Air pollution... is there a solution?

Why should anybody care about air pollution?

The question arises regularly in our minds considering there are many things to do around us. So, why concentrate on the problem of air pollution? It has become essentially important to consider pollution of the air an important issue considering all the environmental changes occurring globally. Environmental problems have taken a toll on the land, water and soil along with air.

The next question in line is why do people consider air pollution a myth?

It is usually believed and also said that everything happens for a reason. Considering this, people tend to believe that changes taking place around them in society, in the economy, psychologically as well as environmentally are bound to happen. But are these positive changes? Continuous and disastrous changes have been impacting nature since industrialization. Not only air but every natural resource has turned into more of a WANT than a NEED.

Now, let’s talk about the air. Starting with the basics, the air is an essential component not only of biotic but also to abiotic things. The oxygen we breathe, the carbon dioxide that plants breathe is delivered to us through a medium called 'AIR'. So why care about the air? As we know, the air is a factor that drives this earth in maintaining a proper balance. It gives life stability and a proper medium to grow. It has become a mode of life for many organisms. But, due to anthropogenic activities (that cannot exclude natural factors as well), the quality of air is declining day by day. This quality depends on the particles suspended in the air along with other physical factors.

To understand and solve a problem the first step taken is ANALYSIS. Similarly, to understand whether air pollution is real or not we need proper quantifiable data. This data can be acquired through a system which basically includes hardware, software and analytics. Let’s take a quick peek into one of the attempts for the same.

WAPA 2023 (Weather and Air Pollution Analysis)

Weather and Air Pollution Analysis 2023, is a project undertaken by a group of students from Marathwada Mitra Mandal College of Engineering, Pune. It is a project that involves the collection of data, input of the data as well as analysis of the data.

Who are these students and why this project?

This group of five is mentored by Dr Aradhana Deshmukh (HoD AI&DS). Every even semester, the students of MMCOE are assigned a PBL (project-based learning) where the students approach a company to derive a problem statement. This group at MMCOE approached a well-established company Siemens Industry Software India Pvt Ltd, Pune. The company provided them with a problem statement- ‘The air pollution in Indian cities has reached an alarming level, but most of the common folks are unaware of it. A system can be built to sense, monitor, display and analyse the key parameters of air pollution – particulate matter, NO2 concentration, to name a few.’ The statement built curiosity in the students to look into the matter and to have a system where the analysis of the acquired data would be easily done. The students would profit by finding nuances, these small projects help them build their CVs as well as update tasks and their skill sets and can provide a base for their research papers. Now, what does the company get? How do they benefit from this? The company uses the updated version of knowledge from the students to derive information about the work they do and gain from their results. There are no expectations from the company apart from providing a problem statement. This project is based in Pune as it is much more accessible to the students.

Project WAPA-

This project is a compilation of three components- building sensors (hardware), collecting and storing data (software) and finally analysing the data (analytical system). It is important to collect data from different places at different times since the POLLUTION NOT ONLY RISES BUT IT VARIES.

This variation in data gives a proper scheme or graph of the current situation of air pollution.

Let’s start with the first component which is the hardware which consists of 4 sensors. These sensors will do the work of sensing the air for humidity, particulate matter, NO2 and the vanishing point. The sensors will be placed at four different locations throughout the day & night and will sense the surroundings and send the data to the system. This data will be collected for three months which is approximately one season. It will give an overview of the average data for the past, present and future results. To build each sensor, the cost is around RS 2000 and this fund is provided by the college to the students.

Studying humidity, particulate matter and NO2 suspended in air-

Humidity is nothing but the amount of water vapour present in the air. Too much hot and wet together brings us discomfort. Similarly, humidity is directly proportional to air pollution as increasing pollution will increase global warming and thus result in increasing temperature and humidity.

Correspondingly, particulate matter includes tiny particles of solid or liquid material which are again suspended in the atmosphere. These aerosol particles are harmful to the respiratory systems of every organism as the particle diameter varies and their effect varies from being a little toxic to carcinogenic. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is also an important air pollutant as its majority contributes to the formation of many more air pollutants like Ozone (O 3), nitric acid (HNO 3), and nitrate (NO 3-) - containing particles that also form through photochemical reactions. The level of these air pollutants varies greatly and thus it becomes important to continuously keep a check on them. Too many of these pollutants will highly affect the health of people. It will contribute to severe changes in the functioning of the blue planet.

The next component is the software and it begins with building a program for receiving, storing and organizing the data. The students will be using JAVA programming language, Structured query language (SQL) as a query language, tools like Power BI and Tableau for data visualization and cloud computing for data processing. Adding another point, these languages and tools are not used by colleges and it interprets how ACADEMICS LAG BEHIND INDUSTRIES. This program will collect, organize and send data to the next system which will play a crucial role in the project that is- analysing the data. An important feature of this project that makes it different from other similar projects is that – “Observations will be irrespective of any preconceived notions of pollution.”

Why analyse data?

The third and most important component is to analyse this acquired data. What is the benefit of all this if there are no results? These results are obtained by studying the received data thoroughly and by inspecting every aspect of it. The software for analysing the data collected by the sensors and organized by the software program will be then entered into a new software created using Power BI and Tableau. These prove to be the crucial tools for building the skeleton of this program. The students are relying more on the SPPU software as it is free of cost. They will enter the data and acquire the results. It is very crucial to them that the college allows them to use college servers to store data or host mobile servers as the device must be on 24/7. OLD IS GOLD as they find an old PC is the most useful for this purpose.

The last step of any activity is to gain RESULTS. The students examine the data and wait for its outcome. The one very intriguing thing is that the students are not involved in the interpretation of results. As a project, their work ends after analysing the data.

Are these results a waste?

The answer is a big fat healthy NO. The resulting proposal will be further delivered to a certain environmental department for more advanced actions which need to be taken care of. These results will help us gain information about the place we live in and the quality of the air we inhale. These results won’t necessarily be positive or negative but can be zero as they consider the current scenario of the city. If this programming and analysing system becomes ‘BAHUBALI’ among the others, it will help jot down the impacts and outcomes of every change in the air including its graph from the worst quality to its best quality. This system will help establish industries and drive students to learn more about the changes in air pollution and create solutions for its environmental impacts.

CONCLUSION:

We all have different proper systems for the proper functioning of our body eg- the respiratory system, digestive system, reproductive system, etc. These systems collect the data from our body, store the data and analyse the data to get results and thus take correct actions for maintaining the balance and solving any problems. Similarly, is with Project WAPA 2023. This system ensures to properly collect-store-analyse the data of the air of that particular area and these outcomes will help solve any environmental issues if present. Now our first and foremost question is, is Air pollution really a myth?

The response to that question is that not every change occurs for a reason. Some changes are brought by invalid activities and actions of the population. And one of the greatest examples of this is AIR POLLUTION. Air pollution is not a myth but is the reality of today. There is a heavy change in the quality of air which has become a great problem of concern. These changes have affected not only humans but every animal, every plant and every resource. The air is linked to every element of nature and keeping it clean is our duty. Air purification is one of the top leading industries as they benefit from the production of pure air. This air is then sold to the customers. To solve the problem of air pollution various laws and regulations have been implemented. But it is we who should really change if the world needs to change. “BREATHE PURE, BREATHE HEALTHY.”

~ Saee Patil