Undoubtedly the most searched and spoken word of last year is coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which initially originated in Wuhan, China near the end of 2019. COVID-19 is a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Albeit almost all countries shut down their borders to prevent rapid spread of the virus. However, the number of cases continues to increase in developing countries at a faster rate due to community and cluster transmission. The severity of this epidemic made it a pandemic as it progressed to over 200 countries. The World Health Organization (WHO), governments, and national disease control and prevention units worked together to break the chain and are working to contain the catastrophic impact of COVID-19. They formulated and recommended various guidelines like social distancing, frequent hand washing, and social distancing to inhibit the spread of the virus. WHO also advised that the general population and medical personnel wear face masks, face shields, gloves, and aprons. As a result, this waste category has substantially increased and, if not disposed of properly, may cause the infection or help to catalyze COVID-19. In developing countries, poor solid waste management may aggravate chances of spreading COVID-19. Sustainable solid waste management is a critical parameter for the health, wellbeing, and development of society. The measures adopted to contain and restrict the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and minimize the degrees of freedom in commercial events affected solid waste management considerably. During this crucial time, the services provided by waste management agencies and personnel are invaluable and these services help to prevent the improper disposal of waste, which may lead to health risks due to the spread of COVID. COVID-19 is a new and novel virus and experts are learning more about it overtime and with evolving science. This review paper provides insight into different types of solid wastes generated during the pandemic, their consequences, and the implication of various policies.
The consequences of droughts are far-reaching, impacting the natural environment, water quality, public health, and accelerating economic losses. Applications of remote sensing techniques using satellite imageries can play an influential role in identifying drought severity (DS) and impacts for a broader range of areas. The Barind Tract (BT) is a region of Bangladesh located northwest of the country and considered one of the hottest, semi-arid, and drought-prone regions. This study aims to assess and predict the drought vulnerability over BT using Landsat satellite images from 1996 to 2031. Several indices, including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI), Soil Moisture Content (SMC), Temperature Condition Index (TCI), Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), and Vegetation Health Index (VHI). VHI has been used to identify and predict DS based on VCI and TCI characteristics for 2026 and 2031 using Cellular Automata (CA)-Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithms. Results suggest increasing patterns of DS accelerated by the reduction of healthy vegetation (19 %) and surface water bodies (26 %) and increased higher temperature (>5 °C) from 1996 to 2021. In addition, the VHI result signifies a massive increase in extreme drought conditions from 1996 (2 %) to 2021 (7 %). The DS prediction witnessed a possible expansion in extreme and severe drought conditions in 2026 (15 % and 13 %) and 2031 (18 % and 24 %). Understanding the possible impacts of drought will allow planners and decision-makers to initiate mitigating measures for enhancing the communities preparedness to cope with drought vulnerability.