Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
1th International Congress of New Horizons in Sciences, İstanbul, Türkiye, 25 - 26 Kasım 2022, cilt.1, ss.17
The COVID-19 pandemic, which spread primarily from the
Wuhan city to other provinces of the People's Republic of China and then to
other countries in the world, has created great changes in people daily life.
In line with the measures taken by countries against this virus, practices such
as using masks, not using public transport, staying isolated at home,
semi-curfews and lockdowns have been observed. Although the loss of life caused
by COVID-19 raises concerns around the world, the harms of air pollution to
human health are much more frightening. Curfew practices, measures, and
restrictions have been taken around the world to prevent the spread of COVID-19
have an extremely important effect on air
quality. In Türkiye,
where curfews and various travel restrictions are also implemented, human behaviours and living habits,
which have a direct impact on pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere, are
changed due to the COVID-19
Pandemic. Türkiye
has followed different policies such as tightening the measures during the pandemic
process and relaxing the measures when the number of cases decreased and
starting the normalization periods. In this study, it is aimed to determine,
analyse, and evaluate pollutant
concentrations (PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂) in 5 following periods representing the duration of implementation of curfew and other measures
in Türkiye.
While 16thMarch-31stMay
represents the first curfew, 1stJune-31stOctober represents the normalization
period, 1stNovember-15thMarch represents the second curfew period in which
cases increase, 16thMarch-17thMay represents the third wave of coronavirus, and
18thMay-30thJune represents the period of gradual normalization and the removal
of bans. In addition, these periods are also considered for the same dates in
2019 and 2020 to see relative changes.
In Türkiye,
an average of 2.08% increase in PM₁₀ concentrations in
the curfew periods and 6.15% in the normalization periods is observed compared
to the previous year. In SO₂, an average increase of 7.56% is observed in
the curfew periods and an increase of 32.01% in the normalization periods. In NO₂,
an average of 5.19% decrease was observed in the curfew periods and a decrease
of 1.92% in the
normalization periods