Pre and Post Covid-19 Lockdown: How the AQI of Three Major Cities of Pakistan will Change?

Abstract

Pakistan being in the list of developing countries has shown tremendous response towards the control of pandemic COVID-19. This paper evaluates the pre and post COVID 19 lockdown situation of air quality and provides an evidence of the air quality amid the lockdown and how it started to improve. The air quality indexes of three major cities of Pakistan i.e. Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore are compared, taking into account the indexes before and after the imposition of lockdown. The city wide presence of major pollutants like Sulphur Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide also reduced. The results show how taking serious measures can help in reducing the air pollution and help the environment to restore. Following analytical approach and situational analysis certain inferences have been drawn that the air quality index has worsen, and the atmospheric condition have turn out to be shoddier than the pre-pandemic situation. In the last section certain policy recommendations have been provided in order to maintain a healthy air quality.

Keywords

• COVID-19 Lockdown, Air Pollution, Air Quality Index, Karachi AQI, Islamabad AQI, Lahore AQI.