MAPPING OF URBAN TRAFFIC EMISSION AND ASSOCIATED HEALTH RISKS IN DELHI

Abstract

The rapid urbanization and large-scale motorization inevitably bring challenges to the urban environment. Almost all large and mid-sized cities in India are facing problems of population increase, urban sprawl, traffic congestion, air pollution, and high-energy consumption. The profiling of a modern city is of huge importance to its competitiveness in the national and international context. In Delhi, however, mass motorization was introduced spontaneously because of rapid economic liberalization over the past two decades within the framework of a low-income country. Further, this megacity has heterogeneous kind of population, with varying socio-economic background and income levels. This mixed profile of the city is reflected in the different fleet composition across the transport corridors. Air pollution is considered as one of the prominent killer to human beings. Polluted air was responsible for 6.4 million deaths worldwide in 2015 out of which 2.8 million were contributed by household air pollution whereas 3.6 million from ambient air pollution and it is projected that by 2060, it may be increased to the figure of 6 to 9 million deaths per year. Non-communicable diseases account for 70% of air pollution deaths, and air pollution is a major, insufficiently appreciated cause of non communicable disease. Worldwide, air pollution was responsible for 24% of ischemic heart disease deaths, 21% of stroke deaths, 23% of lung cancer deaths and 19% of all cardiovascular deaths in 2015. Worldwide, Cardiovascular diseases are known to play major role for mortality and morbidity in South Asia between 1990 and 2020 and are currently a leading health problem in urban India too with 35% of total deaths due to health conditions. Vehicle emissions are not only degrading the ambient air quality of the atmosphere but also responsible for the morbidity and mortality cases of drivers, viii

commuters and individuals living near major roadways. Study reported that the major health problem occurred on account of time travelled in traffic areas, the exposure duration of rush hours, and congestion of the traffic. The present research work is to encompass the assessment of concentration of different vehicular pollutants at different road transport corridors along with the estimation of the emission of pollutants from vehicles at selected transport corridors. In addition to this, GIS maps of identified pollutants namely CO, PM10, PM2.5, NOx, SOx and C6H6 were developed to estimate the spatial extent of impacts of these harmful pollutants. The questionnaire survey has also been undertaken to correlate public health issues with atmospheric pollutants if any, and providing suggestions and mitigation strategies for the better management of public health with reference to various pollutants. The study reveals that the vehicular pollution has gradually increasing in recent times. Delhi the capital city of India has distinctly been affected with highly hazards vehicular pollution levels. The present study has been undertaken aimed at pollution estimation at different transport corridors of Delhi city with a view to analyzing the changing traffic composition trends and its impacts on the levels of ambient air pollutants. From the study, it was found that Ring road (Safdarjung) had the highest concentration of CO and PM10 as 3,066 and 422 μg/m3 while Auchandi Road bore the lowest concentration of the same as 193 and 23 μg/m3. The maximum observed value of pollutants concentration were 363 μg/m3 of NOx at Maa Anandmayi Marg, 542 μg/m3 of PM2.5 at ISBT Flyover and 42μg/m3 of SOx at Nizamuddin Bridge respectively and the minimum observed values were as 24 μg/m3 at Pusa Road, 53 μg/m3 at Sansad Marg and 2 μg/m3 at Auchandi Road respectively. ix

The assessment of human health risk regarding mortality and morbidity induced by multiple air pollutants prevailing at 36 transport corridors of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, India. The study, covering PM10, PM2.5, SO2 and NO2, utilized the Risk of Mortality/Morbidity due to Air Pollution (Ri-MAP) model in a bid to assess the direct health impacts in the year 2016. The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines were used to calculate mortality and morbidity for the population in 4 km2 grid sizes in the vicinity of all transport corridors and the results indicate that aggravated by the vehicular traffic, the excess number of mortality cases due to respiratory, cardiovascular, and the total mortality were studied at ISBT Flyover 365, 1399 and 2136 respectively. The very closed data were observed at Wazirabad Road 362, 1378 and 2096 caused by respiratory, cardiovascular, and the total mortality respectively. These two transport corridors also recorded a maximum number of excess cases of morbidity regarding hospital admission due to COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and cardiovascular illness as 18979 and 4762 as well as 18969 and 4761 respectively. Further, excess numbers of cases were reported in 4 km2 grid sizes alongside the transport corridors throughout the megacity of Delhi, thereby presenting a very plausible scenario of traffic-induced human health risk in different residential and other areas. Similar studies with a more focused approach would help not only towards a better transport corridor planning but also help health institutions to be preferable to control excess number of such peculiar health cases in the city and elsewhere. Assessment of the GIS mapping of traffic induced air pollutants along various transport corridors in Delhi has been studied in this thesis. This part includes the classification of vehicular pollutants parameters into five distribution classes, i.e., low, x

moderately low, moderate, moderately high, and high. Spatial maps have been developed using Kriging tool in ArcGIS environment for eleven districts covering 36 transport corridors of the city. The study demonstrated concentration of four of the six ambient air pollutants, namely, benzene, NOx, PM10 and PM2.5, with highest values in the range of 6.68-13.86 μg/m3, 294.10-362.57 μg/m3, 203.99-422 μg/m3 and 333.71 541.72 μg/m3 respectively along the corridors. Corresponding National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) values were found to be grossly violated as reflected by benzene, NOx and PM concentrations having 2-5 times higher values. Remaining two (CO and SOx) were found to be within permissible limits, and most of them exhibited low levels of observed concentrations. The ambient air quality in south, central, east, and New Delhi areas were found to be in high and moderately high classes necessitating adequate control measures. A questionnaire survey was also conducted in the vicinity areas of selected locations, based on air quality and health risk assessment. This survey was aimed to investigate the understanding of public and their opinion about health effects being caused due to exposure to air pollution during their day to day activities in life. This interviewer assisted questionnaire was developed on the basis of thorough literature review. Respondents were chosen from nearby residential areas, pedestrians using the walkways, motorists, cyclists, rickshaw-pullers, shopkeepers, students, working labors along the transport corridors, vendors, traffic police, doctors etc. According to experiences of residents and commuters eye irritation, breathing difficulties, running nose and congested nose, sneezing bouts, throat irritation and headache were observed the major health effects. Eye irritation was found as one of the prominent health concern among the people who were in the age group of 26 to 50 years. In Delhi, most xi

of the people spend their 6 to 10 hours (more than 48 %) time outside the home due to their work profile. After the analysis, it is observed that the emission, concentration and associated health risk are aggravated by the high vehicular density, and densely populated areas along the selected transport corridors. Most of such transport corridors were found to be under “severe” or “very poor” class according to Indian air quality index posing a direct health risk to the exposed population.