Rain, rain, go away, come again another day: do climate variations enhance the spread of COVID-19?

The spread of infectious diseases was further promoted due to busy cities, increased travel, and climate change, which led to outbreaks, epidemics, and even pandemics. The world experienced the severity of the 125 nm virus called the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a pandemic declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019. Many investigations revealed a strong correlation between humidity and temperature relative to the kinetics of the virus's spread into the hosts. This study aimed to solve the riddle of the correlation between environmental factors and COVID-19 by applying RepOrting standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES) with the designed research question. Five temperature and humidity-related themes were deduced via the review processes, namely 1) The link between solar activity and pandemic outbreaks, 2) Regional area, 3) Climate and weather, 4) Relationship between temperature and humidity, and 5) the Governmental disinfection actions and guidelines. A significant relationship between solar activities and pandemic outbreaks was reported throughout the review of past studies. The grand solar minima (1450-1830) and solar minima (1975-2020) coincided with the global pandemic. Meanwhile, the cooler, lower humidity, and low wind movement environment reported higher severity of cases. Moreover, COVID-19 confirmed cases and death cases were higher in countries located within the Northern Hemisphere. The Blackbox of COVID-19 was revealed through the work conducted in this paper that the virus thrives in cooler and low-humidity environments, with emphasis on potential treatments and government measures relative to temperature and humidity. HIGHLIGHTS: • The coronavirus disease 2019 (COIVD-19) is spreading faster in low temperatures and humid area. • Weather and climate serve as environmental drivers in propagating COVID-19. • Solar radiation influences the spreading of COVID-19. • The correlation between weather and population as the factor in spreading of COVID-19.

Environmental impacts of shore revetment.

Coastal structures, especially revetments, have been widely implemented to protect properties and infrastructures from erosive waves during storms. While being incompatible with nature-based solutions, revetments have still been constructed due to their effectiveness in solving coastal erosion. One of the most crucial concerns that should be considered as part of a revetment implementation is how to diminish and manage its possible impacts on the environment. Thus, a thorough understanding of how the revetments affect the surrounding environment must be achieved. This article critically reviews and summarizes their economic considerations, and environmental impacts on beach morphology, hydrodynamics, ecology, aesthetics, beach accessibility, beach recreation, and other notable aspects. Coastal practitioners and researchers, who are involved with the revetments, may increase their environmental awareness before implementing them. The revetments can be an excellent option to protect the eroding shoreline, if their possible environmental consequences are well-understood and properly managed.

Maritime pollution in the Indian Ocean after the MV X-Press Pearl accident.

The MV X-Press Pearl marine debacle severely affected the marine environment in the Indian Ocean. The objective of this study is to monitor environmental pollution along the west coast of Sri Lanka. Beach sand samples were collected from 40 locations. Visual and microscopic observations, plastic pellets pollution index (PPI), and degradation effects of plastic nurdles were examined. Chemical and thermal characteristics were investigated using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometric analysis (ICP-MS) and Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopic analysis (FTIR) analyses, respectively. Cylindrical-shaped plastic nurdles (>0.2 cm in size) were observed in off-white (mainly), yellow, and black colours. The white colour plastic nurdles change to yellow at 240 °C and black at 300 °C. Epamulla (PPI = 1940-3364) and Sarakkuwa (PPI = 2158-3466) beaches were recognized as the most contaminated beaches during the initial sampling (i.e., after six to eight days of the explosion of the vessel). Well-rounded small plastic nurdles (i.e., after one year of the disaster) can indicate degradation effects. FTIR results confirm (i) plastic nurdles as low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and (ii) alteration of the chemical composition of nurdles at a low temperature of 60 °C. In this case, a significant amount of microplastics have been added to the environment under the influence of UV irradiation and abrasion against beach sand. In addition, the presence of heavy metals (e.g., arsenic, cadmium, lead, and copper) in swash zone sediments is a great threat to marine animals and plants. Consequently, the ingestion of microplastics and heavy metals would be increased in a wide range of marine organisms and can be bio-accumulated in humans through seafood and salt.

Coastal zone management in Sri Lanka: A lesson after recent naval accidents.

Sri Lanka is positioned as an important hub for international shipping. The recent naval accidents of MT New Diamond (in 2020) and MV X-Press Pearl (in 2021) suggest that the country is at risk for future maritime environmental disasters. However, Sri Lanka still has no adequate planning and regulation at the national policy level. Therefore, the objective of the current study is to formulate a national policy and contingency plan to augment maritime safety. This paper proposed the framework for the integrated coastal zone management in Sri Lanka, based on the national acts and laws, existing regulations, and analysis of international experiences. The integrated coastal zone management framework is proposed into four hierarchical levels. The proposed framework establishes a permanent coordination and management system for environmental assessment and sustainability of the coastal zone. This article describes requirements for coastal zone management, reasons for failures during recent naval accidents, possible drawbacks of implementing an integrated coastal zone management framework in Sri Lanka, and ways to overcome these challenges.