Multivariate Statistical Analysis of Atmospheric Dispersion of BTX Compounds at Sanathnagar, Hyderabad.

Abstract

Sanathnagar, located in the centre of Hyderabad city, is taken as a case study to assess the meteorological factors influencing the air quality parameters Benzene, Toluene, Xylene (BTX compounds) and to identify the significant sources of pollution using the interspecies ratios. A data of ten years (2007-2017) from Central Pollution control board (CPCB), Hyderabad, Telangana state is studied. TX compounds coming under Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) were considered as the air quality parameters, seasons as cases and concerning meteorological factors such as Atmospheric Temperature AT (0C), Relative Humidity RH(%), Wind Speed WS (m/s), Wind Direction WD (deg), Sun Radiation SR (w/m2), Barometric Pressure BP (mm/Hg). Multivariate statistical techniques, namely Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Cluster Analysis are used in this study with the help of IBM SPSS 26. The KMO test sampling adequacy found to be higher than 0.5, and the Bartlett test showed lesser value than 0.00, hence proving the results of the analysis are satisfactory. From BTX ratios it was observed that T/B was much higher than one and X/B been minimal value for all seasons indicating traffic pollution as a significant source of ambient air pollution in the study area. On the other hand, the correlation matrix states that a positive correlation between meteorological factors and ambient air quality parameters are as follows: SR- Benzene, Xylene; BP- Toluene; WS- Benzene, Toluene, and Xylene and the factors with a negative correlation on parameters are WD, RH, AT. PCA states that ambient air quality parameters are influenced by meteorological factors such as SR, RH, WS, WD (major influencers) and BP, AT (moderator influencers). Whereas in Cluster Analysis major influencers are WS, AT, RH and moderate are WP, SR, BP respectively. Therefore, PCA and CA results have shown similar trends in the categorization of meteorological influencers.