Aim: To assess air quality of Index (AQI) of any location using real time air quality parameters.
Objective: (i) Inform public regarding overall status of air quality through a summation parameter that is
easy to understand;
(ii) Inform citizens about associated health impacts of air pollution exposure; and
(iii) Rank districts/zones for prioritizing actions based on measure of AQI.
Background:
Air Quality Index (AQI) is a tool for effective communication of air quality status to people can easily
understand and take action. The AQI is used by agencies to communicate to the public how polluted the
air currently is or how polluted it is forecast to become. Public health risks increase as the AQI rises. AQI
is intended to enhance public awareness and involvement in efforts to improve air quality. It transforms
complex air quality data of various pollutants into a single number (index value), nomenclature and colour.
(i) There are six AQI categories, namely Good, Satisfactory, Moderate, Poor, Very Poor, and Severe. Each
of these categories is decided based on ambient concentration values of air pollutants and their likely
health impacts (known as health breakpoints). AQ sub-index and health breakpoints are evolved for eight
pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb) for which short-term (upto 24-hours) National
Ambient Air Quality Standards are prescribed.
(ii) Based on the measured ambient concentrations of a pollutant, sub-index is calculated, which is a linear
function of concentration. The worst sub-index determines the overall AQI.
(iii)All the criteria pollutants may not be monitored at all the locations. Overall AQI is calculated only if
data are available for minimum three pollutants out of which one should necessarily be either PM2.5 or
PM10. Else, data are considered insufficient for calculating AQI. Similarly, a minimum of 16 hours’ data is
considered necessary for calculating subindex.
(iv)Note that AQI is based on 24 hour or 8 hour average pollutant concentration and not on hourly
concentration.
(v) The web-based system designed to provide AQI on real time basis is an automated system that
captures data from monitoring stations on a continuous basis without human intervention, and displays
AQI based on running average values. The near real time AQI based on monitoring data can be found at
https://app.cpcbccr.com.
(vi)AQI categories and health breakpoints for the eight pollutants are as follow:
Air Quality Air Quality Index Protect Your Health
Good 0-50 No health impacts are expected when air quality is
in this range.
Moderate 51-100 Unusually sensitive people should consider limiting
prolonged outdoor exertion.
Unhealthy for 101-150 Active children and adults, and people with
Sensitive Groups respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit
prolonged outdoor exertion.
Unhealthy 151-200 Active children and adults, and people with
respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit
prolonged outdoor exertion, everyone else,
especially children should limit prolonged outdoor
excertion.
Very Unhealthy 201-300 Active children and adults, and people with
(Alert) respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit
prolonged outdoor exertion everyone else,
especially children, should limit outdoor exertion.
Method:
For this experiment near real time AQI based on monitoring data will be procured from CPCB app using
link https://app.cpcbccr.com. Students will record data for 3 weeks and then data will be analyzed to
check the trend analysis.
Results
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Discussion
Conclusion
