Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Annual NO₂ Concentration and Population Exposure in Palestine and Israel

Nitrogen dioxide (NO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>) is an air pollutant with adverse short-term and long-term effects on humans, flora and fauna alike. We explore Israel and Palestine, one of the most volatile regions in the world, through historical NO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> concentration in unison with population exposure. For the sake of objectivity, we combined both territories and all analysis was territory agnostic. Our subjects were the three focal territories in the region: Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. We then juxtaposed historical insights with the most recent six month period using the data from Sentinal-5P. We discovered interesting spatio-temporal trends for the past two decades that seemed to relate to the conflict very closely. The insights from NO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> were similar to the trends shown by the population exposure: Gaza strip had the greatest population growth and consistently unsafe levels of NO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>; Jerusalem was the most volatile district in the whole region with the highest population exposure to NO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> and Tel-Aviv had the highest concentration of NO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> for the entire period. Spatial correlation varied between 1 and −0.3, closely following the chaotic nature of the conflict in the region through time.