Daily Dose of Air Pollution

Saturday, October 09, 2010

CWG Watch: Air Pollution in Delhi - Forecasts on October 9th, 2010

The air quality forecasting system for the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi is now operational and issuing daily reports to inform on the movement of the criteria pollutants in the city. This blog is now dedicated to support delivery of this information for the next two weeks to support the Commonwealth Games activities in Delhi, 2010. Page is updated every morning with forecast information for that day and next day (48 hrs).

Among many results available for the public to view, access to the animations of hourly concentrations for the individual pollutants for a period of 48 hours is here. These are not archived - latest is animated here.

For the Commonwealth Games venues, click on the dates to access the forecast information for today (October 9th) and tomorrow (October 10th).

The above maps indicate the Air Quality Index (AQI) at the CWG venues, as a forecast from the models. Details on the modeling architecture and the system are available here.

Results from Previous day (October 8th, 2010).

Press coverage on air pollution in Delhi.

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Modeling team for this project is Aria Technologies SA and Leosphere SA (both from Paris, France). They have previously developed similar systems for the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 and the Turin Winter Olympic Games 2006, and have started working with the city of Rio de Janeiro, in preparation for the Olympic Games 2016.

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Current air pollution levels at Delhi's four monitoring stations operated by CPCB

Full coverage on monitoring by multiple organizations, legislations, inventories, news, and documents related to the Commonwealth Games, is hosted by CAI-Asia
@ "Clean Air for Mega Events"

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In the blog, on air pollution in Delhi

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Articles from SIM-air working paper series on Air Pollution in Delhi

Friday, October 08, 2010

CWG Watch: Air Pollution in Delhi - Forecasts on October 8th, 2010

For the Commonwealth Games venues, click on the dates to access the forecast information for today (October 8th) and tomorrow (October 9th).

The above maps indicate the Air Quality Index (AQI) at the CWG venues, as a forecast from the models. Details on the modeling architecture and the system are available here.

Results from Previous day (October 7th, 2010).

Press coverage on air pollution in Delhi.

***********
Modeling team for this project is Aria Technologies SA and Leosphere SA (both from Paris, France). They have previously developed similar systems for the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 and the Turin Winter Olympic Games 2006, and have started working with the city of Rio de Janeiro, in preparation for the Olympic Games 2016.

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Current air pollution levels at Delhi's four monitoring stations operated by CPCB

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Articles from SIM-air working paper series on Air Pollution in Delhi

Thursday, October 07, 2010

CWG Watch: Air Pollution in Delhi - Forecasts on October 7th, 2010

For the Commonwealth Games venues, click on the dates to access the forecast information for today (October 7th) and tomorrow (October 8th).

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Modeling team for this project is Aria Technologies SA and Leosphere SA (both from Paris, France). They have previously developed similar systems for the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 and the Turin Winter Olympic Games 2006, and have started working with the city of Rio de Janeiro, in preparation for the Olympic Games 2016.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

CWG Watch: Air Pollution in Delhi - Forecasts on October 6th, 2010

For the Commonwealth Games venues, click on the dates to access the forecast information for today (October 6th) and tomorrow (October 7th).

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

CWG Watch: Air Pollution in Delhi - Forecasts on October 5th, 2010

Among many results available for the public to view, access to the animations of hourly concentrations for the individual pollutants for a period of 48 hours is here.

For the Commonwealth Games venues, click on the dates to access the forecast information for today (October 5th) and tomorrow (October 6th).

The above maps indicate the Air Quality Index (AQI) at the CWG venues, as a forecast from the models. Details on the modeling architecture and the system are available here.

Results from Previous day (October 4th, 2010).

Press coverage on air pollution in Delhi.

Modeling team for this project is Aria Technologies SA and Leosphere SA (both from Paris, France). They have previously developed similar systems for the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 and the Turin Winter Olympic Games 2006, and have started working with the city of Rio de Janeiro, in preparation for the Olympic Games 2016.

Monday, October 04, 2010

CWG Watch: Air Pollution in Delhi - Forecasts on October 4th, 2010

For the Commonwealth Games venues, click on the dates to access the forecast for today (October 4th) and tomorrow (October 5th).

The above maps indicate the Air Quality Index (AQI) at the CWG venues, as a forecast from the models. Details on the modeling architecture and the system are available here.

Press coverage on air pollution in Delhi.

Modeling team for this project is Aria Technologies SA and Leosphere SA (both from Paris, France). They have previously developed similar systems for the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 and the Turin Winter Olympic Games 2006, and have started working with the city of Rio de Janeiro, in preparation for the Olympic Games 2016.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Air Pollution Alerts - October 3rd, 2010

News & Information; Every Sunday
(Last on September 26, 2010)

Indian Express, October 4th, 2010
A Great Indian Start to Games.

The New Nation, October 3rd, 2010
Honduran cost efficient stove supported.

Business Standard, October 2nd, 2010
Mobility, not metro.

NDTV, October 1st, 2010
CWG organisers in the past too faced criticism.

