Vehicular Pollution and Its Relationship with Meteorological Variables at Toll Plaza During Paryaya Festival in Udupi, Karnataka

Abstract

The quantification of both air pollutants and noise is important to understand the impact of festival on pollution at toll plaza. Toll plazas can cause deterioration of air quality due to increased emission of pollutants caused by stop and go process. The present study was conducted at a toll plaza in front of National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, which is 39 kms from Udupi, Karnataka, to assess the impact of vehicular movement due to Paryaya festival, which was on the third week of January 2020 at Udupi, on noise and air pollution at study area. Data regarding meteorological parameters and traffic volume were also considered during the study. Experiments were carried out at toll plaza for one week, including pre- and post-festival days. In this study, a spearman correlation matrix between air pollutants and meteorological parameters (temperature, pressure, precipitable water content, relative humidity, and wind speed) were also investigated. The concentration of air pollutants (TSPM, SO<inf>2</inf>, CO<inf>2</inf>) and noise were more on the day of festival as the number of vehicles plying on the road was higher in number. Maximum positive correlation was observed between concentration of CO and precipitable water content (Ï â€‰= 0.900) and minimum between SO<inf>2</inf> and precipitable water content (Ï â€‰= 0.000). Precipitable water content was positively correlated with all air pollutants (TSPM, NO<inf>2</inf>, CO, and CO<inf>2</inf>), and no correlation was observed with SO<inf>2</inf>. The results show the impact of increase in vehicular movement due to festival on the quality of ambient air and role of meteorology on urban air pollution. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.