Title: Air quality assessment along urban transport corridor in megacity

Authors: Rajeev Kumar Mishra; Ankita Shukla; Manoranjan Parida

Addresses: Department of Environmental Engineering, Delhi Technological University, Delhi, 110042, India ' JK Infraprojects Limited, CC-24, Delhi, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, 247 667, India

Abstract: Urban traffic emission is one of the grievous problems faced by people in urban centres of developing countries like India. Inspite of bad air quality, people are forced to live in air-polluted areas of megacities like Delhi. The present study is an effort to analyse the air quality of some selected areas along major urban transport corridors in Delhi. On the basis of land-use pattern, five locations, i.e., Rithala, Pitampura, Kashmiri Gate, Jhilmil, and Panchsheel Enclave were selected to conduct the research study. The study included the monitoring of CO, NOx, SO2 and PM at all the identified locations for 12 hrs (8:00 to 20:00). The monitored data of each location was used to estimate the composite air quality index (CAQI). The highest value of CAQI was observed at Jhilmil (140) followed by Kashmiri Gate (127), Pitampura (109), Rithala (104) and Panchsheel Encalve (103). Upon comparing the CAQI of all the selected locations with the rating scale of air quality index, it was found that all the selected locations were under severe air pollution condition, a clear representative of the unhealthy condition of people residing in these particular areas.

Keywords: air pollution; urban transport corridors; composite air quality index; CAQI; megacities; traffic emissions; developing countries; India; Delhi; public health.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2016.082244

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2016 Vol.19 No.3/4, pp.257 - 267

Received: 28 Aug 2015
Accepted: 26 Aug 2016

Published online: 13 Feb 2017 *

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