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Status of Air Pollution in Delhi
Prof. Pramila Goyal
Center for Atmospheric Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Email: [email protected]
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Introduction According to the WHO Global Burden of Disease (GBD)
report
(2014), Air pollution has become the fifth largest killer in
India after highblood pressure, indoor air pollution, tobacco
smoking, and poor nutrition.
About 620,000 premature deaths occur in India from air
pollution-relateddiseases each year which rose from 100,000 in the
year 2000.
Human activities directly or indirectly affect the outdoor
environmentadversely. Automobiles, in general, emit oxides of
nitrogen, sulphurdioxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and a
complex mixture ofunburnt hydrocarbons and black soot which pollute
the atmosphere.
There are many other sources like industries, power plants,
wastedisposal, road dust, brick kilns, construction activities and
waste burning.
Air pollution may be defined as the presence of any solid,
liquid orgaseous substance in the atmosphere in such concentration
and for such aduration that may be directly and indirectly
injurious to humans or otherliving organisms, plants, property or
interferes with the normalenvironmental processes.
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Status of India
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Distribution of Medically Certified Deaths- Major
Causes 2011
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Concentration of Particulate Matter (PM2.5) on Global Map
Out of world top 100 polluted cities, 27 are in India
(WHO, 2011).
Delhi is reported as one of the most polluted city according
to ambient air quality report of WHO Report 2014.
Source: Van Donkelaar et. al (2006)
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Top 20 most polluted cities in the world
(WHO Database(2014) for PM10)
Delhi ranks
among top 20
most polluted
cities of the world
Most Polluted Cities of the world
Out of 20 cities, 11 cities belong to India
WHO Database(2014) for PM10
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Dipping Air Quality of Delhi in comparison to Beijing
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Urbanization of Delhi
Source: Mukhopadhyay et al., 2010
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Status of Air Quality in Delhi and Surrounding Areas
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Registered Vehicles in Delhi
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Growth of Commercial and Personal Vehicles in Delhi
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Sindhwani, R. Goyal, P. Kumar, S and Kumar, A (2015).
Anthropogenic Emission Inventory of Criteria Air Pollutants of an
Urban Agglomeration -
National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi. Aerosol and Air Quality
Research. DOI:10.4209/aaqr.2014.11.0271
Contribution of various sources towards CO, NOx, SO2 and PM10
emissions over
Delhi and surrounding Areas (area 4900km2)
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Air pollution at different locations
in Delhi over the years 2010-2014 in
winter season.
Source: Live Mint 27th Feb, 2014
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Diesel Vehicles - A rising Concern
The growing number of diesel vehicles in the region has
further worsened the air quality scenario.
A study conducted by Pramila Goyal in 2007 for Delhi
Government titled Ascertain the effect of diesel
operated trucks, tempos, three-wheelers and other
commercial vehicles on ambient air quality of Delhi
revealed an expected serious concerns about
exceedances of emissions due to commercial vehicles
in near future.
Also, Kumar and Goyal (2014) estimated that nearly
80% of PM10 emissions are from diesel-fueled vehicles
in Delhi in 2008-09.
The market share of diesel cars is more than 50 per cent
(of sales), which is due to the major difference in the
prices of petrol and diesel fuel in 2010 (Sindhwani et
al., 2015).
The diesel emission norms legally allow higher limits
for NOx and PM10 emissions compared to a petrol car
(Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Factsheet,
2012) Source: Daily Mail, 9th Dec, 2012
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Assessment of Air Pollution
There are two types of methodologies to know the exact scenario
of air pollution:
1.Air Quality Monitoring
The understanding of air pollution is not sufficient to
accurately predict air quality
and related to daily health problems at all times because of
unavailability of
monitoring data.
Monitoring provides raw measurement of air pollutant
concentrations, which can
then be analyzed and interpreted.
The economic constraints may even lead to the reduction of
existing monitoring sites
with reference technologies, which are costly and labor
intensive to run.
2.Air Quality Modelling
The atmospheric dispersion and chemistry transport models have
been used for the
assessment of ambient air quality at different locations.
Model validation often relies on few measurements, which are
representative for
individual locations only.
It can provide the future scenario of air pollution also and
thus can be used for
making policies to improve the air quality and control the
emissions.
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Lessons to be learnt from Beijing
Source: TOI, 8th May, 2015
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Methods to Control Air Pollution
Introduction of stringent emission norms for private vehicles
i.e. Euro IV
for 2-Wheelers and EURO-V for passenger cars.
Shifting from coal based power plants to gas based power
plants.
Maintenance of roads an important step that is required to
reduce road-dust
emissions.
Use for renewable source of energy like solar energy for
generating
electricity.
Congestion a major cause of air pollution. Encroachments should
be strictly
dealt with stringent laws.
Improvement in public transport system like introduction of more
number
of CNG buses and battery operated e-rickshaws.
Regular vehicle pollution check including phasing out of more
than 10 year
old vehicles from NCT Delhi.
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Thanks!!
