Assessment of potential benefits of traffic and urban mobility reductions during COVID-19 lockdowns: dose-response calculations for material corrosions on built cultural heritage
Broomandi P. Tleuken A. Zhaxylykov S. Nikfal A. Kim J.R. Karaca F.
January 2022Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Environmental Science and Pollution Research
2022#29Issue 56491 - 6510 pp.
Air pollution, particularly in urban areas, puts human health in danger and has adverse impacts on the built environment. It can accelerate the natural corrosion rate of cultural heritages and monuments, leading to premature aging and lowering their aesthetic value. Globally, at the beginning of 2020, to tackle the spread of novel COVID-19, the lockdown was enforced in the most hard-hit countries. Therefore, this study assesses, as a first time, the plausible benefits of traffic and urban mobility reductions on the natural process of deterioration of materials during COVID-19 lockdown in twenty-four major cities on five continents. The potential risk is estimated based on exceeding the tolerable degradation limits for each material. The notable impact of COVID-19 mobility restrictions on air quality was evidenced in 2020 compared to 2019. The introduced mobility restrictions in 2020 could decrease the surface recession rate of materials. Extremely randomized trees analysis showed that PM10 was the main influencing factor for corrosion of portland, copper, cast bronze, and carbon steel with a relative importance of 0.60, 0.32, 0.90, and 0.64, respectively, while SO2 and HNO3 were mainly responsible for corrosion of sandstone and zinc with a relative importance of 0.60 and 0.40, respectively. The globally adverse governed meteorological conditions in 2020 could not positively influence the movement restrictions around the world in air quality improvements. Our findings can highlight the need for additional policies and measures for reducing ambient pollution in cities and the proximity of sensitive cultural heritage to avoid further damage.
Air pollution , Atmospheric corrosion , Coronavirus , Cultural heritage conservation , Multi-pollutant risk assessment
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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Environment and Resource Efficiency Cluster (EREC), Nazarbayev University, Kabanbay Batyr Ave. 53, Nur-Sultan, 010000, Kazakhstan
Department of Chemical Engineering, Masjed-Soleiman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Masjed-Soleiman, Iran
Atmospheric Science and Meteorological Research Center, Tehran, Iran
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department of Chemical Engineering
Atmospheric Science and Meteorological Research Center
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