Samrat Santra, Aditya Kumar Patra, Arpan Chakraborty, Abhishek Penchala

Abstract:

This study targets on ozone (O3) pollution resulting from road traffic in India (special focus on National Highway 16 or NH-16 and its nearby areas), where diesel and petrol are major fuels used for transportation system which are major contributors to O3 forming precursors such as NOx and VOC emissions. Ozone concentration was measured by using a Serinus 10 ozone analyser and weather parameters was measured by a portable weather station Kestrel 5500. Analysis revealed that the higher traffic volume correlates negatively (r = -0.87) with lower O3 levels during morning and evening whereas lower traffic volume is associated with higher O3 levels during afternoon. Traffic was manually counted and classified. Using Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), O3 concentration levels are predicted along NH-16 in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. The MLR model performance is assessed by R-squared, and F-test, along with AIC and BIC tests which are evidencing that MLR is the most suitable model, accurately predicting O3 pollution levels. The study explores that the 8-h average O3 concentrations (117.25 µg m-3) measured along the NH-16 has exceed NAAQS 2009 (100 µg m-3) and WHO 2021 (100 µg m-3) prescribed standards. South-east (SE) winds with moderate speeds (0.5 – 1.5 ms-1) were elevating O3 levels in the study regions. As the direction of wind change, transport of pollutants was occurring away from the traffic area to nearby rural areas along the NH-16. O3 levels for 8-h period were also high in nearby rural areas (112.56 µg m-3). Study tells that an urgent action is needed, including comprehensive O3 pollution assessment on all India's national highways and implementation of new policies to mitigate O3 pollution across NHs all over India.

Keywords: Ozone, Meteorology, Traffic, Regression, NH-16.

Date Published: June 6, 2024
DOI: 10.11159/ijepr.2024.002

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