Analyzing the Effect of Mobility Restrictions on Air Pollution During COVID-19

With advancement in computing and the field of science, analysis has become faster than ever. An enormous amount of real-time data is collected and stored with the help of IoT. Data science has helped in the integration of those complex data and reconstructed them into new knowledge. The augmentation of Data Science during times of COVID-19 is unprecedented. From methods to analyze the spread of disease to the evaluation of government policies into action, Data Science had a significant contribution in understanding COVID-19. Various state and national governments enforced strict lockdowns and mobility restrictions during the times of COVID. The enforced stratagems helped to contain the spread of the virus and, at the same time, also proved to be advantageous for the environment. This paper is an effort to study the effects of mobility restriction and lockdown over the pollution figures in India. In this study, pollutants were taken for the calculation of the Air Quality Index. Based on AQI, parameters and time frames where pollution levels are significantly feebler are determined. Succeeding, on observing patterns between these parameters and mobility restriction, a model is developed. This model shows the effect of mobility restriction on pollution, testing the covariates used for this study.