Vehicular pollution modeling using the operational street pollution model (OSPM) for Chembur, Mumbai (India)

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment 2016-06, Vol.188 (6), p.349-349, Article 349
• Main Authors: Kumar, Awkash, Ketzel, Matthias, Patil, Rashmi S., Dikshit, Anil Kumar, Hertel, Ole
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Air pollution; Air Pollution - analysis; Air quality; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Cities; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecotoxicology; Emission inventories; Emissions; Environment; Environmental assessment; Environmental Management; Environmental monitoring; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Environmental science; Humans; India; Measurement techniques; Megacities; Meteorology; Models, Theoretical; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Outdoor air quality; Particulate matter; Particulate Matter - analysis; Pollutants; Pollution load; Seasons; Suburban areas; Vehicle emissions; Vehicle Emissions - analysis; Vehicles; Winter
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-016-5337-9

Megacities in India such as Mumbai and Delhi are among the most polluted places in the world. In the present study, the widely used operational street pollution model (OSPM) is applied for assessing pollutant loads in the street canyons of Chembur, a suburban area just outside Mumbai city. Chembur is both industrialized and highly congested with vehicles. There are six major street canyons in this area, for which modeling has been carried out for NO x and particulate matter (PM). The vehicle emission factors for Indian cities have been developed by Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) for PM, not specifically for PM 10 or PM 2.5 . The model has been applied for 4 days of winter season and for the whole year to see the difference of effect of meteorology. The urban background concentrations have been obtained from an air quality monitoring station. Results have been compared with measured concentrations from the routine monitoring performed in Mumbai. NO x emissions originate mainly from vehicles which are ground-level sources and are emitting close to where people live. Therefore, those emissions are highly relevant. The modeled NO x concentration compared satisfactorily with observed data. However, this was not the case for PM, most likely because the emission inventory did not contain emission terms due to resuspended particulate matter.