Air Quality in Ahmedabad in 1600s

Excerpt from the "Book of Emperors" -- air quality in Ahmedabad in 1600s

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Journal Article - Long-Term Trend in Clouds and Precipitation Over an Urban City Ahmedabad in the Western-Indian Region

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Precipitation (rainfall) forecast for Ahmedabad, India (for the next 3 days)

Time series is the variation within the city airshed among the 1-km grid cells. Data is modelled using WRF meteorological model and GFS initiation fields.

For details visit City-level meteorology and air quality forecasts. Other parameters include wind speeds, wind directions, surface temperatures, ground-level temperature, and mixing heights. Updated everyday around 7PM IST.

Precipitation (rainfall) forecasts for the next 3 days - Ahmedabad, India

For details visit City-level meteorology and air quality forecasts. Other parameters include wind speeds, wind directions, surface temperatures, ground-level temperature, and mixing heights. Updated everyday around 7PM IST.

Journal Article - Air quality and health co-benefits of climate change mitigation and adaptation actions by 2030: an interdisciplinary modeling study in Ahmedabad, India

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Journal Article - Ahmedabad's BRT System A Sustainable Urban Transport Panacea?

Journal Article - Effect of COVID-19 lockdown on the concentration and composition of NR-PM2.5 over Ahmedabad

Air Pollution in Ahmedabad

In an effort to protect local communities from rising air pollution levels, the AMC is developing a health-based program for outreach around the AQI developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune (IITM) and SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research). AQI systems already operate in key cities in India, including Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, and Mumbai, among others, as well as internationally. The Ahmedabad AQI is scheduled to be formally launched in early 2017.

To develop the program, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Commissioner Shri Mukesh Kumar and Mayor Shri Gautam Shah joined by international public health and air pollution experts from the Indian Institute of Public Health-Gandhinagar (IIPH-G), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune (IITM) are holding a two day workshop on “Air Pollution & Health: Laying the Foundation for Effective Use of Ahmedabad’s Air Quality Index” this week.

NRDC and partners, IIPH-G, are working with the AMC on information, education, and communication strategies for the new AQI being launched in Ahmedabad. The combined efforts of government agencies, health professionals, and community leaders can serve to effectively inform the public about rising air pollution health risks in India, and how to take steps to protect community and individual health.

The new Ahmedabad program focuses on air quality alerts and advisories, interagency coordination, public awareness and community outreach, and assessing health impacts and monitoring to strengthen actions. The interagency coordination, alerts, and outreach are modeled on the effective Heat Action Plan by the city that has now scaled to 11 cities in 2016 and potentially leading states in the coming year.

The new program is also designed to integrate health and pollution control strategies with the Gujarat Pollution Control Board’s “City Clean Air Plan for Ahmedabad”. The GPCB includes a broader comprehensive strategy for emissions controls. The program will also incorporate knowledge exchange components with New Delhi and other cities. Ahmedabad is examining media strategies used in New Delhi on health risk communication and outreach to design its program.

Read the full article @ NRDC

Ahmedabad Traffic Cops Logging Personal Pollution Exposure Data

In the first-of-its-kind study, a team of public health researchers from the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar (IIPH) and Sri Ramachandra University (SRU) have provided kits to traffic personnel loaded with hi-tech sensors which will measure the quality of air they breathe and the noise pollution they are exposed to while on duty.

The study is being supported by Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC). "The traffic personnel's kit has a personal air quality sampler, noise dosimeter, and temperature data logger," says IIPH researcher Priya Dutta. Her colleague Abiyant Tiwari adds, "The pollution readings will be taken for 12 days along with the heat logger. It will explain how much pollution a person is exposed to on our city roads," says Tiwari.

Nearly 40 traffic police personnel have been selected for the study after due their consent was taken.

More @ Times of India

Application of SIM-air Family of Tools for Air Quality Analysis in Six Indian Cities

Published in Atmospheric Environment

Abstract

A prerequisite to an air quality management plan for a city is some idea of the main sources of pollution and their contributions for a city. This paper presents the results of an application of the SIM-air modeling tool in six Indian cities – Pune, Chennai, Indore, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Rajkot. Using existing and publicly available data, we put together a baseline of multi-pollutant emissions for each of the cities and then calculate concentrations, health impacts, and model alternative scenarios for 2020. The measured annual PM10 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 micron meter) concentrations in μg/m3 averaged 94.7 ± 45.4 in Pune, 73.1 ± 33.7 in Chennai, 118.8 ± 44.3 in Indore, 94.0 ± 20.4 in Ahmedabad, 89.4 ± 12.1 in Surat, and 105.0 ± 25.6 in Rajkot, all exceeding the annual standard of 60 μg/m3. The PM10 inventory in tons/year for the year 2010 of 38,400 in Pune, 50,200 in Chennai, 18,600 in Indore, 31,900 in Ahmedabad, 20,000 in Surat, and 14,000 in Rajkot, is further spatially segregated into 1 km grids and includes all known sources such as transport, road dust, residential, power plants, industries (including the brick kilns), waste burning, and diesel generator sets. We use the ATMoS chemical transport model to validate the emissions inventory and estimate an annual premature mortality due to particulate pollution of 15,200 for the year 2010 for the six cities. Of the estimated 21,400 premature deaths in the six cities in 2020, we estimate that implementation of the six interventions in the transport and brick kiln sectors, can potentially save 5870 lives (27%) annually and result in an annual reduction of 16.8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the six cities.

Press Release: Better Air Quality = Better Cities

27 June 2012, New Delhi – Air pollution is a serious health issue, and according to the World Health Organization, particulate matter alone kills 3.1 million people annually worldwide. This is higher than the average number of people killed in traffic accidents annually.

