A GIS-Based Methodology to Determine Effect of Vehicular Pollution at Ward Level: Case Study of Jaipur City

Abstract

To determine appropriate measures to reduce air pollution in any urban city, the first essential requirement is to estimate the spatial distribution of air pollution parameters in that area. In absence of air monitoring stations, alternative methods are required for the same. In the present work, a GIS-based methodology is presented to estimate the level of NO2 based on the road density of the road network of different categories of roads. Road network GIS layer and measured levels of the average value of NO2 for the year 2019 at 12 air pollution monitoring stations of Jaipur city are used to develop a large number of possible linear regression models for estimation of NO2 values based on road density values. Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and adjusted r2 values are used to evaluate and arrive at the best-fitted model. Values from the cities of Jodhpur and Kota are used to validate the model. Using this model, NO2 levels are determined at 91 wards of Jaipur city and the output is compared with the similar map derived based on interpolation of NO2 values at the 12 monitoring stations. It is concluded that the methodology developed in this study generates better estimates of NO2 at the ward levels.