Impact of transport and industrial emissions on the ambient air quality of Lahore City, Pakistan

Abstract

Lahore's population is growing at a rate of 4% a year. It is widely perceived that because of this rapid growth, the level of services provided to the city's 7 million inhabitants has substantially deteriorated. This study presents the finding of ambient air quality monitoring carried out in Lahore City, Pakistan. The ambient air quality was monitored for criteria pollutants carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)), sulfur dioxide (SO(2)), ozone (O(3)), particulate matter (TSP and PM(10)), lead (Pb), and noise level at ten different locations of the city. The sampling locations were selected in a way to draw a representative profile of air quality, covering both newly developed as well as highly congested urban centers. The sulfur dioxide, lead, and suspended particulate concentration was found very high as compared to the ambient air quality standards of US Environmental Protection Agency and WHO guidelines. The 24-h average noise was exceeding the WHO limits at majority of the locations. The study presents the severity of air pollution in Lahore City, and findings would help city management to develop monitoring and mitigation measures to improve the air quality of the city.

Cleaner and Sustainable Energy Production in Pakistan: Lessons Learnt from the Pak-TIMES Model

“…The literature under this study identified that Lahore is the most highly studied city regarding air pollution monitoring and investigation [8,9,11,14,21,32,34,40,[43][44][45][46], followed by Islamabad [2,10,12,17,35,[47][48][49][50][51][52], Karachi [38,39,41,44,53], Peshawar [18,44], Quetta [7], Faisalabad [3], Swat [16], and Wah [13]. A countrywide study pertaining to atmospheric emission was also undertaken by Shahid [15], to investigate seasonal variations of aerosols (sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, organic carbon, black carbon, and PM 2.5 ), and its contributions towards domestic anthropogenic and transboundary transport emissions.…”

“…Moreover, PM is a highly reactive substance and provides a surface area for various heavy metals, thus raising another major concern of inferior air quality and human health [9,12]. Other forms of major atmospheric aerosols species include sulfate (SO 4 2− ), nitrate (NO 3− ), ammonium (NH 4 + ), black carbon (BC), and organic carbon (OC) [13,14]. It has been reported that the concentrations of PM, SO 2 , CO, NO 2 , and Pb in various cities across Pakistan have surpassed the safer limits defined by WHO, except for the O 3 concentration, which is within the WHO limits [1].…”

Source Apportionment of PM10 at an Urban Site of a South Asian Mega City

“…Salam et al (2003) determined trace elements in Dhaka Bangladesh and found that Fe (24800 ng m ) and Zn (3020 ng m -3 ) in PM 10 samples collected from an urban site in Lahore. Ali and Athar (2010) monitored the ambient air quality of Lahore and determined PM10 and Pb levels. The concentration of Pb at different locations of the city was found in the range of 1900 to 7200 ng m -3…”

Spatial and Temporal Variability Analysis of PM2.5 Concentration in Lahore City

“…During last few years, Lahore is engulfed by a disturbing of air quality due to rapid industrial development and urbanization. Increase in number of industries and automobiles, deforestation and crop burnings contributed to this alarming situation in Lahore [4]. Increase in population leads towards the decrease in the natural sources [5].…”