Science Daily, September 30th, 2010
Strong Link Between Diabetes and Air Pollution Found in National U.S. Study.

China Dialogue, September 29th, 2010
The ash cloud over China.

ECN, September 29th, 2010
Heavy-emission trucks pollute Beijing.

Times of India, September 29th, 2010
City finally gets two air quality monitoring units.

Science Daily, September 29th, 2010
Tiny Generators Turn Waste Heat Into Power.

Indian Express, September 28th, 2010
Tired of traffic snarls, Gurgaon companies to start early.

Vietnam Net, September 27th, 2010
First urban railway route in Hanoi under construction.

Wall Street Journal, September 27th, 2010
An Overhead View of China’s Pollution.

Citizen Matters, September 27th, 2010
GoK pushing SW Railway for local trains within Bengaluru.

Science Daily, September 26th, 2010
UK's Shipping Emissions Six Times Higher Than Expected.

Science Daily, September 26th, 2010
Electric Cars Hold Greater Promise for Reducing Emissions and Lowering US Oil Imports.

Science Daily, September 24th, 2010
New Map Offers a Global View of Health-Sapping Air Pollution.

NPR, September 23rd, 2010
Pollution Around The World.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Air Pollution in Month of October is Getting Worse - Is Delhi Ready?

For the city of Delhi, an air quality index methodology was proposed and applied for six criteria pollutants - PM10, PM2.5, CO, NOx, SO2, and Ozone and analyzed for trends in the past three years of data. The AQI is reported on a scale of 0 to 500 and subdivided into six colored

bins for easy understanding of the common person and the media. The results are not surprising, but the trends are alarming, given the Commonwealth Games are just around the corner to host. A complete report on the methodology and analysis is available as part of the SIM-air working paper series.

Between July 2006 and July 2010, the health standards are exceeded more often in Delhi than not - only on 37 percent of the days the standards were met, in the form of AQI. Most of often, the worst is observed during the winter months, starting in October and ending some time in February of the next year. The best air quality is often during the monsoon months, when most of the pollution is washed off in rain and the skies are cleaner and clearer.

Over the past four years, the month of October, which is crucial in the coming weeks, to host clean and clear Commonwealth Games, is getting worse. The Figure below presents a summary of the frequency of AQI colors observed for the month of October from 2006 to 2009. The value of 150 is considered threshold value for healthy air.

In Delhi Ready to Host Clean Air Games?

The growing number of vehicles and the demand for urban infrastructure is choking the cities pollution levels. The air quality in Delhi improved in the early 2000's due to a number of interventions, including the large scale conversion of the bus fleet and the 3 wheeler fleet from the conventional gasoline and diesel to compressed natural gas. However, the large increase in the demand for personal transport and construction activities reversed the trends.

A major intervention that Delhi is counting on is the extension of the metro rail system, to shift the motorized transport trends to the metro rail. The expected level of shift is uncertain, which depends on a number of factors, but it will very beneficial as the impact of air pollution on the human health and the ecosystem is increasingly been linked to the growing transport sector.

Following a half day workshop on May 10th, 2010, by Center for Science and Environment, where representatives form the government and academia were present to discuss options to better air quality during the 2010 Commonwealth Games, here is a list of 7 proposed measures

Ensure procurement of buses and re-organization of public transport systems
Advance BRT corridors, and the cycle and pedestrian ways
Advance work on the bypass so that the truck traffic does not enter the city
Take urgent steps for imposing congestion tax for controlling truck traffic within the city and increased parking charges for private cars so that there is restriction on travel
Take steps to restrict private vehicle movement between cities – use of public transport to be encouraged
Advance steps to control pollution from thermal power and industries
Restrict private transport during the Games and take other steps to control pollution as part of contingency planning

While, these measures are more transport centric, city needs to fast implement multi-sectoral solutions to achieve better air during the Games. In case of Beijing, stringent regulations and policy measures were implemented, months in advance, to ensure clean air days before and during the 2008 Olympic Games. However, this remains a challenge in the Delhi authorities. Given that the Delhi Government can neither shut down industries nor stop half their in-use vehicle fleet during the CWG 2010, a series of innovative interventions could be introduced for fast and effective air quality management. Such as

Shut down part of the industries, depending on the meteorological and air quality forecasts (either daily and weekly)
Strict restrictions on garbage burning during the weeks (and after), especially the open burning for heating purposes in the residential areas
One way transport along the major corridors for better flow of the traffic
Some corridors are already dedicated for the movement of the athletes, but similar provisions should be made for passenger travel, which otherwise would result in increase in the congestion levels
Aggressive procurement of buses and incentives to promote the use of bus and metro rail systems
Promote telecommuting where possible, especially along the satellite cities like NOIDA and Gurgaon, which experiences the largest rush hour traffic during the week days
Promote wet sweeping of the all the major roads, at least once in two days to reduce the amount of dust loading and thus reduce the resuspension due to increasing vehicular movement

See the press coverage on air pollution in Delhi.