Analysis of Air Pollutants in Pre-pandemic and Pandemic Era

Jaash Sehgal; Krishna Chandra Tripathi; M.L. Sharma

Abstract

The paper deals with the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic induced lockdown on the air quality levels of cities of India like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. PM2.5 and PM10 are the main pollutants on which this study is based. This project compares the actual data of PM2.5 and PM10 of each city with the hypothetical data if the pandemic caused lockdown had not occurred. The hypothetical data was obtained using extrapolation techniques using a linear function. Comparisons were made between the extrapolated data and the actual data of PM2.5 and PM10. Similar process was followed for the data after the principal component analysis was performed. Results were displayed using graphs for each city and represented mathematically using root mean square error (RMSE).Keywords: Coronavirus, air quality, PM2.5, PM10, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, lockdown, principal component analysis, root mean square error