Resources – Air Qualityfeatured
We went through many papers and reports in preparing our InfoCapsule “How can we breathe cleaner air?” Here is list of some of them in case you want to dwell deeper into the topic.
Overall picture
1. Without a doubt, the place to start is our InfoCapsule. Here is the link
http://bit.ly/AHIonAirPollution
2. This is an excellent place for understanding many different aspects of Air Pollution
http://www.urbanemissions.info/
Health Effects of pollution
3. The report from WHO, “Health Effects of Particulate Matter” is very readable and informative. Do note that the report is primarily for Europe where the PM levels are much lower than in India
4. In 2015, the Ministry of health and Family Welfare came up with a report on health effects of pollution. The report is also a good source for understanding different sources of pollution. The report title is “Report of the Steering Committee on Air Pollution and Health Related Issues.” The report can be found at various place including
http://ehsdiv.sph.berkeley.edu/krsmith/publications/2015/MoHFW%20AP%20Steering%20Com.pdf
Recommended maximum pollution levels
5. The WHO document referenced above gives the Air Quality Guideline (AQG) from WHO. The Indian levels can be found in a notification from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) – National Air Quality Standards
http://www.moef.nic.in/sites/default/files/notification/Recved%20national.pdf
Actual pollution levels
Figuring out the best time to go for a walk? Look at the real time data from stations near you. For policy data, look at aggregates.
6. Many agencies report pollution levels at a point of time. The most authoritative source is CPCB
http://www.cpcb.gov.in/CAAQM/mapPage/frmindiamap.aspx
7. SAFAR also has measuring stations in four cities. If you live in one of those cities, you may want to check this out
http://safar.tropmet.res.in/
8. Indiaspend has installed measuring devices in many cities. Their on-line output can be found here.
http://api.indiaspend.org/dashboard/?utm_source=hashtags360.com
9. We weren’t able to get a good resource for getting yearly averages and number of days the pollution levels crossed limits. This data is needed for policy understanding, this is an exception. However this is not measured data but inferred from satellite observations.
http://www.urbanemissions.info/india-satpm25/
10. Urbanemissions.info has a summary page drawing on real time data from various sources
http://www.indiaairquality.info/ambient-monitoring-data/
11. Urbanemissions.info recently came out with pollution estimates and their attribution to different sources for 20 cities. The estimates can be found here.
http://www.urbanemissions.info/wp-content/uploads/apna/docs/apna_program_summary_booklet.pdf
12. OpenAQ.org collects and stores all real time data from all over the world. If you are looking to get yearly averages for a particular station, this is the place to start.
13. You can use the Excel sheet made by AskHowIndia.org to process the above raw data. The sheet can be found here
https://goo.gl/gzo1av
Attribution studies
14. What are the major contributions to pollution? How is this determined? This is a good place to start and to get links to 4 studies done on Delhi pollution.
http://www.urbanemissions.info/blog-pieces/whats-polluting-delhis-air/
15. For 20 other cities in India, this is a good link. Please also see the fact sheets for individual cities.
http://www.urbanemissions.info/wp-content/uploads/apna/docs/apna_program_summary_booklet.pdf
Other links
16. The Graded Action Response Plan from CPCB submitted to the honorable Supreme Court can be found here
http://cpcb.nic.in/graded-response-action-plan-for-delhi-ncr/
Note: The links on this page are not maintained. In case of broken links use keyword searches to locate the correct link.