Analysis of Ambient Air Quality of Shimla City

Abstract

Air pollution is a matter of grave concern all over the world. The World Health Organization publication as of 16th September, 2014 reported that air pollution is responsible for the loss 7 million lives annually worldwide. A developing country like India has made its own contributions to the existing air pollution problems with its accelerating growth rate in the transportation sector, a booming construction industry, and a growing industrial sector. In this context, numerous research papers and reports have been published about assessment of Ambient Air Quality in metro and tier I cities of India like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune and Bangalore. However for tier II cities like Chandigarh and Shimla, very little literature are available. Hence this project is an attempt to analyze the existing air quality of Shimla by assessing the change in ambient air quality in Shimla for over a decade (2004-2013) in the two monitoring locations, the Ridge and the Old ISBT of Shimla. The pollutants considered in this study are SO2, NOx and PM10 as only these three pollutants were monitored by the Himachal Pradesh Central Pollution Board (HPCPCB) in accordance to the National Air Quality Monitoring Program (NAMP) criteria for stations with minimal air pollution problems.