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ThesisItem Embargo Assessing climatic and environmental implications of crop residue burning in Punjab using ground observations and satellite remote sensing(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Yashi Singh; Kingra, P.K.The study entitled, “Assessing climatic and environmental implications of crop residue burning in Punjab using ground observations and satellite remote sensing” was conducted at the Department of Climate Change and Agricultural Meteorology, PAU, Ludhiana and Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, Ludhiana. Variability in meteorological variables (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and sunshine hours), gases (NO2, SO2 and O3) and aerosols (PM2.5 and PM10) in wheat (March-May) and rice harvesting season (September-November) from 2017-21 was analyzed. In addition to this fire events data was collected through remote sensing (from VIIRS) for the same period. In Punjab, maximum burning points were observed in central region followed by south west region and north-east region. In central region, highest fire counts during wheat harvesting period were observed in 2019 (11602) and lowest in 2021 (7104), whereas for rice harvesting period they were highest in 2021 (40960) and lowest in 2019 (22548). Significant influence of crop residue burning was observed on the concentration of particulate matter in air as it increased drastically during crop harvesting period. During wheat harvesting season, Ludhiana experienced highest concentration of PM2.5 (85.66±26.49 µg/m3 ) and PM10 (160 ±43.49 µg/m3 ) during May 2018, whereas concentration of SO2 (15.54±4.24 µg/m3 ) and O3 (40.12±6.70 µg/m3 ) was observed highest in May 2019 and during rice harvesting season, Ludhiana experienced highest concentration of PM2.5 (140.83±49.37 µg/m3 ) and PM10 (305±97.45 µg/m3 ) during November 2017, whereas concentration of SO2 was observed highest (23.50±13.20 µg/m3 ) during 2018. However highest concentration of NO2 (47.12±15.33 µg/m3 ) was observed in October 2018 and of O3 (32.19±8.91) was observed in October 2020. Particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) depicted strong positive correlation with fire counts in all the agroclimatic regions of Punjab in the harvesting period of wheat and rice whereas somewhat variable relation was observed for NO2 and SO2. Mean temperature during November was found to be positively correlated while relative humidity and sunshine hours were observed to have negative correlation with fire events for most of the wheat and rice harvesting period. The results of the study indicated that crop residue burning is specifically responsible for increasing the amount of particulate matter in air which can have severe health implications.
