COMPARATIVE AIR POLLUTION ASSESMENT IN DELHI: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Air Pollution is an escalating problem worldwide fuelled by increasing anthropogenic activities, hasty development, rapid industrialisation, transportation, superfluous use of fossil fuel consumption, increasing global power needs etc. Moreover, the diverse meteorological factors influence our environment to a great extent. Since the share of pollution caused by human activities is significantly large, it must be controlled. Hence a system of continuously knowing the presence of such pollutants in atmosphere is invariably important in order to check the increasing levels of pollution. Population explosion has lead to remarkable increase in vehicular population. The use of automobile vehicles solely depends upon the lifestyle of an individual. Any change in his habit would have an effect over the air we breathe. The weekly cycle of activities of the population hence explain distinct temporal variation in pollution. The pollution levels differ from weekdays (Monday to Friday) to weekend (Saturday and Sunday). Such observations explicitly express an idea about the magnitude by which the pollution can be moderated by altering some habits of the people. Hence, it can also be resolved that pollution mitigation is a function of public willingness and understanding without with which it is impossible to tackle this threat. A comprehensive database of daily averages of six pollutants, namely, CO, NO, NO2, SO2, O3, PM (10μm and 2.5μm) were analysed for the period of 2006 to 2010 at the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Station (NAAQMS) of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on the main traffic intersection near Income Tax Office (ITO), Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi. The comparative study had come out to assert that pollution levels on weekend i.e. Sunday relate to significantly lower concentration of pollutants as compared to that on weekdays i.e. from Monday to Friday by almost 2 to 6 times on an average (increase on Sundays with respect to weekdays is CO 2.98 times, PM2.5 1.18 Air Pollution is an escalating problem worldwide fuelled by increasing anthropogenic activities, hasty development, rapid industrialisation, transportation, superfluous use of fossil fuel consumption, increasing global power needs etc. Moreover, the diverse meteorological factors influence our environment to a great extent. Since the share of pollution caused by human activities is significantly large, it must be controlled. Hence a system of continuously knowing the presence of such pollutants in atmosphere is invariably important in order to check the increasing levels of pollution. Population explosion has lead to remarkable increase in vehicular population. The use of automobile vehicles solely depends upon the lifestyle of an individual. Any change in his habit would have an effect over the air we breathe. The weekly cycle of activities of the population hence explain distinct temporal variation in pollution. The pollution levels differ from weekdays (Monday to Friday) to weekend (Saturday and Sunday). Such observations explicitly express an idea about the magnitude by which the pollution can be moderated by altering some habits of the people. Hence, it can also be resolved that pollution mitigation is a function of public willingness and understanding without with which it is impossible to tackle this threat. A comprehensive database of daily averages of six pollutants, namely, CO, NO, NO2, SO2, O3, PM (10μm and 2.5μm) were analysed for the period of 2006 to 2010 at the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Station (NAAQMS) of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on the main traffic intersection near Income Tax Office (ITO), Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi. The comparative study had come out to assert that pollution levels on weekend i.e. Sunday relate to significantly lower concentration of pollutants as compared to that on weekdays i.e. from Monday to Friday by almost 2 to 6 times on an average (increase on Sundays with respect to weekdays is CO 2.98 times, PM2.5 1.18 times, NO 1.62 times, NO2 5.76 times, SO2 1.27 times and O3 1.15 times). Levels of primary pollutants – suspended particulate matter (SPM), nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide – have gone up significantly in earlier decades. Similar variations are induced during Public and cultural holidays. The temporal variation in concentration of pollutant throughout the day varies with the influence of local wind parameters such as direction, speed, etc., traffic condition, land-use, mixing height and other meteorological aspects, changing pattern of vehicular traffic and the industrial activities. By and large, the pollutants like CO, NOx are from automobile exhausts, whereas use of coal based fuels causes heavy emissions of SO2. The observed phenomena of weekend effect and holiday effect provide evidence of impact of human activity on ambient air. Pollution variation corresponds to the pattern of working on weekend and weekdays. Comparative analysis from different aspects shows that vehicular emission largely increases on weekdays and drops down on weekends. Such weekend effect or holiday effect is also seen on public and cultural holidays. A general trend of fall in concentration has been found during the season of SW Monsoon and an exceptional short term increase at festivities such as Diwali. The study also shows, in particular, higher levels of Ozone during weekends. Hence the cycle of human activities at different periodicities show their deep influence over environmental health. It can be hence stated that vehicular pollution mitigation is a function of public willingness and understanding without with which it is impossible to tackle this menace. Control of pollution can be accelerated by taking some basic steps such as proper policy formulation and honest implementation by RTO, City Police, and Environmental Bodies, Industries, and finally the masses. Each city in the world faces the same effect; hence this work can have regional as well as global applications.