“With the current trend of urbanization and motorization, we need to empower cities towards a sustainable air quality management program - with more stringent standards and more powerful pollution control boards,” says Parthaa Bosu, CAI-Asia India Representative. “People flock to cities and this trend worsens air pollution posing great health risks to the population.”

About 340 million people in India live in cities and by 2030 this is expected to reach 590 million. India’s motorization index is currently about a tenth of developed regions like the US and Europe but is climbing rapidly. Estimates have shown that Delhi is adding 300,000 cars a year. For India as a whole, research shows that the vehicle population will more than double between 2005 and 2015, from 50 million to 125 million in 10 years. The resulting air pollutants and GHG emissions from these vehicles contribute to the air pollution problem in most urban cities in India.

To advocate for better air quality for cities, a series of workshops were conducted in the cities of Pune, Chennai, Indore, Ahmedabad and Delhi. The sessions covered all the components of integrated air quality management necessary to analyse and manage the air pollution in the cities, including tools to develop an emissions inventory and available management options to command and control air pollution in the cities.

These workshops are part of the Air Quality and Climate Change Program of the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia). Supported by the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation and in partnership with UrbanEmissions.info, CAI-Asia moves the agenda of air quality management forward by sharing the results from the UrbanEmissions.info’s study - Urban AirPollution & Co-benefits Analysis in Six Indian Cities – Pune, Chennai,Indore, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Rajkot. The city workshops included hands-on training for the SIM-air family of tools.

Dr. Sarath Guttikunda from UrbanEmissions.Info states, “the program is not meant to advocate a model, but to spread the concept of knowledge management for air quality management in the cities. This is a much needed exercise, where the required information in scattered and we need programs to collate that for an informed decision making.”

Mr. Rajesh Rangarajan, Senior Researcher from Institute for Financial Management and Research, Chennai, India, quotes, “we are using the results from the UrbanEmissions.info’s study in Chennai to advise the Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board on the placement of new air quality monitoring stations, based on the pollution hotspots and influencing emission sources like the brick kilns and landfills”.

A National Air Quality Management Workshop held in June 21 gathered members of government, civil society, and private sector under the banner for better air quality for cities. Showing their support for the air quality advocacy, member secretaries - Shri J.S. Kamyotra and Naini Jaiseelan noted the importance of air quality as a priority issue in India. Case studies by representatives from Chennai, Indore, and Pimpri Chinchwad (new Pune) were also presented.

In his keynote address, Shri J.S. Kamyotra, Member Secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board, highlighted the need for improving monitoring, emission inventories, dispersion modelling, and their application for action plans for cities. Together with research organizations in India, source apportionment studies were conducted by CPCB and MoEF for the period 2006 to 2010.

The city representatives conceded more is needed to be done and urged for the different stakeholders from government, civil society, and the academe work together for urban development. The outcome of the workshop provided a list of recommendations for the pollution control boards and on the wealth of potential partnerships and support available from other stakeholders in India.

BRT System in Ahmedabad, India

Air Pollution in Ahmedabad

Silent Killers - This might be the best city to live in India but there are a few black spots that need to be dealt with. One contentious issue is pollution.

Link to the article @ Times of India

Contrary to popular belief, vehicular pollution on city roads and industries emitting black smoke from chimneys are not the only pollutants. According to researchers, there are many more 'culprits' that pollute the air we breathe. Even a brick kiln located outside Bopal or a power plant in Gandhinagar will be capable of polluting the city's ambient air quality.

These are silent pollutants which emit particulate matter of less than 10 micrometers in size (PM10). Power plants, dusty roads and brick kilns are some of the other pollutants.

These factors were highlighted by a study named 'Urban air pollution and co-benefits analysis in India' published recently for six Indian cities, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Pune, Indore and Chennai.

The study was conducted by New Delhi-based research group UrbanEmissions.Info to understand the sources of air pollution in these cities and also projected pollution rate in 2020. As per the study, all six cities exceed the annual ambient standard of 60 ug/ m3 (micrograms per cubic meter) of PM10.

In 2003, the city was branded as the most polluted in the country. Since then many changes have been made like introduction of CNG autorickshaws and BRTS. But, the PM10 threat is yet to be addressed effectively. The researchers say that BRTS and its cycle track could hold the key to resolving this issue in future.

Sarath Guttikunda, founder of UrbanEmissions.Info who also developed statistical tools for the project told TOI, "Ahmedabad has a high level of PM10. Here, pollution comes from a variety of sources - power plants and brick kilns surrounding the district. We often believe that vehicles moving in immediate surroundings contribute to the pollution in cities. However, a plant or a kiln away from the city can also affect Ahmedabad considering the wind direction."

Guttikunda added, "While Chennai has almost the same size and more industries, sea breeze blows PM10 away from the city, reducing the suspended particulates in the air. Going by the PM10 levels in Ahmedabad, the estimated premature deaths due to pollution is likely to be 4,950 as compared to 3,950 in Chennai."

The Pollutants

The five main pollutants responsible for majority of the health hazards in Indian cities are particulates (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3). According to the study, consequences of exposure to these pollutants range from premature mortality to aggravated morbidity effects such as respiratory problems, asthma, chronic bronchitis and oxygen deficiency in blood.

The Solution

As per the study, the need of the hour is an air quality management plan which looks at a mix of policies to promote public transport, walking and cycling, improve efficiencies of industries, power plants, and brick kilns, and controls dust on the roads, for better air quality in the cities.

The study also highlighted the fact that a better transport system such as BRTS and less dependency on open burning for cooking or waste disposal is expected to reduce pollutants in air. While Ahmedabad emitted 35,100 tons of PM10, it is expected to decrease a bit in a decade and reach to 31,800 in 2020, says the study

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Update: December, 2012

A journal article is now published in the Atmospheric Environment