Crop residue burning negatively impacts both the environment and human health, whether in the aspect of air pollution, regional and global climate change, or transboundary air pollution. Accordingly, this study aims to assess the level of air pollutant emissions caused by the rice residue open burning activities in 2018, by analyzing the remote sensing information and country specific data. This research also aims to analyze the trend of particulate matter 10 microns or less in diameter (PM10) concentration air quality sites in provinces with large paddy rice planting areas from 2010–2017. According to the results, 61.87 megaton (Mt) of rice residue were generated, comprising 21.35 Mt generated from the irrigated fields and 40.53 Mt generated from the rain-fed field. Only 23.0% of the total rice residue generated were subject to open burning—of which nearly 32% were actually burned in the fields. The emissions from such rice residue burning consisted of: 5.34 ± 2.33 megaton (Mt) of CO2, 44 ± 14 kiloton (kt) of CH4, 422 ± 179 kt of CO, 2 ± 2 kt of NOX, 2 ± 2 kt of SO2, 38 ± 22 kt of PM2.5, 43 ± 29 kt of PM10, 2 ± 1 kt of black carbon (BC), and 14 ± 5 kt of organic carbon (OC). According to the air quality trends, the results shows the higher level of PM10 concentration was due to the agricultural burning activities, as reflected in the higher monthly averages of the months with the agricultural burning, by around 1.9–2.1 times. The result also shows the effect of government’s policy for farmers on the crop burning activities and air quality trends.

The purpose of this study was to assess household solid waste management in areas governed by local administrative organizations (LAOs). The obtained results would be used to assess the amount of air pollution emitted from household solid waste open burning. A survey was employed, through the use of questionnaires, to collect data from a random sample of 4300 households residing in areas governed by 96 LAOs. According to the results, it was evident that a total of 26.17 Mt of solid waste were generated per year, of which 6.39 Mt/year was not collected by the LAOs and was eliminated by households. Moreover, the percentage of waste burned on or outside the households' property was 53.7%, or an equivalent of 3.43 Mt/year of solid waste burned in open areas. In addition, it was found that 0.66 Mt/year of solid waste collected by the LAOs was burned in open areas and was not eliminated properly. Hence, the total amount of solid waste from these two sources was 4.09 Mt/year, which resulted in the emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide, and particulate matter of 1247.3 kt/year, 103.0 kt/year, 1.2 kt/year, 7.4 kt/year, and 19.6 kt/year, respectively.

In the middle of 2019, Thailand introduced an urgent measure to solve the haze and fine particles problem caused by preharvest sugarcane. The measure is to eradicate the burning of sugarcane before harvesting within the next four years. This study focuses on estimation of future reduced air emissions from the implementation of this measure. The study results showed that without the implementation of the measure in the production season 2022/23, the amount of burned sugarcane will be as high as 102.4 ± 1.0 Mt/yr, resulting in the release of small particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5) emissions into the atmosphere at 30.6 ± 8.6 kt/yr, which is about a 21% increase in emissions from the 2018/19 season. However, with the government’s enforcement of the measure to reduce burned sugarcane, the amount of air emissions will immediately be reduced in the first year. In order to effectively implement the sugarcane burning reduction measure, in which the harvesting methods will change from cutting burned sugarcane to cutting fresh sugarcane with human labor and with machinery, the government must provide financial support, to farmers, of approximately 3.3 USD per ton of fresh sugarcane for the use of human labor and 2.9 USD per ton of fresh sugarcane for the use of machinery. The costs of investment to reduce PM2.5 emissions can be calculated in the range of 9.7−11.0 million USD per kiloton of PM2.5.