National Institute of Technology Calicut
Department of Civil Engineering
Monsoon Semester 2023-2024
CE4098D PROJECT: PART 1
“Breath of western ghats”: spatiotemporal analysis of air
quality parameters in coastal cities using
Google earth engine.
Introduction:
Millions of people around the globe are suffering from series health problems due
to extensive exposure to air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2), as
particulate matter (PM), ozone (O3), and sulphur dioxide (SO2). In 2018, the
World Health Organization (WHO 2018) reported that over 4.2 million people
were dead because of air pollution. Also, according to WHO, about 90% of the
world’s population lives in places where the rate air pollutants are more than the
WHO air criteria (WH, 2018). Therefore, air pollution attracted the attention of
world. Many countries established ground stations to monitor the air quality, but
the data collected by this station is not enough to map air pollution because air
quality is spatially and temporal variable. Given that air-quality monitoring
stations are typically ground based, their abilities to detect pollutant distributions
are often restricted to wide areas. Satellites, however, have the potential for
studying the atmosphere at large; the European Space Agency (ESA) Copernicus
project satellite, ‘‘Sentinel-5P’’ is a newly launched satellite capable of
measuring a variety of pollutant information with publicly available data outputs.
The variety of satellites offers the opportunity to estimate different air emissions
such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), ammonia (NH3), carbon
monoxide (CO), some volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and aerosol optical
depth (AOD), from which surface particulate matter (PM2.5).
This paper presents a review of the capabilities of different satellite remote
sensing in measuring air pollutants and the methods of processing and accessing
satellite data for the mapping of pollutant concentrations.
Objectives of the Study:
1. Estimating of the pollutant emissions:
Satellite remote sensing instruments can detect air pollutants such as NOx,
SO2, CO, ammonia, PM2.5, and PM10. The relationship between NO2 and
AOT was the focus of many studies. For example, El Khoury et al. (2019)
studied this relationship by using data from Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-5p in
Lebanon.
2. Monitoring long-term trend of ambient pollutant
concentration: This study will make us able to identify the
high pollution regions and its expansion over time as well as
identify the new polluted area that formed at the particular
location.
3. To measure the concentration of aerosols: Satellites measure
the concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere by observing how
much light reaches the surface of the Earth and how much is
reflected off the aerosols. The measurement is called aerosol
optical depth or aerosol optical thickness (AOT). High values of
AOT are an indication of high air pollution.
Proposed Methodology:
A. Data Types and Sources: Sentinel-5P (S-5P) is a single satellite
mission, as a part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and
Security (GMES/Copernicus) program. S-5P objective is to ensure
the data continuity between previous SCIAMACHY, GOME-2,
OMI, or Envisat missions and the upcoming Sentinel-5, providing
information about atmospheric trace gases, aerosols, cloud
distribution affecting air quality and climate, having a global daily
coverage.
B. Data Processing Methodology: Google Earth Engine (GEE) is an
online visual cloud computing platform. It provides massive
global-scale satellite data, and it has sufficient computing power to
provide powerful data computing, analysis, storage, and
management capabilities. The GEE platform together with
QGIS/ArcGIS is selected for data processing, model construction,
index calculation, and results analysis.
Expected Outcomes:
1. With the estimation of concentration of pollutants, epidemiologists
can study the effects of air pollution on humans, vegetation and
animals.
2. Air Quality estimation and enhancement.
Team Members
Sl. No. Name of Student Regd. No. Batch
1. Abhay Pratap Singh B200644CE CE01
2. Abhishek Kumar B200645CE CE01
3. Azhar Khan B200670CE CE01
Recommendation by Guide(s)
