Ambient air quality status of Jammu city

Abstract

Present study has been taken up to monitor the ambient air quality status of Jammu city. The data for air quality parameters (sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, respirable suspended particulate matter, suspended particulate matter) has been collected for two heavy traffic areas vis. Satwari-Bikram Chowk road (Site-II) and Kunjwani-Narwal Byepass (Site-III) and compared with a reference location with low traffic area i.e. University of Jammu Campus (Site-I), for a period of two years i.e. December 2013- November 2015. Results revealed that sites- II and III recorded higher concentration of all the studied pollutants than Site-I. Further, all the sites registered higher concentrations of all the pollutants during winter season for both the years, while during monsoon season, the levels have been recorded to be least for all the sites. Air quality indices (AQI), computed from the selected data, revealed Sites-II and III to have moderate to severe air quality status whereas light to moderate air quality status have been recorded for Site-I.