Evaluation of environmental effects caused by Covid 19 and factors affecting the improvement of resilience of Makran coastal areas, Sistan and Baluchestan province

The COVID-19 crisis was first regarded as a threat to public health, but it gradually started to threaten different sectors. One of the sectors influenced by this crisis, which is the topic of this research on the effects of COVID-19, is the fisheries sector in the coastal cities of Sistan and Baluchistan province. Diverse hazards jeopardize these cities and most have environmental origins. The present research was an applied study in terms of the goal and aimed to investigate the factors related to the improvement of environmental resilience in the coastal cities of Makran. The statistical population was composed of all residents of the studied areas (Chabahar, Konarak and Dashtiari), Fisheries experts, and environmental activists. The factors underpinning the improvement of environmental resilience were determined with factor analysis, and the environmental resilience of the study site was assessed with a combination of maximum entropy and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Based on the results of factor analysis, the factors were divided into three categories named “pollution control”, “waste management”, and “access to services and conservation of resources”. “Pollution control” was found to be the main factor in accounting for the variables of coastal pollution, so it was recognized as the first factor in improving the environmental resilience of the coastal cities against COVID-19. The next factors were “waste management” and “access to services and conservation of resources” with the weights of 0.347 and 0.141, respectively. Also, the results of the combined maximum entropy and AHP revealed that the coastal areas of Makran were, in total, lowly resilient and that among the coastal cities, Konarak had the highest environmental resilience (0.46).