Garbage Burning in South Asia - How Important Is It to the Regional Air Quality? Open Access

Abstract

Growing air pollution in South Asia has severe consequences on air quality, health, and the climate within the region. In this project we assess the importance of garbage burning emissions on the regional air quality. We first use the newly-available emission factors (EF) from the recent field campaign--Nepal Ambient Monitoring and Source Testing Experiment (NAMaSTE), which took place in 2015 April to improve the existing emissions estimates for garbage burning in the region. Next, we use the "online" chemical transport model, Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem), to assess the impact of these emissions on regional air quality. In order achieve our goal, we created three different scenarios. Emission of baseline does not include garbage burning emissions. Scenario 2 includes garbage burning emissions estimated by Wiedinmyer et al. (2014) and Scenario 3 includes the garbage burning emissions estimated by this study. Through comparing model simulations among the three emission scenarios, the model results illustrate that including the improved garbage burning emissions has improved model simulation. Including garbage burning emissions increases the simulated concentrations of particulate matter of less than 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10), elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC), and mixing ratio of carbon monoxide (CO), and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) in South Asia. The results of study are significant as it informs the garbage disposal management policy changes in the region and in other developing countries.

Table of Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................1

Data and Methods............................................................................................3

Results ..........................................................................................................8

Conclusion ....................................................................................................14

Literature Cited .............................................................................................18

Tables and Figures .........................................................................................23

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Environmental Sciences
Degree	BS
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Atmospheric Sciences Environmental Sciences
Keyword	Garbage Burning Pollution Environmental Sciences South Asia
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Saikawa, Eri , Emory University
Committee Members	Chang, Howard, Emory University Donaher, Shaunna, Emory University

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