Did the COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Hydrological Residence Time Intensify the Primary Productivity in Lakes? Observational Results Based on Satellite Remote Sensing
The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has brought countries around the world to a standstill in the early part of 2020. Several nations and territories around the world insisted their population stay indoors for practicing social distance in order to avoid infecting the disease. Consequently, in...
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI AG
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Water |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/9/2573 |
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| author | Ram Avtar Pankaj Kumar Hitesh Supe Dou Jie Netranada Sahu Binaya Kumar Mishra Ali P. Yunus |
| author_facet | Ram Avtar Pankaj Kumar Hitesh Supe Dou Jie Netranada Sahu Binaya Kumar Mishra Ali P. Yunus |
| author_sort | Ram Avtar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has brought countries around the world to a standstill in the early part of 2020. Several nations and territories around the world insisted their population stay indoors for practicing social distance in order to avoid infecting the disease. Consequently, industrial activities, businesses, and all modes of traveling have halted. On the other hand, the pollution level decreased ‘temporarily’ in our living environment. As fewer pollutants are supplied in to the hydrosphere, and human recreational activities are stopped completely during the lockdown period, we hypothesize that the hydrological residence time (HRT) has increased in the semi-enclosed or closed lake bodies, which can in turn increase the primary productivity. To validate our hypothesis, and to understand the effect of lockdown on primary productivity in aquatic systems, we quantitatively estimated the chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations in different lake bodies using established Chl-a retrieval algorithm. The Chl-a monitored using Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 sensor in the lake bodies of Wuhan, China, showed an elevated concentration of Chl-a. In contrast, no significant changes in Chl-a are observed for Vembanad Lake in India. Further analysis of different geo-environments is necessary to validate the hypothesis. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:19:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7533a23450e640f18060556e3924fcf2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4441 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:19:38Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-7533a23450e640f18060556e3924fcf22023-11-20T13:47:43ZengMDPI AGWater2073-44412020-09-01129257310.3390/w12092573Did the COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Hydrological Residence Time Intensify the Primary Productivity in Lakes? Observational Results Based on Satellite Remote SensingRam Avtar0Pankaj Kumar1Hitesh Supe2Dou Jie3Netranada Sahu4Binaya Kumar Mishra5Ali P. Yunus6Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, JapanNatural Resources and Ecosystem Services, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama, Kanagawa 240-0115, JapanFaculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, JapanDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Kami-Tomioka, Nagaoka 1603-1, JapanDepartment of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, New Delhi 110007, IndiaSchool of Engineering, Pokhara University, Lekhnath 22700, NepalState Key Laboratory for Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, Sichuan 610059, ChinaThe novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has brought countries around the world to a standstill in the early part of 2020. Several nations and territories around the world insisted their population stay indoors for practicing social distance in order to avoid infecting the disease. Consequently, industrial activities, businesses, and all modes of traveling have halted. On the other hand, the pollution level decreased ‘temporarily’ in our living environment. As fewer pollutants are supplied in to the hydrosphere, and human recreational activities are stopped completely during the lockdown period, we hypothesize that the hydrological residence time (HRT) has increased in the semi-enclosed or closed lake bodies, which can in turn increase the primary productivity. To validate our hypothesis, and to understand the effect of lockdown on primary productivity in aquatic systems, we quantitatively estimated the chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations in different lake bodies using established Chl-a retrieval algorithm. The Chl-a monitored using Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 sensor in the lake bodies of Wuhan, China, showed an elevated concentration of Chl-a. In contrast, no significant changes in Chl-a are observed for Vembanad Lake in India. Further analysis of different geo-environments is necessary to validate the hypothesis.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/9/2573hydrological residence time (HRT)lakeCOVIDwaterbodies |
| spellingShingle | Ram Avtar Pankaj Kumar Hitesh Supe Dou Jie Netranada Sahu Binaya Kumar Mishra Ali P. Yunus Did the COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Hydrological Residence Time Intensify the Primary Productivity in Lakes? Observational Results Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Water hydrological residence time (HRT) lake COVID waterbodies |
| title | Did the COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Hydrological Residence Time Intensify the Primary Productivity in Lakes? Observational Results Based on Satellite Remote Sensing |
| title_full | Did the COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Hydrological Residence Time Intensify the Primary Productivity in Lakes? Observational Results Based on Satellite Remote Sensing |
| title_fullStr | Did the COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Hydrological Residence Time Intensify the Primary Productivity in Lakes? Observational Results Based on Satellite Remote Sensing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Did the COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Hydrological Residence Time Intensify the Primary Productivity in Lakes? Observational Results Based on Satellite Remote Sensing |
| title_short | Did the COVID-19 Lockdown-Induced Hydrological Residence Time Intensify the Primary Productivity in Lakes? Observational Results Based on Satellite Remote Sensing |
| title_sort | did the covid 19 lockdown induced hydrological residence time intensify the primary productivity in lakes observational results based on satellite remote sensing |
| topic | hydrological residence time (HRT) lake COVID waterbodies |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/9/2573 |
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