Air Quality: Status And Classification Of Cities Based On Indicators

1. Air Quality: Status And Classification Of Cities Based On Indicators 8h December, 2004 at BAQ-2004, Agra T S Panwar & Sumit Sharma TERI, New Delhi

2. Causal Factors • Increase in Urban Population (1991-2001) • Urban agglomerates : 23 to 35 cities • Urban Population : 218 to 285 million • % Share : 25.7 to 27.8% • Increase in Vehicles • Total vehicles(2002) : 59 million • Personal vehicles : 83% • Industrial Activity • Out of 2155 industries, 1877 have provided pollution control equipments, 225 are closed & 53 are still defaulting • Small-scale sector is poorly equipped to handle the pollution & many of them are located in densely populated areas. • Power generation • Poor quality coal • Domestic and commercial sources • Use of polluting fuels like coal, biomass, etc. in slums • Use of DG sets due to frequent power cuts

3. Ambient Air Quality Monitoring • NAMP- National Air Monitoring Program (CPCB) comprises of 295 stations covering 98 cities/towns. 4 criteria air pollutants viz. SO2, NOX, SPM and RSPM are regularly monitored. CONTENTS • Ambient AQ status & trend analysis of selected cities (27) for the period 1998-2002 • Urban agglomerates • Other smaller cities • Industrial cities • Indicator analysis: Ambient AQ status of all cities (77) for which data is available during 1998-2002 • Air Quality Index • Exceedence Indicator

4. Categorization • Urban agglomerates- Top 10 urban agglomerates based on 2001 census data that are the most urbanized and highly populated cities of the country: Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Kanpur, Ahmedabad & Surat.   • Other smaller cities- Other important cities, which are less populated & urbanised than the above category. Chandigarh, Dehradun, Faridabad, Howrah, Baroda, Mysore, Cochin, Bhopal, Jaipur, Shimla & Agra. • Industrial cities- Cities exhibiting high degree of industrialization. Talcher, Dhanbad, Jharia, Kota, Anpara & Gajroula.

5. Status- Urban Agglomerates

6. Status- Urban Agglomerates

7. Status- Smaller Cities

8. Status- Smaller Cities

9. Industrial Cites

10. Industrial Cities

11. Trends- Urban Agglomerates

12. Air Quality Index 0-25 Clean Air 26-50 Light Air Pollution 51-75 Moderate Air Pollution 76-100 Heavy Air Pollution >100 Severe Air Pollution

13. Air Quality Index. Classification of cities as per AQI-2002 Severe Pollution – Jodhpur, Agra, Kanpur, Alwar, Kolkata, Anpara, Lucknow, Dehradoon, Pune, Delhi, Raipur, Faridabad, Rajkot, Gajraula, Sindri, Gobindgarh, Solapur, Howrah, Varanasi, Jamshedpur, Yamuna Nagar, Jamnagar, Jharia Heavy Pollution- Ahmedabad, Baroda, Bhilai, Chandigarh, Chandrapur, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kota, Patna, Surat, Udaipur, Vapi Moderate Pollution-Nagpur, Angul, Nasik, Ankleshwar, Panaji, Bangalore, Paonta Sahib, Chennai, Parwanoo, Coimbatore, Rourkela, Damtal, Talcher, Guwahati, Vasco, Hyderabad, Vishakapatnam, Korba, Madurai, Mumbai, Mysore Low Pollution-Cochin, Haldia, Khozikode, Shillong, Pallakad, Pondicherry, Raygada, Salem, Tuticorin Clean Air-??

14. SO2 NOx SPM Exceedence Indicator

15. Conclusions • Despite many measures taken in recent years, urban AQ still remains a serious cause for concern. • SPM & RSPM concentrations are alarmingly high in many cities. % of monitoring stations violating the respective area-wise annual average standards for SPM have gone up from 49% in 1998 to 55% in 2002. Overall in 2002, 83% of the cities violated the residential area AQ standard for SPM. • % of cities in the “severe” and “heavy” air quality index categories, have increased from 50 to 53% during the period 1998-2002. In 2002, 35 cities fall under “severe” and “heavy” air quality index categories. • The air quality trend analysis for various pollutants does not indicate any significant improvement. • Thus, besides consolidating the ongoing programmes, new initiatives need to be formulated for tackling air pollution.