Govt signs MoU with Washington University to conduct study

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 7

The Delhi government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Washington University (St Louise) to undertake a Real Time Source Apportionment Study in India’s national capital jointly with the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to evaluate the air quality issues.

The study will help in real-time identification of distribution of sources of air pollution (with special reference to PM 2.5) to enable the government design its action plan to combat air pollution in the national capital. Analysis of elemental, organic carbon and 72 inorganic elements will also be undertaken.

It will help in identification of pollutants, factors affecting the quantities of emissions of various pollutants from different sources and their extent of contribution to the city’s declining air quality throughout a year. This, in turn, will enable the government in framing policies for air pollution control.

The duration of the project is 18 months and work will be undertaken by the personnel of the Aerosol and Air Quality Research Laboratory.

Under the project, real time monitoring and sampling of the particulate matter PM 1, 2.5 and 10 will be done and two speciation monitors will be used for obtaining composition of PM2.5.

The study aims to identify sources of the respective particulate matter based on a real-time algorithm with the help of deployed wireless sensors and data analysis.