Abstract View
How Have Air Quality and Perceptions of Air Quality Changed in Medellin Due to the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic?
PABLO GARCIA, Polina Glovátina-Mora, Joshua D. Vande Hey, University of Leicester
Abstract Number: 603
Working Group: The Role of Aerosol Science in the Understanding of the Spread and Control of COVID-19 and Other Infectious Diseases
Abstract
With the beginning of the COVID-19 quarantine, significant changes in PM2.5 concentrations were observed in Medellin, Colombia. PM2.5 was reduced from an average of 40 µg m-3 for the 30 days before the start of the quarantine to 23.4 µg m-3 for the first 30 days of quarantine corresponding to a reduction of 6.4 µg m-3 in the 2020 concentration anomaly with the 2015-2019 period average with a peak anomaly of -26 µg m-3 during the second week of quarantine. In this context, we reproduced a survey and workshop undertaken earlier in 2019 to evaluate the level of reflexivity regarding changes in air quality caused by modifications in human activity patterns under quarantine restrictions. The Initial survey and workshop were aimed at exploring conceptualizations of air pollution and air quality in Medellin under the conditions of persistently severe air pollution. We explore the potential role of narratives in the formulation of environmental policy and in the development of effective communication strategies for policy changes and scientific results. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of changes in perceptions in the sample population are presented. Air quality data analysis along with the review of recent debates in critical environmental humanities contextualize the survey and workshop results.