Air Quality panel tasks agencies to develop tool for targeted pollution control

The Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and adjoining areas has commissioned the development of a Decision Support System tool to capture the nature and source of emissions in the region for interventions to control them.

“This tool will help immensely in capturing the static and dynamic features of the emissions from various sources. It will have an integrated framework to handle both primary and secondary pollutants using [a] chemical transport model. The system will also be able to handle the source-specific interventions with the framework to estimate benefits of interventions,” the Commission said in a statement on Friday.

The tool will integrate an emissions inventory development application and database. The sources of emissions covered will include industries, transport, power plants, residential, road dust, agricultural burning, refuse burning, construction dust, ammonia, volatile organic compounds, landfills, etc.

The interventions suggested by the tool can be implemented by the pollution control boards and its implementation can be monitored by citizen watch groups and NGOs, the statement said.

India Meteorological Department and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, will forecast air quality using weather models. The Energy and Resources Institute will develop a fine resolution emission inventory. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute will develop short- and long-term control interventions to identify hotspots. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune, has been assigned the job of integrating the physical, chemical, and engineering aspects of the tool.