COVID-19 and environmental concerns: A rapid review

Gagan Deep Sharma; Aviral Kumar Tiwari; Mansi Jain; Anshita Yadav; Mrinalini Srivastava

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2021.111239

COVID-19 and environmental concerns: A rapid review

Renew Sustain Energy Rev. 2021 Sep:148:111239. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111239. Epub 2021 Jun 10.

Authors

Gagan Deep Sharma¹, Aviral Kumar Tiwari², Mansi Jain¹, Anshita Yadav¹, Mrinalini Srivastava¹

Affiliations

¹ University School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Sector 16 C, Dwarka, New Delhi, India.
² Rajagiri Business School, Rajagiri Valley, Kochi, India.

Abstract

COVID-19 has slowed global economic growth and consequently impacted the environment as well. Parallelly, the environment also influences the transmission of this novel coronavirus through various factors. Every nation deals with varied population density and size; air quality and pollutants; the nature of land and water, which significantly impact the transmission of coronavirus. The WHO (Ziaeepour et al., 2008) [1] has recommended rapid reviews to provide timely evidence to the policymakers to respond to the emergency. The present study follows a rapid review along with a brief bibliometric analysis of 328 research papers, which synthesizes the evidence regarding the environmental concerns of COVID-19. The novel contribution of this rapid review is threefold. One, we take stock of the diverse findings as regards the transmission of the novel coronavirus in different types of environments for providing conclusive directions to the ongoing debate regarding the transmission of the virus. Two, our findings provide topical insights as well as methodological guidance for future researchers in the field. Three, we inform the policymakers on the efficacy of environmental measures for controlling the spread of COVID-19.

Keywords: Air pollutants; Air quality; COVID-19; Environment; Meteorological factors; Pandemic; Rapid review.

Publication types

Review