Estimating Emission Loads from Road Transportation in Kathmandu Valley
Date
2021-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Pulchowk Campus
Abstract
Kathmandu Valley which was previously known as city of temples have now
transformed into a city of pollution. Dust resuspension due to motor vehicles is the
major source of air pollution. The department of environment, in 2017, find out that the
transport sector contributed to 28% of pollutants in Kathmandu valley. Emission loads
can result in serious health issues like heart diseases, COPD, respiratory syndromes etc.
The study looked at the increasing tendency in the evolution of various vehicle types,
their energy use and associated environmental pollutants in the Kathmandu valley. The
number of vehicles registered each year in the Kathmandu valley were collected from
the Department of Transport Management situated at Ekantakuna in Lalitpur district
and Department of Transport Management situated at Gurjudhara in Kathmandu
district. The majority of vehicles registered in the valley were motorbikes which
comprised about 78.28 % of total vehicles registered in Kathmandu valley followed
by 13.97 % composed by car/jeep/van type of vehicles. Microbus were seen to be
registered lowest, comprising only 0.35% of total number of vehicles registered in
Kathmandu valley. Since the annual vehicle scrap data was lacking, the concept of
vehicle survival was used to simulate the evolution of actual vehicles on the road. The
vehicle's life cycle profile was mixed with the Weibull distribution function for this.
The estimated vehicle energy demand and emissions were calculated using these
predicted vehicle numbers. The total emission load in 2020 was 2.7 million tons/year
for CO2, 101 thousand tons/year for CO, 12 thousand tons/year for NOx, 20 thousand
tons/year for HC and 5 thousand tons/year for PM10 approximately. The study has
predicted the CO2 emission in the valley for 2025 and 2030 years as 4.5 million tons
and 6.4 million tons, respectively. The study shows that people preferred private
vehicles in comparison to public vehicles ultimately increasing the fuel requirement for
travelling the same distance.
Description
Kathmandu Valley which was previously known as city of temples have now
transformed into a city of pollution. Dust resuspension due to motor vehicles is the
major source of air pollution.
Keywords
Citation
MASTERS OF SCIENCE IN CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME