SPATIO TEMPORAL VARIABILITY Of PARTICULATE MATTER AND ASSOCIATED RISK ASSESSMENT FOR KOTA CITY RAJASTHAN INDIA

Abstract

Bad air quality is a prodigious environmental concern globally due to its severe impact newlineon animals, plant life, humans, and property. The educational hub of Rajasthan state of India, newlineKota, an Indian metropolis, has been experiencing a deterioration in air quality for the last few newlineyears. It is a rapid-growing metropolis with more than one million inhabitants. newlineThe primary objectives of this research work are: newline(a) To define air quality in Kota metropolis, Rajasthan (India) through Air Quality Index newline(AQI) and Exceedance Factor (EF) , with the help of four air quality parameters, newlinenamely, SO2, NO2, PM10, and PM2.5, along with the identification of pollutant sources, newlineemission characteristics, topography, and meteorological conditions and lockdown newlinerestrictions newline(b) To determine the spatiotemporal variability of NO2, SO2, PM10 and PM2.5 along with newlineestimating their concentrations at distinct non-monitored locations using ArcGIS based newlinespatial interpolation methods, Ordinary Kriging (OK) and Inverse Distance newlineWeighting (IDW) , and newline(c) To evaluate the human health risk through AirQ+ software and ecological environment newlinerisk through Risk Quotient (RQ) linked with exposure to particulate matter pollution newlinealong with spatial distribution of disease caused by PM10 and PM2.5. A comparison with newlinedifferent regional cities, namely, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ajmer, Pali, Alwar, and Jodhpur, has newlinealso been done for PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations. newlineThe observation period selected for the study is four years, from 1st January 2018 to 31st newlineDecember 2021. Particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are the selected newlineparameter for this study. The annual CPCB standard for PM10, PM2.5, SO2, and NO2 are 60, 40, newline50, and 40 µg/m3, respectively. newline newline