Quantifying the high resolution seasonal emission of air pollutants from crop residue burning in India

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) 2021-10, Vol.286, p.117165-117165, Article 117165
• Main Authors: Sahu, Saroj Kumar, Mangaraj, Poonam, Beig, Gufran, Samal, Anuja, Chinmay Pradhan, Dash, Swetaleena, Tyagi, Bhishma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air pollutants; Climate agents; Crop residue burning; Emission hotspots; Seasonal variability
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117165

Biomass burning, a recurring global phenomenon is also considered an environmental menace, making headlines every year in India with onset of autumn months. Agriculture is demographically the broadest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic fabric of India. Hence, disposal of crop residue is done mainly by burning leading to deterioration of air quality. Residue burning in parts of India is blamed for changing air quality in nearby cities. The spatial distribution of these emissions has always been a challenge due to various data constraints. We hereby present a comprehensive spatially resolved seasonal high resolution gridded (∼10 km × ∼10 km) emission inventory of major pollutants from crop residue burning source in India for the latest year 2018. The winter months contributes almost around ∼50% of total emission followed by summer (∼48%), which is the prime cause of changing air quality in nearby cities. Among all the crops; rice, wheat, maize and sugarcane accounts ∼90% of total PM10 load in the country. The estimated emission for PM2.5, PM10, BC and OC, CO, NOx, SO2, VOC, CH4 and CO2 are found to 990.68 Gg/yr, 1231.26 Gg/yr, 123.33 Gg/yr, 410.99 Gg/yr, 11208.18 Gg/yr, 484.55 Gg/yr, 144.66 Gg/yr, 1282.95 Gg/yr, 785.56 Gg/yr and 262051.06 Gg/yr respectively. The cropping pattern and its role in different geographic regions are analysed to identify all potential emission hotspots regions scattered across the country. The developed gridded emissions inventory is envisaged to serve as an important input to regional atmospheric chemistry transport model to better quantify its contribution in deteriorating air quality in various regions of India, paving the way to policy makers to better plan the mitigation and control strategies. The developed fundamental tool is likely to be useful for air quality management. [Display omitted] •The bottom-up approach based gridded emission inventory of PM from residue burning is developed.•The Indo-Gangetic Plain region is identified as emission hotspot due to varying cropping window.•PM2.5 and PM10 crop burning emission are estimated for India as 990.68 Gg/yr and 1231.26 Gg/yr in 2018 respectively.•The maximum emission is found to be generated during winter months (∼50%) followed by summer months (∼48%).•In PM2.5 emission, rice contributes 41% followed by wheat (27%), sugarcane (14%), maize (8%) and coarse cereal (7%).