Assessment of Air Quality in Commercial Places of Chennai through Air Quality Index

Abstract

Air quality indices are used for local and regional air quality management in many metro cities of the world. The present investigation was carried out to find the significance of air pollutant concentrations at commercial areas of Chennai. Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM), Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM), Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and Oxides of nitrogen (NOX) were analyzed over two sites namely T.Nagar and Kilpauk in Chennai. Both the sampling stations selected are located in commercial areas. Several concepts and indicators exist to measure and rank the urban areas in terms of their socio-economic infrastructure and environment related parameters. In this paper an air quality index (AQI) considering the combined level of three criteria pollutants (oxides of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, and Respirable suspended particulate matter ) is proposed.