The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Particulate Matter Emissions in Lombardy and Italian Citizens' Consumption Habits
Italy has been one of the first nations in the world to be heavily affected by COVID-19. A wide range of containment measures has been adopted from February to December 2020 to mitigate the pandemic. In this regard, the present research sets out to evaluate two aspects: (i) the impact of lockdowns o...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:7fbefdeda804437896cef4c5b4e32443 2023-05-15T16:17:01+02:00 The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Particulate Matter Emissions in Lombardy and Italian Citizens' Consumption Habits Alessandro Rovetta 2021-06-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2021.649715 https://doaj.org/article/7fbefdeda804437896cef4c5b4e32443 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsus.2021.649715/full https://doaj.org/toc/2673-4524 2673-4524 doi:10.3389/frsus.2021.649715 https://doaj.org/article/7fbefdeda804437896cef4c5b4e32443 Frontiers in Sustainability, Vol 2 (2021) consumption COVID-19 Italy lockdown PM10 PM2.5 Economic theory. Demography HB1-3840 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2021.649715 2022-12-31T06:56:41Z Italy has been one of the first nations in the world to be heavily affected by COVID-19. A wide range of containment measures has been adopted from February to December 2020 to mitigate the pandemic. In this regard, the present research sets out to evaluate two aspects: (i) the impact of lockdowns on the concentrations of particulate matter (PM) 10 and 2.5 in the Lombardy region, and (ii) how anti-COVID-19 restrictions influenced Italian citizens' consumption habits. To do this, the average daily concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 during 2020 in all the provinces of Lombardy were compared with those of the previous years through Welch's t-test. The same procedure was adopted to estimate the change in Google relative search volumes of home delivery services and smart working on a national scale. Two mean values were considered statistically confident when t < 1.5, suspiciously non-confident when 1.5 ≤ t < 1.9, and non-confident when t ≥ 1.9. Seasonalities and trends were assessed both graphically and with Augmented Dickey-Fuller, Phillips-Perron, and Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin tests. Finally, Pearson and Spearman correlations between changes in citizens' behavior and specific key events related to COVID-19 have been dealt with. The P-value threshold was indicatively set at 0.05. Microsoft Excel 2020 and Google Sheets were used as data analysis software. This paper showed: (i) the limited or insufficient effectiveness of lockdowns in reducing PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in Lombardy, and (ii) a significant change in the consumption habits of Italian citizens, thus leading to both positive and negative results in terms of sustainability. Therefore, it is high time that both Italian and international environmental protection authorities thoroughly investigated the role of non-mobility-related sources of particulate emissions to impose effective rules on home delivery services. Moreover, further research is required for the understanding of anthropogenic, environmental, and atmospheric phenomena that ... Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Fuller ENVELOPE(162.350,162.350,-77.867,-77.867) Frontiers in Sustainability 2 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
consumption COVID-19 Italy lockdown PM10 PM2.5 Economic theory. Demography HB1-3840 |
spellingShingle |
consumption COVID-19 Italy lockdown PM10 PM2.5 Economic theory. Demography HB1-3840 Alessandro Rovetta The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Particulate Matter Emissions in Lombardy and Italian Citizens' Consumption Habits |
topic_facet |
consumption COVID-19 Italy lockdown PM10 PM2.5 Economic theory. Demography HB1-3840 |
description |
Italy has been one of the first nations in the world to be heavily affected by COVID-19. A wide range of containment measures has been adopted from February to December 2020 to mitigate the pandemic. In this regard, the present research sets out to evaluate two aspects: (i) the impact of lockdowns on the concentrations of particulate matter (PM) 10 and 2.5 in the Lombardy region, and (ii) how anti-COVID-19 restrictions influenced Italian citizens' consumption habits. To do this, the average daily concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 during 2020 in all the provinces of Lombardy were compared with those of the previous years through Welch's t-test. The same procedure was adopted to estimate the change in Google relative search volumes of home delivery services and smart working on a national scale. Two mean values were considered statistically confident when t < 1.5, suspiciously non-confident when 1.5 ≤ t < 1.9, and non-confident when t ≥ 1.9. Seasonalities and trends were assessed both graphically and with Augmented Dickey-Fuller, Phillips-Perron, and Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin tests. Finally, Pearson and Spearman correlations between changes in citizens' behavior and specific key events related to COVID-19 have been dealt with. The P-value threshold was indicatively set at 0.05. Microsoft Excel 2020 and Google Sheets were used as data analysis software. This paper showed: (i) the limited or insufficient effectiveness of lockdowns in reducing PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in Lombardy, and (ii) a significant change in the consumption habits of Italian citizens, thus leading to both positive and negative results in terms of sustainability. Therefore, it is high time that both Italian and international environmental protection authorities thoroughly investigated the role of non-mobility-related sources of particulate emissions to impose effective rules on home delivery services. Moreover, further research is required for the understanding of anthropogenic, environmental, and atmospheric phenomena that ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Alessandro Rovetta |
author_facet |
Alessandro Rovetta |
author_sort |
Alessandro Rovetta |
title |
The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Particulate Matter Emissions in Lombardy and Italian Citizens' Consumption Habits |
title_short |
The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Particulate Matter Emissions in Lombardy and Italian Citizens' Consumption Habits |
title_full |
The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Particulate Matter Emissions in Lombardy and Italian Citizens' Consumption Habits |
title_fullStr |
The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Particulate Matter Emissions in Lombardy and Italian Citizens' Consumption Habits |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Particulate Matter Emissions in Lombardy and Italian Citizens' Consumption Habits |
title_sort |
impact of covid-19 lockdowns on particulate matter emissions in lombardy and italian citizens' consumption habits |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2021.649715 https://doaj.org/article/7fbefdeda804437896cef4c5b4e32443 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(162.350,162.350,-77.867,-77.867) |
geographic |
Fuller |
geographic_facet |
Fuller |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
Frontiers in Sustainability, Vol 2 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsus.2021.649715/full https://doaj.org/toc/2673-4524 2673-4524 doi:10.3389/frsus.2021.649715 https://doaj.org/article/7fbefdeda804437896cef4c5b4e32443 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2021.649715 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Sustainability |
container_volume |
2 |
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1766002864119873536 |