INFLUENCE OF HIGHWAY TRAFFIC ON INTENSITY OF CARBON MONOXIDE IN AMBIENT AIR

Abstract

The impact of vehicular emissions on urban air pollution has caused increasing public attention. Originally urban air pollution was considered as a local problem mainly associated with domestic heating and industrial emissions, which are now controllable to a great extent. Despite significant improvements in fuel and engine technology, present day urban environment are mostly dominated by traffic emissions. It is now generally recognised that many of substances directly emitted by vehicles in the ambient air represent a serious hazard for human health. Transportation and environmental engineers are jointly responsible for he studies related to air pollution like, assessment of air quality, calibrations of models available elsewhere and for developing models for prediction of air quality In he present study, an attempt was made to measure carbon monoxide levels in ambient air adjacent to National Highway in the suburban aree of New Delhi. Traffic data was also collected simultaneously for duration of 24 hours on a normal working day. CO intensities were analysed over different times of the day and compared with the threshold limits. A linear regression model was developed to predict the CO levels in ambient air as function of traffic parameters.