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Chapter – 9
Abstract
Rapid urbanization and industrialization in the city of Mysuru has an effect on the increase in
registration and utilization of motor vehicles. Number of registered vehicles rises gradually at a rate of
20% per year. Highest proportion was found in the number of two-wheelers accounted for about 81%
of total vehicle population. However, air quality status of Mysuru is still in the safe level below the
national standards, especially for SO2 and NO2, while SPM sometimes exceeded the limit. An updated
estimation of automobile emission status has been prepared according to the recent number of
registered vehicles in the district from 2010 to 2015. Mysuru daily contributes about 2 Gg gas and
particulate pollutants consisting of 1.98 Gg CO2, 37.3 Mg CO, 20.6 Mg NOX, 14.5 Mg HC, and 3.2 Mg
PM, or total about 0.08% to the Indian road transport emissions in 2015.
Keywords: air quality status; automobile transportation; land use change; organic air pollutant; road
traffic pollution; vehicular emission
Introduction
Air pollution consists of various compounds with different physical and chemical properties
and these may be generated from natural or anthropogenic sources. Some of the compounds are
harmful to human health as well as to animals and vegetation. They may also have effects on climate,
materials, and economical aspects (Singh and Deswal, 2017). WHO reported air pollution has
contributed to about 3 million and 7 million deaths worldwide in 2010 and 2012, respectively (WHO,
2017; 2013).
WHO focuses on four criteria air pollutants namely nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, and
particulate matter, particularly PM10 and PM2.5 particles (WHO, 2006). The focus on these four major
classical pollutants is nothing but to encourage and to make ease of all countries in conducting routine
monitoring of air quality status. The other pollutants may also have adverse effects. WHO has
evaluated 16 organic and 12 inorganic pollutants that may have risks to the human health (WHO,
2000).
Outdoor air pollution has become major problem in India since it is No. 5 in the country to
cause death. Indian cities today are among the most polluted areas in the world and it is estimated
that outdoor air pollution leads to approximately 670 000 deaths annually (TERI, 2015). Current
revised air quality standards set by Indian Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB, 2011) are too much
higher than the updated values provided in the WHO guidelines (WHO, 2006). Moreover, unlike other
countries, CPCB does not consider data from health-related studies when determining the permissible
limits on air quality standards (Balakrishnan et al., 2011).
The recent growing concern is air pollution due to automobile emissions. The transport
demand in India is now the second largest consumer of energy next to industry. The production and
domestic sales of vehicles is increasing over the year. Number of registered vehicles in India has
gradually increased. Recently, the vehicle population in India reached up to 210 million in 2015
(MRTH, 2017).
Road traffic contributes major share of around 73% towards total CO2 emissions from
transport sector. In Indian roads, CO2 emissions have increased from 208 million tons during 2005 to
391 million tons during 2015 (CPCB, 2010). The man’s contribution to air pollution keeps on
increasing due to industrialization and motorized transportation. There is a need to provide the
continuous, updated information related to vehicular air pollution status, particularly in the city of
Mysuru, hence we proposed this present study.
Geographically, it lies at 76° 46’ E longitude and 12° 8’ N latitude and at elevation of 770 m above
mean sea level. The district has an area spread over 6307 sq km (DCOK, 2014). Mysuru district
administratively incorporates seven taluks namely Mysuru (MYS), Nanjangud (NJG), Tirumakudal
Narsipur (TNP), Hunsur (HSR), Heggadadevan Kote (HDK), Krishanaraja Nagara (KRN), and
Piriyapatna (PRP). In olden days, Mysuru was regarded as one of the cleanest in India. However,
nowadays due to rapid industrialization and commercialization, the pollution level in the city has
started increasing rapidly (Udayashankara et al., 2015).
Most of the residents in the city are delighted that Mysuru now becomes a booming city, but
not many people pay attention on transport planning and land use management. As population
increased and residential area is being decentralized, the land use of Mysuru region has changed
dramatically (Harish, 2013; 2012). Similarly, the use of private-owned vehicles was increasing
significantly due to the effect of high consumerism. Moreover, urban people of Mysuru are still
unaware that they are daily exposed to vehicular air pollution and it may cause problem to their health
issues.
In this study, vehicles are differentiated into six categories namely two-wheelers (2W), three-
wheelers (3W), four-wheelers (4W), buses, light commercial vehicles (LCV), and heavy commercial
vehicles (HCV). Emission factors of different compounds were determined according to the different
types of vehicles. The factors were taken as average values of emission factors for Indian vehicles
measured by The Automotive Research of India (ARAI, 2008). Apart from emission factors of five
major conventional compounds namely carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), oxides of
nitrogen (NOX), total hydrocarbon (HC), and particulate matter (PM) that are expressed in g/km,
emission factors of other trace organic compounds like benzene (Bzn), 1,3-butadiene (Btd),
formaldehyde (Fmd), acetaldehyde (Acd), total aldehyde (TAd), and total polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAH) were also measured and expressed in mg/km.
