The City Beautiful will soon have weather monitoring system that would monitor local weather patterns and air quality.In a significant move towards urban environmental management, the UT Administration will install a weather monitoring equipment in the city. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has given in principle approval to UT’s proposal for installation of weather monitoring system here.
The monitoring system will enable the UT Environment Department and Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC) to observe the changing climate pattern, air quality, rainfall, temperature levels, wind speed/direction among other factors throughout the day in the city.
The equipment is likely to cost Rs1 crore to the UT Administration and MoEF would share 50 per cent cost of the monitoring system.At present, the CPCC has five air quality monitoring stations, one each at IMTECH Sector 39, Industrial Area, Kaimbwala village, PEC Sector 12 and Sector 17 here.The pollutants monitored under this are RSPM (Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter) and SPM (Suspended Particulate Matter), SO2 (Sulphur dioxide) and NOx (nitrogen oxide).
According to the CPCC, the duration for RSPM and SPM sampling is done in three shifts each of eight hours a day and of the SO2 and NOx is done in six shifts, each of four hours a day.“The weather monitoring system would be installed in Chandigarh soon. The system will help the UT authorities to monitor air quality, changing climate patterns, temperature levels among other environmental factors. The system would be operational 24x7 and throughout the year,” said Santosh Kumar, Director UT Environment Department while talking to The Pioneer.
He said, “The weather monitoring station will be a key step towards urban environmental management. The data collected from the station will be helpful in planning initiatives for environment conservation in the city.”Santosh said, “The MoEF has approved the UT proposal and would share 50 percent cost of the weather monitoring system. The place for installation of the system is yet to be finalised.”
“At present, there are five air quality monitoring stations in Chandigarh. But, samplings is done by these stations at various shifts while the weather monitoring stations would record data throughout the day,” he added.In the past few years, the urban city of Chandigarh has undergone rapid environmental degradation due to increasing motorisation rate as compared to other cities of the country.
Most locations in the city have now moved from the moderately polluted bracket to highly polluted category.The ambient air quality levels monitored by CPCC shows that RSPM and SPM levels exceeds the permissible limits of 60 µg/m3 while Sulphur Dioxide and Nitrogen oxide are below the permissible limits of 40-60 µg/m3 at five locations in the city including Sector 17, Industrial Area, Punjab Engineering College, IMTECH Sector 39, and Kaimbwala village.
The data with CPCC has revealed that in city’s heart Sector 17, both annual and average of RSPM and SPM generally exceeds the permissible limits for residential areas throughout the year with the higher concentration during summer months when the weather is dusty and dirty and also due to ever increasing vehicle pollution load.
Notably, the performance of Union Territory of Chandigarh in climate change planning was observed as deplorable in Environment Performance Index drafted by Planning Commission.The city was ranked 30 in climate change planning considering the indictors of preparation of State Action Plan for Climate Change, RE Growth Rate including mini-hydro, electricity intensity of SGDP.
In terms of air quality, the City Beautiful again presented a dismal picture. The city was placed at 14th position considering the parameters of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and particulate matter.