Amid all these concerns, the city is looking at: Drones monitor pollution hotspotsin addition to those that spray water to suppress PM2.5. “Drones can help access areas that are difficult to monitor manually, such as crowded urban areas or industrial areas,” says the Director of Air Quality at the Center for Science, Technology and Policy Research, a Bangalore-based think tank. Mr. R. Subramanian, said: However, while these can identify the source of contamination, follow-up and action are required to resolve the problem. “Local officials must observe and enforce changes, such as rerouting traffic or stopping certain polluting activities,” he explains.
Subramanian also emphasized the importance of scaling up pollution forecasting. “Delhi is using SAFAR, an air quality dashboard operated by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorologywhich combines computational models and machine learning to provide three-day forecasts. But extending this predictive capability to 10 days would give authorities more time to take pre-emptive action,” he says.
Even if Delhi’s complex pollution control technology could be refined and made effective, and much effort is needed to achieve this, this would not be possible in areas where air pollution is greater. It doesn’t address the fact that it’s part of the problem. Satellite image from NASA show. A thick blanket of smog currently covers the entire Indo-Gangetic plain, which spans northern India and Pakistan. Contamination affects the entire plains airfield. This airfield is where air flows, accumulates, and moves across states, national borders, and political boundaries. “Efforts to address this issue must go beyond Delhi,” Kumar said.
Professor Sagnik Dey of the Indian Institute of Technology’s Center for Atmospheric Sciences in Delhi says satellite data is shifting the focus from city-centric solutions to regional approaches, which is reflected in India’s National Clean Air Program. It says that there are. “We can now track pollution across the airfield and find that rural areas, particularly in the Indo-Gangetic plains, are just as, if not more, contaminated by biomass burning.” Mr. Day says.
Subramanian suggested that satellite monitoring could go even further. He tracks methane emissions from industrial facilities to identify superemitters, and remotely senses vehicles on the ground to assess tailpipe emissions and identify defective vehicles that need repair or retirement. I hope this technology will be used for this purpose. These interventions, he argues, have the potential to support broader evidence-based policy-making.
“Delhi’s pollution problem cannot be solved by just focusing on the city,” Day added. “We need cooperation between national ministries, national governments, state governments and local governments.” But while data is essential to track progress, regulatory action is needed to solve problems. Mr. Day emphasizes that. There is a huge gap between the efforts of the National Clean Air Program and what needs to be done.
Despite advances in pollution control technology, experts believe that without decisive political action, Delhi’s air quality is unlikely to improve significantly over the next decade. Increasing energy demand, urbanization and industrial growth will only increase the burden in the presence of heavily polluting sectors such as: thermal power generationsteel, and transportation remain poorly regulated. “We already have enough science, data and solutions,” Chanchal says. “What we need is the political will to implement them.”
