A model-ready emission inventory for crop residue open burning in the context of Nepal

Abstract

Open burning of crop residue is an important source of air pollution which is poorly characterized in South Asia. Currently, the gridded inventory reported by Global Fire Emissions Database for biomass burning including open burning of crop residue are of coarse resolution (0.25° × 0.25°), and may not be appropriate for a simulation for Nepal. This study develops a comprehensive high resolution (1 km × 1 km) gridded model-ready emissions inventory for Nepal to understand the spatial characteristics of air pollutant emissions from open burning. We estimate the national air pollutant emissions from crop residue burned between the years 2003 and 2017. The best available data on agricultural production, residue consumption patterns, agricultural burning parameters and emission factors were derived from secondary sources. The Monte Carlo method was used to estimate uncertainties. The mass of crop residue burned in 2016/17 was 2908 Gg (61–139%), which was 22% of the dry matter generated that year. By multiplying the burned crop residue mass by emission factors, the air pollutant emissions were estimated as 4140 for CO2 (56–144%), 154 for CO (4–196%), 6.5 for CH4 (7–193%), 1.2 for SO2 (60–140%), 24.5 for PM2.5 (30–170%), 8.6 for OC (38–162%), 2.2 for BC (-1-201%), 7 for NOx (54–146%), 22.5 for NMVOC (8–192%) and 2.7 for NH3 (3–197%) in unit of Gg yr−1. More than 80% of air pollutants were generated during the months of February to May from the open burning of crop residue. The findings of this paper indicate that substantial reduction in open field burning would dramatically improve air quality in both the Terai region and other parts of Nepal and help reduce negative health impacts associated with the open burning of residue such as premature deaths, respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disease.