Assessment of Smog Pattern and its Effects on Visibility in Lahore Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Abstract

In recent times, many parts of the world are experiencing drastic levels of air pollution, which includes smog, the mixture of fog and smoke, polluted air formed by human activities like burning of coal, excessive use of vehicles and many others. During November 2016, Lahore city also experienced the smog due to increased level of air pollutants. In earlier studies, very limited research work has been done related to smog, therefore, this research is aimed to study the pattern of smog in Lahore and its impact on visibility through remote sensing and GIS.  Satellite images of MODIS and Landsat OLI, of November, 2016 is used to study the pattern of smog, whereas the visibility data was acquired from Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD). For the processing and analysis of data ERDAS IMAGINE 14 and ArcGIS 10.1 software were used. The findings of this research reveal that the dense smog cover on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th November 2016 leads to the considerable reduction in visibility. As on 2nd November’16, it was only 111.6 meters (m) while during bright days it was recorded more than 300 m or 400 m.