Air quality assessment of Jaipur city Rajasthan after the COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

In the whole world, most of the air polluted cities were normalized during the COVID-19 lockdown but after the lockdown, the air pollution is continuously increasing day by day. In the present study, we assessed the air quality at the selected sites of Jaipur city after the COVID-19 lockdown from October 2020 to February 2021 to quantify the enhancement in air pollution. The obtained data was processed using air quality index (AQI), principal component analysis (PCA) and pearson correlation matric (PCM). The obtained data were also compared with National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Values of particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5) were found beyond the limits of NAAQS (100 µg/m3, 60 µg/m3) while the values of gaseous pollutant such as SO2, NO2, and CO was found below the limits of NAAQS (80 µg/m3, 80 µg/m3, 4.0 mg/m3). Based on AQI, air quality of site 1 (114.80) and site 2 (110.48) was found severely polluted while air quality of site 3 (70.47) was found moderately polluted. Based on PCA, the highest loading factor was declared to PM10 and the lowest loading factor was SO2. The study concludes that by adopting the control measures of particulate matter and periodical transport lockdown, air pollution can be minimised.