Assessment and Characterization of Air Pollution Due to Vehicular Emission Considering the AQI and LOS of Various Roadways in Kolkata

Abstract

In recent years, rapid urbanization causes a serious effect on human life and its environment. Due to urban air pollution, particularly most of the cities of India are being extremely suffered. Transportation sectors contribute a major share to environmental pollution (around 70%). The rate of emission of harmful gases from vehicles also depends upon traffic use, characteristics, traffic congestion, type of vehicles, manufacturing year, road condition, traffic facility, etc. The most common manual named Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) has developed the capacities standard and Level of Service (LOS) measure for various transportation facilities. The LOS of various roadways decreases due to increasing vehicular congestion, which also affects Air Quality Index (AQI) parameter. This causes the gradual deterioration in the quality of air in the environment. The ministry of environment and forests launched a National Air Quality Index (AQI) which will put out real-time data about level of pollutants in the air considering eight major pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb) and also inform people about possible impacts on health. This paper actually deals with the air pollution considering the AQI and LOS parameters by qualitative analysis using ordered logistic regression method in the study area Kolkata, West Bengal. It represents the categorization similarity as well as the major factors affecting the categorization of the LOS and AQI parameters. The required traffic data were collected for the analysis.