ABSTRACT
The outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia was the most serious global issue in 2020, that caused enormous impacts on various aspects of human society from public health to economic well-being. Our ecological environment also experienced transformation due to restricted human activities during the epidemic. The implementation of ‘Lockdowns’ and ‘Stay-at-Home’ policies reduced the pollution emissions from transport and commercial activities altering the urban environment. In this study, the spatial and temporal distribution and changes of the air quality and thermal environment in Wuhan City and New York City in 2020 were conducted and analyzed. Spatial data from these two cities were acquired, processed, interpolated and analyzed to identify hot spots and cold spots which were reasoned. The dynamics of air pollution and Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect was the prime object of investigation. The study discovered interesting patterns of changes in those two cities which we the early epicenters of the pandemic. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.