ABSTRACT
With the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019, the movement of people was restricted worldwide. Millions of people have been affected by this pandemic. In India, a nationwide lockdown came into force from 24 March for three weeks up to 14 April and later extended up to 3 May. Furthermore, it was again extended till July 2020. Again, the second wave hit India in April 2021 and was more hazardous than the previous wave, but the lockdown was partial. Though COVID-19 has brought humankind to a halt, it has made a notable impact on our environment. These impacts can be deeply examined with the help of GIS and remote sensing parameters. In this study, the changes in land surface temperature, NDVI, and NDBI of Dehradun city have been evaluated for the years 2019, 2020, and 2021 using Landsat 8 OLI satellite imagery. As a result, the LST value decreased from 43°C in 2019 to 31.97°C in 2020 and then again increased to 32.71°C. The NDVI and NDBI both show a similar trend with a negative correlation during the pandemic. The maps provided show the significant results which explain that the lockdown not only slowed down the spread of COVID-19 but also minimised environmental degradation. The findings of this study could be valuable for different government and non-government agencies working on environmental sustainability and environmental management.
