Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
trace metals etc. (Murphy et al. 1998 ). The organic component of ambient particles
in both polluted and remote areas is a complex mixture of hundreds of organic
compounds (Reilly et al. 1998 ). Since rapid urbanization and increase in population
in recent years, several researchers have focused on assessment of air pollution
(Praveen Kumar et al. 2005 ; Chandra Mouli et al. 2006 ).
Conventional methods of chemical analysis are not suffi cient for monitoring net-
works or policy makers to assess the impact of urban air pollution. There is growing
need to assess air pollution using new technologies like Geographical Information
System (GIS). GIS technologies provide capabilities to combine multiple data
sources and that allows better understanding to researchers (Kaminska et al. 2004 ).
The development of spatial data management using GIS has created a new era of
environmental modelling (Matejicek 2005 ). The main objective of this paper is
determination of ions in particulate air pollution as well as to study spatial distribu-
tion of these pollutants using GIS, assess the quality of air using National Ambient
Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and to provide valuable data for epidemiological
studies, health risk assessment and monitoring networks to improve air quality.
Data Collection and Processing
The study area, Tirupati region (Fig. 1 ) is located nearby the metropolitan city,
Chennai at a distance of about 145 km in southern peninsular India. Tirupati, a
world famous holy pilgrim place for devotees of Lord Sri Venkateswara is situated
in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh (AP) state at an altitude of 182.9 m (13.050 N
latitude and 79.050 E longitude). Six locations, Shetti Palle (SP), Bhavani Nagar
(BN), Thummalagunta (TG), SVU Campus (SVUC), Gandhi Road (GR) and
Ramanuja Circle (RC), were selected for the collection of total suspended particu-
late matter (TSP). Detail description about sample locations are given in Table 1 .
TSP samples ( n = 24) were collected in summer of May 2006 on a glass fi ber fi lter
Fig. 1
Location map of study area
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