Air Pollution Mapping and Quality Assessment Study at an Urban Area Tirupati Using GIS - Management of Natural Resources in a Changing Environment - page 238

Air Pollution Mapping and Quality
Assessment Study at an Urban Area
Tirupati Using GIS

M. Praveen Kumar , S. Venkata Mohan , and S. Jayarama Reddy

Introduction

The study of particulate air pollution is interesting for a number of reasons; they
involve radiation budget, chemical deposition budget, effects on human health,
effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (Bodhaine 1983 ; Nriagu and Davidson
1986 ; Fenger 1999 ; Riga-Karandinos and Saitanis 2005 ). Particulate air pollution is
a complex mixture of small and large particles of varying size and chemical compo-
sition (Stanier et al. 2004 ). Health and environmental effects of particulate air
pollution strongly depend on their size and chemical composition (Wichmann and
Peters 2000 ; Cakmak et al. 2007 ; Kappos et al. 2004 ). Many processes like solar
radiation, cloud-aerosol interaction and biosphere impacts are determined by size
resolved chemical composition (Meszaros et al. 1997 ). The characteristics and
distribution of particulate air pollution are highly variable, changing spatially, tem-
porally and with altitude and source (Ulrich 2005 ). Particulate matter is introduced
into the atmosphere through a variety of processes including sea-salt aerosol
generation, structural weathering, biologically or physically mediated volatilization,
volcanism, biomass burning, fossil fuel combustion, industrial activity and incineration
(Nriagu 1989 ). Particulate air pollution presents a formidable challenge to theoretical
as well as experimental chemists and physicists (Kvetoslav 2000 ) and they consist
of both inorganic and organic components. The inorganic part of ambient aerosols
consists of sulfates, ammonium, nitrates, chlorides, iodides, crustal elements,