A Tale of Air Quality Index (AQI) in India: Pre- and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pooja Baweja¹, Haritma Chopra^1, , Pinkey B. Gandhi¹, Sandhya Gupta¹, Nisha Poddar¹, Sakshi Suman¹ and Vikas Rena^2,

¹Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, New Delhi 110021, India

²School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067, India

Cite this paper:
Pooja Baweja, Haritma Chopra, Pinkey B. Gandhi, Sandhya Gupta, Nisha Poddar, Sakshi Suman and Vikas Rena. A Tale of Air Quality Index (AQI) in India: Pre- and during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences. 2022; 10(7):432-443. doi: 10.12691/aees-10-7-2

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the Air Quality Index (AQI) in India before (1^st January 2020 - 16^th March 2020) and during the lockdown period (26^th March 2020 - 4^th June 2020). The AQI improved significantly throughout the lockdown resulted through spatio-temporal fluctuations based on Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping and multivariate statistical analysis using Correlation Matrix Analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The AQI declined by 34.51 percent in Northern India, 22.14 percent in Central India, 48.84 percent in Eastern India, 42.75 percent in Western India, 32.64 percent in Southern India, and 54.46 percent in Northeastern India during the lockdown. The findings would prompt the governments across the world to consider ways to reduce vehicle and industrial pollution to enhance air quality.

Keywords:
lockdown COVID-19 spatio-temporal variation Geographic Information System (GIS) multivariate statistical analysis

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