Comparative study of air quality across major monitoring stations in Delhi
Student name: Ms Monica Badola
Guide: Dr Chubamenla Jamir
Year of completion: 2018
Host Organisation: Envecologic- Spearheading Sustainable Growth
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Alok Raj Gupta
Abstract: The study aims to do a comparative study of air quality across major air quality monitoring stations in Delhi. Air Quality Index (AQI) is an effective tool to communicate the status of air quality. A sub-index is generated from the absolute pollutant concentrations. This index is based on health breakpoints which captures the exposure-impact relationship. The highest sub-indexed pollutant value generated becomes the AQI of the region. As the study aims to rank the areas for comparison, a different approach has been taken using EPA’s sub-index method. The study has used EPA’s sub-indexing method and aggregated all the six criteria pollutant’s sub-indices to rank the regions. The study has used summation of sub-indices, as the typical maximum operator would not have been a better judge to produce regional air pollution rankings. This approach captured all the pollutants in the area and not just the highest contributor. The five stations of CPCB taken for the study were Anand Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, R.K. Puram, Shadipur, and Mandir Marg. Anand Vihar ranked the highest in air pollution while Mandir Marg ranked lowest out of all the stations. Along with ranking, an analysis of pollutants has also been conducted in the study which showed that particulate matter concentrations are increasing every year at all the locations.
Keywords: air pollution, air quality, monitoring, ranking, AQI
