Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

In recent years, severe pollution events occurred frequently in India, which are of significant concern of the public. However, limited studies have been conducted to understand the formation, sources and health effects of high pollution levels and the information for design of effective control strategies is urgently needed. First, criteria air pollutants data at 10 sites for 2017 in Delhi were analyzed to understand the current pollution status. The results show that annual fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations exceeded the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), India of 60 µg/m3 at all sites. Source-oriented versions of the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model will be applied to quantify the contributions of eight source types (energy, industry, residential, on-road, off-road, agriculture, open burning and dust) to PM2.5 and its major components including primary PM (PPM) and secondary inorganic aerosol (SIA) in India in 2015. Anthropogenic emissions are from Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), biogenic emissions are from the Model for Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN) v2.1, and meteorology factors are from the simulation of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Concentrations of PM2.5 are highest in the Indo-Gangetic region, including northern and eastern India. In Delhi, industry and residential activities contribute to 80% of total PM2.5. Then, the health risks were estimated based on the predicted PM2.5 concentrations and the air quality benefits from potential policy interventions in future were analyzed. Premature mortality due to cerebrovascular disease (CEV) was the highest in India (0.44 million), followed by ischaemic heart disease (IHD, 0.40 million), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, 0.18 million) and lung cancer (LC, 0.01 million), with a total of 1.04 million deaths. A total of up to 0.68 million premature mortality and 43% years of life lost (YLL) would be avoided by applying all controlling strategies.

Date

2-4-2019

Committee Chair

Zhang, Hongliang

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.4806

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