ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the most disrupting phenomenon in this decade. Its potent effects have earned the attention of researchers in different fields around the world. Amongst them, authors from different countries have published numerous research articles based on the environmental concepts of COVID-19. The environment is considered an essential receptor in the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is academically significant to look into publications to follow the pathway of hot subjects and upcoming trends in studies. Reviewing the literature, therefore, can provide valuable information, regarding the strengths and weaknesses of facing the COVID-19 pandemic, considering the environmental viewpoint. The present study categorizes the understanding caused by environmental and COVID-19-related published papers in the Scopus metadata from 2020 to 2021. VOSviewer is a promising bibliometric tool used in the present study to analyze the publications with both "COVID-19*” and "Environment” keywords. Then, a narrative evaluation is utilized to delineate the most interesting research topics. Cooccurrence analysis is applied in this research, which further characterizes different thematic clusters. The published literature mainly focused on four central cluster environmental concepts: air pollution, epidemiology and virus transmission, water and wastewater, and environmental policy. It also reveals that environmental policy has gained worldwide interest with the main keyword "management” and gathers keywords like waste management, sustainability, governance, ecosystem and climate change. Although these keywords could also appear in other environmental policy-related research, the importance of the COVID-19 pandemic requires such comprehensive research. The fourth cluster involves governance and management concerns during the pandemic. Mapping the research topics in different clusters will pave the way for the researchers to view future potential ideas and studies better. The scope for further research needs from the perspective of the environmental concepts is reviewed and recommended, which can expand environmental sciences vital role and value in alerting, observing, and COVID-19 prediction for all four clusters. In another word, the research trend would shift from qualitative studies and perspectives to quantitative ones.
ABSTRACT
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) announcement released in early March 2020 stated there is no proven evidence that the COVID-19 virus can survive in drinking water or sewage, there has been some recent evidence that coronaviruses can survive in low-temperature environments and in groundwater for more than a week. Some studies have also found SARS-CoV-2 genetic materials in raw municipal wastewater, which highlights a potential avenue for viral spread. A lack of information about the presence and spread of COVID-19 in the environment may lead to decisions based on local concerns and prevent the integration of the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 into the global water cycle. Several studies have optimistically assumed that coronavirus has not yet affected water ecosystems, but this assumption may increase the possibility of subsequent global water issues. More studies are needed to provide a comprehensive picture of COVID-19 occurrence and outbreak in aquatic environments and more specifically in water resources. As scientific efforts to report reliable news, conduct rapid and precise research on COVID-19, and advocate for scientists worldwide to overcome this crisis increase, more information is required to assess the extent of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment. The goals of this study are to estimate the extent of the environmental effects of the pandemic, as well as identify related knowledge gaps and avenues for future research.