Annual and Seasonal Variation of Particulate Matter: A Case Study Over Southeast Part of West Bengal, India
摘要
Urban air pollution has gained a lot of attention from policymakers because of the unprecedented rate of population and industrial activities around the world. Exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution adversely affects human health in many large cities around the world. Most of the large cities are extremely heterogeneous in population density and socioeconomic situation. So, mapping and monitoring urban air pollutants accurately is crucial for environmental risk and epidemiological studies. The present study investigates the spatial and temporal distribution of PM during 2021–2022 over the southeast part of West Bengal, India. Annual and seasonal spatial distribution maps of PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations were produced by applying the inverse distance weighting (IDW) method. The results showed high variability of both pollutants. The pollution hotspots of PM were mainly concentrated in Kolkata, Howrah, the East Midnapore region, and their surroundings. This analysis points out significant variations in PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations regarding the seasonal changes. Assessing air pollutants may help in policy formulation and decision-making.