Resour Conserv Recycl 162:105052
Mol MPG, Caldas S (2020) Can the human coronavirus epidemic also spread through solid waste? Waste Manage Res 38(5):485–486
Sarkodie SA, Owusu PA (2020) Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on waste management. Environ Devel Sust 1–10
Zielinski S, Botero CM (2020) Beach tourism in times of COVID-19 pandemic: critical issues, knowledge gaps and research opportunities. Int J Environ Res Public Health 17(19):7288
Morgan AK, Awafo BA, Quartey T (2021) The effects of COVID-19 on global economic output and sustainability: Evidence from around the world and lessons for redress. Sustain Sci Pract Policy 17(1):77–81
Jones N (2020) How COVID-19 is changing the cold and flu season. Nature 588(7838):388–390
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Canadian Society for Civil Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Albert, L., Ferguson, I. (2023). The Covid-19 Pandemic: An Exploration of Environmental Implications. In: Walbridge, S., et al. Proceedings of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering Annual Conference 2021 . CSCE 2021. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 249. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1061-6_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1061-6_28
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-1060-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-1061-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)