Air Pollution and Health: A Review of Measurement Techniques

Air pollution is one of the significant causes of loss of healthy life years due to illness originating from indoor and outdoor air pollution sources like burning of biomass, vehicular emissions, etc. In the presented study, review of various methods used to assess health risks in terms of mortality and morbidity has been described. The use of precise instruments is essential for monitoring of health determinants causing serious health effects in urban regions. Data obtained from monitoring can be fed into the mathematical models in order to get the overall impact. These models are fed with specific concentration value for specific compounds, and they provide calculated number of population at risk. The main problem in using such models is the inability to calculate health risks for every pollutant. To validate the results obtained from mathematical models surveying needs to be synergies with the results. In air pollution impact assessment studies, public perception is one of the important components which these mathematical models do not incorporate, hence we recommend integrated assessment models for such studies. Perception based surveys generate huge data set and require statistical tools like SPSS, STATA for further analysis. It is essential to carry out exposure assessment studies as well to determine the pollution source and its impact on health in a more holistic way. Knowledge of these factors will help us to take measures to reduce pollutant concentration and recommend alternative solution

Farmer typology to understand differentiated climate change adaptation in Himalaya

Smallholder farmers’ responses to the climate-induced agricultural changes are not uniform but rather diverse, as response adaptation strategies are embedded in the heterogonous agronomic, social, economic, and institutional conditions. There is an urgent need to understand the diversity within the farming households, identify the main drivers and understand its relationship with household adaptation strategies. Typology construction provides an efficient method to understand farmer diversity by delineating groups with common characteristics. In the present study, based in the Uttarakhand state of Indian Western Himalayas, five farmer types were identified on the basis of resource endowment and agriculture orientation characteristics. Factor analysis followed by sequential agglomerative hierarchial and K-means clustering was use to delineate farmer types. Examination of adaptation strategies across the identified farmer types revealed that mostly contrasting and type-specific bundle of strategies are adopted by farmers to ensure livelihood security. Our findings show that strategies that incurred high investment, such as infrastructural development, are limited to high resource-endowed farmers. In contrast, the low resourced farmers reported being progressively disengaging with farming as a livelihood option. Our results suggest that the proponents of effective adaptation policies in the Himalayan region need to be cognizant of the nuances within the farming communities to capture the diverse and multiple adaptation needs and constraints of the farming households. © 2019, The Author(s)

Variations of Surface Ozone levels in Urban area of India: a focus on night-time residual concentrations

This study investigates the existing diurnal as well as night time surface ozone concentration trend over Delhi between 1990 and 2012. Secondary data obtained from the National Data Centre (NDC) of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) was analysed to assess the trend in the surface and night-time ozone concentration. This was further used to forecast the variation in the night-time ozone concentration over the city till 2025. A significantly increasing trend of the night-time ozone concentration was observed between 1990 and 2012 evidenced by a +0.158 value of the Mann Kendall test. Moreover, the forecasting of the variations conducted using the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model revealed that the concentration of night-time ozone is expected to increase between the period of 2013 and 2025 if the current trend continues. This is the first study to conduct a trend analysis of night-time ozone concentration for a duration of three decades in the NCT of Delhi. Considering the negative impacts of elevated levels of ozone on the health status of individuals, agricultural productivity and air quality of the city, the present study highlights that it is imperative to take concentrated actions to curb the release of anthropogenic precursors of surface ozone

Spatial and Temporal Variability of Fog Over the Indo-Gangetic Plains, India

The aim of the paper is to analyze the characteristics of winter fog in terms of its trend and spatial-temporal variability over Indo-Gangetic plains. The study reveals that during last four and half decades (1971-2015), an alarming increasing trend in fog frequency has been observed during the winter months of December and January over the study area. The frequency of fog has increased by 118.4% during the peak winter months of December and January. It has also been observed that on an average central part of IGP has 66.29% fog days followed by west IGP with 41.94% fog days. Further, Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) decomposition and Mann-Kendall variation analysis are used to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of winter fog. The findings have significant implications for the further research of fog over IGP and formulate robust strategies to adapt the fog variability and mitigate its effects. The decision by Delhi Government to implement odd-even scheme to restrict the use of private vehicles in order to reduce pollution and improve quality of air may result in increasing the alarming increasing trend of fog over Delhi and its surrounding areas regions of IGP