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Monitoring particulate matter in India: recent trends and future outlook

Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health volume 12, pages 45–58 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Air quality remains a significant environmental health challenge in India, and large sections of the population live in areas with poor ambient air quality. This article presents a summary of the regulatory monitoring landscape in India, and includes a discussion on measurement methods and other available government data on air pollution. Coarse particulate matter (PM10) concentration data from the national regulatory monitoring network for 12 years (2004–2015) were systematically analyzed to determine broad trends. Less than 1% of all PM10 measurements (11 out of 4789) were found to meet the annual average WHO Air Quality Guideline (20 μg/m3), while 19% of the locations were in compliance with the Indian air quality standards for PM10 (60 μg/m3). Further efforts are necessary to improve measurement coverage and quality including the use of hybrid monitoring systems, harmonized approaches for sampling and data analysis, and easier data accessibility.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by NSF SRN# 1444745 & NSF PIRE Grant #1243535. Cesunica E. Ivey at UC-Riverside and James Hite at Georgia Tech assisted with data oversight. PM10 dataset used in this analysis is available via e-mail (pallavipnt@gmail.com).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, 686 North Pleasant St, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Pallavi Pant & Richard E. Peltier

  2. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Raj M. Lal & Armistead G. Russell

  3. Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 225 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV, 89512, USA

    Sarath K. Guttikunda

  4. UrbanEmissions.Info, New Delhi, India

    Sarath K. Guttikunda

  5. Center for Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Ajay S. Nagpure & Anu Ramaswami

Authors
  1. Pallavi Pant
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  2. Raj M. Lal
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  3. Sarath K. Guttikunda
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  4. Armistead G. Russell
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  6. Anu Ramaswami
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  7. Richard E. Peltier
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Correspondence to Pallavi Pant.

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Conflicts of interest

Dr. Sarath Guttikunda is one of the founders of Urban Emissions, organization releasing air quality forecasts for Indian districts on an open-access platform.

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Pant, P., Lal, R.M., Guttikunda, S.K. et al. Monitoring particulate matter in India: recent trends and future outlook. Air Qual Atmos Health 12, 45–58 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-018-0629-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-018-0629-6

Keywords

  • India
  • Air quality monitoring
  • Air pollution policy
  • WHO Air Quality Guidelines
  • PM10
  • PM2.5