Impacts of Covid-19 on air quality, Land Surface Temperature and Urban Heat Island on Local Climatic Zones in the city of Granada (Spain)

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdown situation have generated a significant negative impact on the world economy but have provided a unique opportunity to understand the impact of human activity on environmental pollution and how it affects the urban climate. This study takes the city of Granada (Spain) in order to carry out an evaluation of the environmental parameters (So2, No2, Co and O3) obtained through Sentinel 5P images and how they affect the Terrestrial Surface Temperature (TST) and the Surface Urban Heat Island (ICUS) obtained through Sentinel 3 images. Knowing the environmental impact on the TST and ICUS of the different Local Climate Zones (ZCL) of the city will have an impact on future urban resilience studies. As a result, and during the confinement period, the following variations have been obtained with respect to environmental pollutants: So2 (-24.0%), No2 (-6.7%), Co (-13.2%) and O3 (+4.0%). The TST has experienced an average reduction of -8.7°C (-38.0%) while the ICUS has decreased by -1.6 °C (-66.0%).