Significant change in air quality parameters during the year 2020 over 1st smart city of India: Bhubaneswar

Saroj Kumar Sahu; Bhishma Tyagi; Gufran Beig; Poonam Mangaraj; Chinmay Pradhan; Shilpa Khuntia; Vikas Singh

doi:10.1007/s42452-020-03831-7

Significant change in air quality parameters during the year 2020 over 1st smart city of India: Bhubaneswar

SN Appl Sci. 2020;2(12):1990. doi: 10.1007/s42452-020-03831-7. Epub 2020 Nov 12.

Authors

Saroj Kumar Sahu¹, Bhishma Tyagi², Gufran Beig³, Poonam Mangaraj¹, Chinmay Pradhan¹, Shilpa Khuntia¹, Vikas Singh⁴

Affiliations

¹ P.G. Environment Sciences, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India.
² Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela, India.
³ Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India.
⁴ National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Tirupati, India.

Abstract

Prevention of Coronavirus results in lockdown in India from 24 March 2020 to 31 May 2020. Eastern India, which is having a dense cluster of coal-fired power plants and home to many mines, mineral industries, has not shutdown power plants and coal mines during this lockdown period, though other industrial and vehicular emissions were almost zero. The present study attempts to find the change in various atmospheric pollutants during this lockdown period over an eastern tropical Indian station-Bhubaneswar, which is the first smart city proposed in smart city mission of Government of India. The study analyses hourly concentrations of PM_2.5, PM₁₀, NO _X , O₃, and CO for March-May 2019 and 2020. The study shows a significant increase (rather than decrease) in PM_2.5 and PM₁₀, increase in O₃ and a decrease in CO and NO _X during the lockdown period. Results are advocating the impact of transported pollution over the study area for maintaining the PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ values even during the lockdown situation.

Keywords: Air pollution; Nitrogen dioxide; Particulate matter; Sulphur dioxide.