Ambient Air Quality Management Practices in India And America : A Comparative Study

Abstract:

Recent economic developments in various Asian cities has seen a burgeoning growth in their respective population along with the sharp rise in demand for inter and intra city transportation. City of Hyderabad, India due to its flourishing statue of being an international information technology hub, has almost doubled its population from 3.6 million in 2001 to 7 million in 2004 (Census Bureau of India). Between 2002 and 2007 the city added 700,000 vehicles of all kinds on its roads thereby increasing the air pollution (PM10, PM2.5, NOx, SOx etc.) load by 21% from the 1998 levels (Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board; APPCB,2006). Vehicular pollution has also significantly increased the CO2 emissions thereby further contributing to the existing Green House Gas levels in the atmosphere. The detrimental health impacts of such unsustainable growth are already being felt, with a close to 36% of the population from certain prominent city locations reporting different forms of respiratory disorder. Vehicular air pollution is predominantly affecting the young and working population between 20-40 years (most exposed due to lifestyle reasons) which is of a serious concern (APPCB).
Hyderabad is possibly undergoing a period of growth which had once been witnessed by certain major western cities such as Philadelphia and Pittsburg. These cities due to their massive industrial growth during early 1900s saw a quantum leap in their ambient air pollution levels. This paper is a comparative study between the ambient air quality management practices of these western cities and Hyderabad. It especially tries to understand how these major industrial cities of the west tackled their once polluted ambient air quality. The paper further investigates into the strategies, planning, technologies, institutional arrangements and policies applied by these cities that could be possibly used to arrest the deterioration of the ambient air quality standards of Hyderabad.

Keywords: ambient air quality, Hyderabad, management practice, comparative study