Evaluating the COVID-19 Lockdown’s Effects on Land Surface Temperature, NO2, and O3 in the Erbil City, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Humans’ lifestyles were radically changed after the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic. To mitigate the effects of the disease, most countries have implemented lockout systems. This research aims to provide some recommendations for long-term, sustainable environmental management by analyzing how the COVID-19 lockdown affected nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Ozone (O3), the land surface temperature (LST), and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Sentinel Hub data and LANDSAT 8 satellite imagery from 2017 to 2022 were used to create land use land cover (LULC), NDVI, and LST maps. Digital thematic maps of NO2 and O3 with figures that demonstrate the correlation between NDVI-LST and LULC-LST were derived using Arc geographic information system 10.8. The spatial analysis showed that LST and LULC are noticeably correlated, in addition to an inverse proportion between NDVI and LST, as well as between NO2 and O3. The lockdown in Erbil drastically decreased NO2 emissions by 54.5% and improved O3 levels by 7.6%. While the NDVI and O3 levels have increased significantly, the LST and NO2 levels have declined considerably due to the shutdown of all industrial and transportation activities during the lockdown. Although COVID-19 caused a lot of damage, the lockdown contributed to healthier conditions of the environment.