Covid-19 pandemic induced spatio-temporal changes in human activity in the United Arab Emirates using night-time light data

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in early 2020 impacted people’s lives and the working environment and led to a drastic change in human activities. This has opened a window to analyze the people’s response to the safety measures implemented to contain the virus, which can be reflected and monitored using Night-time light (NTL) images. This study aims to demonstrate the use of NTL images captured by satellites to detect changes in human activity in the UAE before and during the pandemic. The study period will include the pandemic year and the previous years (2017-2019) will be used as a control. Raw NTL data was pre-processed to obtain cloud-free radiance images through which the monthly average radiance was calculated. The monthly average radiance is categorized into three classes: residential, commercial, and roads. The radiance levels during the lockdown were compared against the months prior to the restriction imposed. The results revealed that the roads category showed the highest decrease in radiance levels due to the enforcement of the safety measures, followed by the commercial category, whereas the least reduction was observed for the residential category. The results show how NTL radiance could be used in monitoring the changes in human activities.