Crop residue open field burning in Pakistan; multi-year high spatial resolution emission inventory for 2000–2014

Abstract

Over recent years, crop residue burning has become a widely practiced agricultural activity in developing countries due to varying economic and social reasons. To estimate current pollution generation from crop residue burning in Pakistan, an emission inventory was developed based on district level crop production data from 2000 to 2014. Spatial distribution of quantified emissions was achieved by using MODIS Active Fire Data (MOD/MYD14A1) at 1-day temporal and 1 × km spatial resolutions. The fire occurrences were extracted over agricultural land using land cover data provided by European Space Agency/Climate Change Initiative (ESA/CCI) at 300 m spatial resolution for 2000 to 2014. Results show that CO emissions have increased by 40% at an average annual rate of 2.7% from 1.16 Tg in 2000 to 1.63 Tg in 2014 and increase in emissions of CO2, CH4, NMVOCS, N2O, NH3, SO2, NOx, PM2.5, PM10, OC and BC ranged between 37%, to 63% during same period. Spatially, CO emissions were more significant in districts of Punjab and Sindh provinces with intensive agricultural activities as compared to other areas of Pakistan with highest emission grids located in Muzaffargarh, Jafferabad, and Noushahro Feroze districts. Crop residue burning exhibited similar trend with highest emissions in June followed by February and November over 15-year period. The emissions for most of the considered pollutants were comparable to the limited previous studies available. Finally, the study conducted provides better understanding regarding spatial and temporal patterns of crop residue burning across Pakistan and can be utilized for air quality modeling and management with higher accuracy.