THE INFLUENCE OF QUARANTINE RESTRICTIONS DUE TO THE COVID-19 EPIDEMIC ON TRAFFIC INTENSITY AND ECOLOGICAL CONDITION IN LUTSK

Abstract

Introduction. An urgent issue is the study of the environmental impact of road transport in cities and the development of ways to reduce such impact. Motor vehicles are the most powerful source of air pollution in the city. Cars also cause a number of negative types of physical impact on the environment (noise, vibration, electromagnetic pollution). In the context of the pandemic and national quarantine, it is now possible to assess the extent to which the negative factors of motor transport environmental impact are changing in the process of reducing the volume of traffic and car traffic. The purpose of this study was to conduct a comprehensive assessment of changes in the structure, dynamics, intensity of traffic in Lutsk and the environmental impact of these changes in the conditions of the introduced national quarantine in the spring of 2020. Results. Having carried out a set of measuring and computing works on five research sections of highways in Lutsk, we identified changes in the dynamics and structure of road traffic, as well as changes in the following indicators of road impact on ecosystems: 1) emissions of CO2 compounds and carbon monoxide in total, or carbon oxides); 2) noise load on the section of the highway (standard acoustic characteristics and acoustic characteristics at any distance). It is established that the reduction of negative factors of environmental impact while reducing the intensity of traffic is nonlinear. When traffic is reduced by 2–3 times, carbon monoxide emissions are reduced by 60–70 %, the values of acoustic characteristics are reduced by only 10–15 %. Conclusions. Thus, there was a significant reduction in the pre-quarantine exceedances in the content of carbon oxides in the emissions of vehicles and the levels of noise pollution in Lutsk. Actual concentrations of carbon oxides in the areas adjacent to the highway decreased to the normative, acoustic characteristics in residential areas were lower than the norm during the day. Thus, the introduction of quarantine restrictive measures in the country has significantly reduced the negative environmental impact of road transport systems on ecosystems, as the results obtained for Lutsk can be extrapolated to other cities and towns with similar configuration and congestion of transport systems.