The emission estimates are calculated as per daily period. The distance traveled by vehicles
per a period of time is usually determined by the annual average value of vehicle utilization. For this
purpose, the annual utilization of vehicles should be converted into daily utilization; hence the values
of 17, 92, 35, 274, 173, and 158 km per day are used as assumptions to denote the daily distance
traveled by two-wheelers, three wheelers, four wheelers, buses, LCVs, and HCVs, respectively
(Harish, 2012; Ramachandra and Shwetmala, 2009).
been projected. Figure 1b shows the increasing trend per each decade. The increasing growth of
population number in the existing and future status supporting by the high population density in the
city clearly explains that impacts of urbanization and population booming will become threatening
problem in future for the land use and environmental condition of Mysuru area.
highest contributor of automobile emissions among all Indian cities, while Bengaluru was the second
at that time (CPCB, 2010).
The recent number of registered vehicles in India was obtained from the Road Transport Year
Book 2015 (MRTH, 2017). By analyzing the data, it can be estimated that pollution load from road
transport sector in all over Karnataka state are measured in the order of 208.56 Gg CO2, 3.23 Gg CO,
2.56 Gg NOX, 841.41 Mg HC, and 358.84 Mg PM, or total 216 Gg air pollutants per day, whereas in all
over India are measured in the order of 2.64 Tg CO2, 42.48 Gg CO, 32.23 Gg NOX, 11.35 Gg HC, and
4.61 Gg PM, or total 2.73 Tg air pollutants per day. By the current status obtained from the findings of
this study, it may be stated that Mysuru contributed roughly 0.08% to the Indian road transport
emissions and 0.95% to the road transport emissions in Karnataka state.
Conclusion
Annual average measurement of air pollutants including SO2, NO2, and PM conducted in the
industrial and commercial area of Mysuru city showed values within the national ambient air quality
standards, except for the PM quality that at some events approaching or even exceeding the
permissible limits. The concentration of pollutants varies with season, outdoor temperature, wind
speed, vehicular density, industrial and commercial activities, etc. Since there is still a probable
increase in urbanization, industrialization, and motorized transportation that may contribute towards
the emissions of pollutants, it is recommended for the local environmental authority to apply a stricter
air quality standard, especially for the PM, and to include more number of toxic organic and inorganic
pollutants to the list.
The study shows that the current growth of automobile number and emissions in Mysuru city
threatens the ambient air quality, especially the PM status. The outcome of the study confirmed that
diesel commercial vehicles are the biggest contributor to the emission of pollutants to the ambient air.
The vehicles’ emission factors, types of fuel, daily utilization of vehicles, and traffic density are among
the contributing factors to affect the quantity of emissions. There is also an ever increasing use of
personalized vehicles among the city residents. Therefore, an immediate proper planning in the
transportation system and reduction of air pollution emission should be taken to avoid the further
effects on the health status of the residents in the city.
Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and the Road
Transport Office (RTO) Mysuru for providing air quality and vehicle registration data, respectively.
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1.4 3.0
Millions
Millions
0.0 0.0
MYS NJG TNP HSR HDK KRN PRP 2001 2011 2021 2031 2041
(a) (b)
Fig. 1. (a) Number of population in different taluks of Mysuru district as per 2011 census and (b) its projection up
to 2041 calculated by using trend method.
Table 1. Number of different types of vehicles registered in Mysuru district from 2010 to 2015.
Vehicle Total
2W 3W 4W Bus LCV HCV
type number
2010 25 891 296 5 873 207 799 316 33 381
2011 41 376 689 7 096 193 1 402 1 187 51 943
2012 46 876 550 8 191 353 1 655 1 399 59 024
2013 51 092 543 7 770 259 1 463 1 403 62 530
2014 61 188 571 8 611 170 1 375 1 542 73 457
2015 64 573 818 8 896 134 1 847 1 446 77 714
Total 290 995 3 466 46 437 1 315 8 541 7 293 358 049
3
Table 2. Annual average of SO2, NO2, and PM10 concentration (µg/m ) in Mysuru.
Table 3. Daily emissions of different compounds released by different types of vehicle in Mysuru district in the year 2015.
Emissions, kg Emissions, g
Total
1,3- Formal- Acetal- Total Total Emissions,
CO HC NOX CO2 PM Benzene kg
Butadiene dehyde dehyde Aldehyde PAH
2W 14 171 9 425 686 139 874 168 121 27 95 54 609 2 802 164 327
4W 2 566 538 691 223 436 68 216 61 28 4 123 206 227 299
Bus 2 101 579 3 315 279 784 335 130 5 28 10 275 559 286 114
LCV 2 982 1 635 2 530 392 454 725 229 139 64 8 117 5 537 400 332
HCV 14 534 1 723 13 293 919 100 1 841 14 14 88 11 127 4 922 950 498
Total 37 273 14 480 20 641 1 981 542 3 186 732 247 311 97 1 452 14 343 2 057 139
oad transport pollution load (metric tons per day) in several Indian cities.
Fig. 2. Road