Ambient air quality analysis of Kurnool city, India

This study reports the analysis of the ambient air in Kurnool city, Andhra Pradesh State, India employing air quality index (AQI) simplified public information and data interpretation. The frequency of sampling is twice a week with 24 -hourly average concentrations of three major criteria pollutants, viz. Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Carbon monoxide (CO) for the year 2015 (December) to 2016 (November) at four different selected locations in Kurnool city. They are KALLUR Estate (industrial), NANDYAL Check post Junction (City outskirts), RAJ VIHAR Junction (Commercial) and Old bus stand Fort area (Residential). It has been observed that due to various variations in meteorological parameters, concentrations of air pollutants exhibit typical diurnal, weekly and annual cycle’s changes. The AQIs were calculated using IND-AQI procedure. NO2 and SO2 are the primary causes of pollution at Location -1 and Location-2 which canbe attributed to industrial emissions It has been observed that the calculated AQIs values CO fall under “good” and “satisfactory” categories with varying percentages. At present the study shows that pollution is under “Moderately polluted” category. Suitable measures are suggested to improve the situation and prevent further deterioration of the atmospheric conditions.