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The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) not only affected health and economics, but also its effect extended to include other aspects, such as the environment. Using Egypt as a case study, this paper presents the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on air pollution levels by studying nitrogen dioxide (NO 2), ozone (O 3), particulate matter represented in absorbing aerosol index (AAI), carbon monoxide (CO), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The paper also highlights the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on other environmental indicators including environmental noise, medical and municipal solid wastes. The paper presents the Egyptian COVID-19 story from its different angles including the development of confirmed COVID-19 cases, containment measures from the government, the impact on the country's economy and the national energy consumption so as to effectively evaluate the effect on both the air pollution levels and the other studied environmental indicators. For the other environmental indicators, a strong link was observed between COVID-19 lockdown and the reduction in environmental noise, beaches, surface and groundwater pollution. For environmental noise, this has been confirmed by officially governmental announcements which reported that the level of environmental noise in Egypt was reduced by about 75% during the lockdown period. On the other hand, there are some negative effects, including an increase in medical solid waste (from 70 to 300 ton/day), municipal solid waste, as well as a less efficient solid waste recycling process. For air pollution levels, the data were obtained from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency satellite data sets. The data for the lockdown period in 2020 have been extracted and compared to the corresponding months in the selected baseline period (2015–2019) to identify the effect that the lockdown period had on the air pollution levels in Egypt with focus on Cairo and Alexandria governorates. It was found that the AAI decreased by about 30%, the NO 2 decreased by 15 and 33% over Cairo and Alexandria governorates, respectively, and that the CO decreased by about 5% over both governorates. In addition, the GHG emissions in Egypt were reduced by at least 4% during the pandemic. In contrast, ozone levels increased by about 2% over Cairo and Alexandria governorates. It can be concluded that the implemented containment measures during COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in both positive and negative environmental impacts. The positive environmental impacts are not sustainable and deterioration on them is expected to occur after the lockdown as it was before the pandemic. Therefore, stricter laws must be enacted to protect the environment in Egypt. Image 1 • NO 2 decreased over Cairo (~ 15%) and Alexandria (~ 33%). • AAI and GHG emissions of Egypt decreased by about 30% and 4%, respectively. • An increase in ozone level (2%) and a reduction in CO (5%) over Cairo and Alexandria. • Reduction in environmental noise, beaches, surface and groundwater pollution. • Increase municipal and medical wastes and less efficient waste recycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the SARS-CoV pandemic has gone well beyond health concerns, reaching the maritime industry. The study on the environmental impact of shipping industry during COVID-19 pandemic can provide useful insights to propose new management policies regarding shipping operations, both in-port and on the route. We present a case study centred in the Port of Barcelona covering a 30 nautical miles range in the period March to July 2020, during which different levels of restrictions and stringent lockdown measures were enforced. In this paper, we assess the impact of COVID-19 on maritime traffic and its related emissions in port cities using real-time Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. Interestingly, results show that the decline in maritime traffic is not correlated with a decrease in maritime emissions due to changes in vessel operation. During lockdown (March to June 2020), we observed a 27.9% reduction in the number of port calls compared to the pre-lockdown scenario, whereas pollutant emissions show a moderate decrease (1.8% for CO 2), no significant reduction (SO 2 and PM) or a slight increase (1.3% for NO x). This can be directly assigned to changes in vessel operation mode, i.e. vessels switched from Underway to At Anchor or Moored status, during which auxiliary engines are used at higher loads. • The pollutant emissions evolution from maritime activity is computed from AIS data during COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. • A significant reduction in ship calls was observed, with a mild reduction in maritime traffic in the same area. • Passenger vessels were responsible for more than 40% of fuel consumption and emissions, but represented 17% of all vessels • Ships underway dominated the total emissions during lockdown, although theydecreased during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to assess the relationship between COVID-19-related deaths, economic growth, PM 10 , PM 2.5, and NO 2 concentrations in New York state using city-level daily data through two Machine Learning experiments. PM 2.5 and NO 2 are the most significant pollutant agents responsible for facilitating COVID-19 attributed death rates. Besides, we found only six out of many tested causal inferences to be significant and true within the AUPRC analysis. In line with the causal findings, a unidirectional causal effect is found from PM 2.5 to Deaths, NO 2 to Deaths, and economic growth to both PM 2.5 and NO 2. Corroborating the first experiment, the causal results confirmed the capability of polluting variables (PM 2.5 to Deaths, NO 2 to Deaths) to accelerate COVID-19 deaths. In contrast, we found evidence that unsustainable economic growth predicts the dynamics of air pollutants. This shows how unsustainable economic growth could increase environmental pollution by escalating emissions of pollutant agents (PM 2.5 and NO 2) in New York state. [Display omitted] • We assess the effect of economic growth, PM 2.5 and NO 2 variations on COVID-19 deaths. • We employ two experimental approaches based on Deep Machine Learning. • PM 2.5 and NO 2 are the most significant air pollutant responsible for COVID-19 deaths. • Increasing levels of economic growth spur air pollution in New York state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]