Assessment of Ambient Air Quality at the Selected Sites of Islamabad, Pakistan (P-0784) (MFN 4876)

Abstract

This study seeks to estimate the emissions of seven pollutants from the operation of motor vehicles within the study area Islamabad. Vehicular gas emission & number of registered vehicles data was collected at different sites in 2001, 2004 and 2013 to compare the situation due to the increase of motor vehicles. Noise pollution data was collected from selected sites of the study area in 2014. The study reveals that the ambient air quality was under permissible level from 2001 to 2004 due to less number of registered vehicle in Islamabad but increased beyond the permissible limits of US EPA in 2013. The concentration of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) that is 40.5 ppb and sulfur dioxide (SO2 ) that is 42.6 ppb were found under permissible limits (53 ppb US EPA) . The concentration of all other gases, total suspended particles and noise were found quite high than the permissible limit of US EPA. The concentration was also find high at Pirwadai, I-9 and Faizabad sites. TSP was much higher than the permissible limit of US EPA (26 ug/m) at Bahria University and G-9 Markaz that was measured 608 ug/m and 763 ug/m respectively. Noise level at Faizabad and Pirwadai was much higher than the maximum permissible noise level of 85 dB admissible under NEQS for motor vehicle noise. The day average of the noise level was 94.6 dB (low) and 101.58 dB (high) at Faizabad site, The day average of the noise level was 89.13 dB (low) and 99.47 dB (high) at Pirwadai site and The day average of the noise level was 78.27 dB (low) and 89.13 dB (high) at GMarkaz site.