Estimating Emission Load from Road Transportation within the Bhaktapur Municipality, Nepal

Abstract

Vehicular emissions have been playing a pivotal role in deteriorating air quality in many urban parts of Nepal causing adverse impacts upon the health of commuters and pedestrians attributed to severe respiratory diseases. Primary data such as the number of vehicles (N) were obtained using two-hour peak (8 am to 10 am) and two-hour nonpeak (1 pm to 3 pm) count, after which average annual vehicle kilometer (VKT) and fuel economy (F) required for emission load estimation were obtained from vehicle survey using the simple random sampling method, sampling size taken statistically under 5% margin of error. Secondary data in this study include emission factors and derived equations from a published article. The vehicular emission load of Bhaktapur Municipality were found to be 3,310 tons/year including CO2, CO, NOx, HC, and PM10 of which CO2 accounts for 94.36% of total emissions followed by CO (4.39%), HC (0.72%), NOx (0.35%), and PM10 (0.18%), respectively. Significant positive correlation was found (r = 0.92, p = 0.002 ) between CO2 and PM10 (r = 0.87, p = 0.009 ), between CO2 and NOx (r = 0.90, p = 0.004 ), between CO and HC (r = 0.74, p = 0.05 ), and between NOx and PM10, respectively. The scenario analysis shows that the introduction of electric vehicles at different rates within the municipality can reduce the emissions to a significant amount. Exponential growth in vehicular gaseous pollutants potent to jeopardize the environment and welfare can become inevitable in the future if clean energy technology is not promoted early.

Effectiveness of Inexpensive Cloth Facemasks and Their Amendments to Reduce Ambient Particulate Exposures: A Case of Kathmandu, Nepal

“…The efficacy of nasopharyngeal masks was estimated using different methods and techniques in previous studies, which contradict each other because different studies used different methods and experimental approaches whose findings varied from study to study although studied for the same subject [ 7 ]. The applied nasopharyngeal masks were found slightly better in efficiency for ambient PM 10 aerosols than PM 2.5 due to the size and shapes of the aerosols [ 17 ].…”

“…The bowl-shaped topographic structure in Kathmandu Valley is surrounded by mountains that are impediments to wind movement that retains particulates in ambient air [ 1 , 2 ], which is a key indicator of air pollution [ 3 ]. Traffic-related particulate matter (PM) is considered a major contributor to overall ambient air pollution in Nepal [ 4 , 5 ], causing adverse impacts on the health of commuters and pedestrians due to their proximity to vehicular emissions [ 6 , 7 ] and also being responsible for an alteration of climate and visibility [ 8 ]. Particulate matter (PM) exposure is associated with respiratory and cardiovascular health effects [ 9 – 11 ] along with premature mortality [ 12 , 13 ], which reflects global health concerns [ 14 , 15 ].…”

Existing and alternative air pollution monitoring platforms in Nepal: A systematic review

“…However, more than 50% of the country's road network is still unpaved [28], which leads to significant emission of fugitive dust (mostly PM 10 ) due to vehicular movement [29]. One study [30] showed that in Bhaktapur Municipality alone that is located within the Kathmandu Valley and occupies roughly 1/3rd of the Valley's area, the vehicular emissions accounted for 3,310 tons/year of total air pollutants that included CO 2 , CO, NO x , HC, and PM 10 . Among these, CO2 accounted for 94.36% of the total emissions, followed by CO (4.39%), HC (0.72%), NO x (0.35%), and PM 10 only accounted for 0.18%.…”

“…National Ambient Air Quality Standards of different regulated pollutants in Nepal[30]. only 12 of the stations show live streaming data as of November 2021.…”

The association between household biomass fuel use and leukocyte telomere length among toddlers in Bhaktapur, Nepal

“…There are many brick kilns located at the outskirts of Bhaktapur municipality, which are functioning mainly during the winter and spring season (from October to May) and contribute to the poor ambient air quality due to the use of coal and firewood for burning bricks [29]. Additionally, relatively high CO 2 emissions from vehicles are also common in Bhaktapur with an estimated emission load of 3310 tones/year [30].…”