RESEARCH METHODS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

ASSIGNMENT # 1
RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Name: Raja Jamal uddin

Submitted to: Dr. Asad Ghufran

Class: MSES 1st Semester

Registration: 838-FBAS/MSES/S20

Dated: April 13, 2020

Topic:
Exploring the Air Quality of Gilgit City through Ground and Satellite Based
Observations.

Introduction:
Air pollution is the contamination of the indoor or outdoor air by a range of gasses and solids that
modify its natural characteristics. Key health harmful pollutants include particulate matter (PM 2.5
and PM10), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), black carbon (BC), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and
nitrogen oxides (NOx) (WHO. 2018). The complex mixture of gases and particles whose sources
and composition vary spatially and temporally is a serious problem in different countries and
megacities in the world especially where transportation, urbanization and industrialization are
growing more rapidly. Moreover, it has a severe impact towards global warming and jeopardize
to public health issues. The metrological conditions like temperature, wind Speed, wind direction,
relative Humidity plays a crucial role in the ambient air quality by directly and indirectly
emissions, formation, transport and deposition of different air pollutants (Zhang et al., 2015).

Gilgit-Baltistan is a unique mountainous region and home to world 3 largest mountainous ranges
including Karakoram, Himalayans and Hindu Kush. The ecosystem of this region is very fragile
due to increase anthropogenic activities which are overwhelming tremendously from the last
decade. The indoor and ambient air quality is deteriorating day by day due to increase influx of
Non Custom Paid (NCP) Vehicles, burning of fossil fuel in winters for cooking and heating as
well as over exploitation of natural resources (GB-EPA, 2012). Moreover, there is no exhaust
system in the region because there is no any wind corridor for the transportation of Gases due to
the high mountain ranges and narrow valleys.
Gilgit is the capital of Gilgit Baltistan which is located in 35.8819° N, 74.4643° E in the North of
Pakistan. The population and urbanization is increased from the last decade dramatically. Similarly
use of transport and vehicles are increasing simultaneously which leads to the deterioration of Air
quality and caused severe public health issues.
Objectives:

1) Ground based monitoring of criteria air pollutants in different sites using Haz-Scanner.
2) To compare the results of satellite based observation for various criteria air pollutants
concentration with ground based observations.

Literature Review:

References Study Findings

The study analyse the impact of

Urban public transport and air quality:
(Sun et al. 2019)
Empirical study of China cities
increase public transport on the
Urban Air quality, they found that
increase the urban public transport
is beneficial for environment. More
specifically, about 1% increase in
the bus vehicle, the AQL level
decrease by 0.082%.

The report published by the

State of Global Air/2019. A special
Health Effects
report on global exposure to Air
Institute, 2019
Pollution and its Disease burden.
collaboration of HEI and IHME
stated that Air pollution is the fifth
leading risk factor for mortality and
morbidity worldwide.

Criteria pollutants like PM2.5, PM10,

Spatial patterns and temporal variations
CO, SO2, and NO2 were recorded
(Zhao et al. of six criteria air pollutants during 2015
the most during winters where
2018) to 2017 in the city clusters of Sichuan
they were low during summers.
Basin, China
Ozone showed different trend with

Estimates and 25-year trends of the
global burden of disease attributable to
(Cohen et al.
ambient air pollution: an analysis of
2017)
data from the Global Burden of
Diseases Study 2015
Relationships between meteorological
(Zhang et al.
parameters and criteria air pollutants in
2015)
three megacities in China
highest peaks during spring and
summers.
The study estimates that, Ambient
PM2.5 was the fifth ranking in
mortality risk factor in 2015.
Further, Exposure to PM2.5 caused
a total 4.2 deaths and 103.1 million
disability adjusted life-years
(DALYs) 2015, representing 7.6% of
total global deaths and 4.2% of
global DALYs, in which 59% of them
in south and east Asia. Deaths
attributed to ambient PM2.5
increased from 3.5 million in 1990
to 4.2 million in 2015. Exposure to
ozone caused an additional 254
000 deaths and a loss of 4.1 million
DALYs from chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease in 2015.
The Study found that, the
maximum concentration of PM2.5,
PM10, CO, SO2 and NO2 in Winters
while minimum in summers, but O3
exhibit an opposite trend in the
three megacities of China. While
the metrological conditions
substantially vary with other
metrological condition. Wind
 speed reversely correlated with air
pollutants and O3 positively related
to temperature,

Methodology:
In the first stage the literature would be reviewed about Air pollution, Criteria Air Pollutants, and
their impacts on environment, air chemistry as well as health issues originated from air pollutants.
In the second phase, the ground based data will be obtained from the field campaign using Haz-
Scanner at the different sites and location of Gilgit city randomly selected.
In the third phase the satellite data will be obtained and compared with the ground based data to
interpret and check the correlation between ground and satellite data. The data will be then
analyzed using different tools like ArcGIS, Google earth, Excel etc.

Outcome:
This research will quantify the level and presence of criteria air pollutants in the Gilgit region. The
results will identify the hotspots which deteriorate the air quality in the study area. Moreover,
the results will provide baseline for further studies and will be a useful addition to the existing
data about criteria air pollution and air quality in Gilgit city