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Abstract
Remote Sensing and GIS as an Information Technology for Air Quality Status Planning  Er. V.K. Gupta Project Fellow, “Road Traffic Safety”, Sponsored by AICTE, Institute of Engineering & Technology, Sitapur Road Lucknow-226021, (India), Tel: (05180)227154 (R) e-mail: vimalgupta_gupta@yahoo.com Dr. I.C. Agrawal Director & Professor of Civil Engg., Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad- 211004, (India), Tel: (0532)2445100 (O), 2540228 (R), Fax: (0532) 2445101 e-mail: icamnrec@rediffmail.com Dr. R.D. Gupta Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Civil Engg., Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad- 211004, (India), Tel: (0532) 2645505 (R) e-mail: gupta_rd@rediffmail.com Abstract High air pollution load in terms of particulate matter, sulphure dioxide and nitrogen dioxide etc has been observed from the rapidly urbanized cities. This is the most issuing problem for environmental planners/scientists. In China, Beijing, Shenyang and Xian are the cities among the world’s top 10 air polluted city. WHO ranks Delhi as the air quality index of class IV and tenth air polluted city in the world. Environmental impacts of these air pollutants are in terms of public health, vegetation, material deterioration etc. It has been estimated that an average of 7,500 people die every year in the capital of India (i.e. Delhi) from inhaling noxious vehicle emissions and fumes from factories. Air pollution kills another 32,000 people annually in six other Indian cities. In Bangkok, where the air is thick with poisonous carbon monoxide and lead, over 1 million people are reportedly suffering from pollution related allergies and lung ailments. Therefore more efficient and cost effective approach towards continuous improvement of air quality status planning is desirable. The conventional approach of air quality status planning is generally being achieved within four phases, namely, monitoring, modelling, development of decisions by planner and finally by execution. Monitoring of air pollution is being achieved by the three mechanisms, namely, integrative sampling, grab sampling and passive sampling. For the future prediction of these air pollutants, design and implementation of policies as well as monitoring and management to restore air quality, various models such as ISCST, AERMOD, SCREEN, and CALINE are being used worldwide. ISCST 3 for estimating near field concentrations of non-reactive pollutant, AERMOD for regulatory purposes, SCREEN 3 for the determination of whether more refined analysis is required or not and CALINE 4 for dispersion of air pollutants from the highway network. Previous studies show that the conventional approaches to assess the pollution level are not efficient towards contact measurement, integrated path measurement, simultaneous analysis, fenceline and flux measurement. It also does not efficient towards global measurement. Since monitoring/data collection plays the major role in air quality status planning, therefore more accuracy is desirable. These efficiencies may be improved by the emerging technologies of remote sensing. It has been found that remote sensing air monitoring equipments have the capability to assess the air pollution status in the desired area which may be more beneficial for air quality status planning. The Conventional air pollution models in which prediction is in terms of various parameters such as meteorology, traffic volume, developmental status, etc provide the predicted data in terms of non spatial records. These records are being used by the environmental planners for any decision to implement the policies. The difficulties to judge any decision towards the continuous improvement of air quality status by these non spatial records has been observed. Geographic Information System (GIS) may be used to help among the environmentalists, planners and scientists for the better, efficient and cost effective approach towards air quality status planning by the use of spatial records. Conclusions has been drawn out from the present work that the air monitoring may be improved by the use of instrument based on remote sensing technique. Meteorological parameters may be assessed by the Radar Wind Profiler, Dopler Sodar and RASS (Radio Acoustic Sounding System). Particulate monitoring may be assessed by the LAPS (Lidar Atmospheric Profile Sensor) instrument. Gaseous monitoring may be improved by the use of various available instruments such as LIDAR, DIAL, DOAS, FTIR, OPUV and TILDAS. The records of these air monitoring may be geographically recombined by the GIS techniques. For efficient, cost effective and continuous improvements of air quality status GIS based modelling may be applied. The detail of these methodologies and critical review of remote sensing air monitoring instruments will be discussed in the full text of paper. Finally suitable recommendations have been proposed for achieving efficient and reliable air quality status planning. |