Development of Vulnerability Framework for Assessing the Air Pollution-Related Health Impacts in Four Districts of Delhi, India

Air pollution and its deleterious public health risks are a major concern across the world. It is one of the leading health risk factors causing high mortality and disease burden in many cities. Epidemiological risk assessment studies have generated considerable evidence of disease burden due to air pollution. Such evidence proves useful as inputs for framing various air quality management and public health protection policies. Implementation of these policies also necessitates a critical insight from a perspective of differential population vulnerability to air pollution. Hence, the present study proposes a methodological approach for developing an integrated vulnerability assessment framework that focuses on multidimensional aspects adhering to vulnerability in nexus with health risk characterization. The designed framework has been applied in a pilot case study undertaken in four districts of Delhi, India. Weightage has been multiplied by a normalized score for each indicator to calculate the vulnerability score. The score reflects relative vulnerability level based on the components – emission load, exposure, land use–land cover features, sensitivity and coping capacity. Findings of the study have shown maximum score for East Delhi and minimum score for New Delhi. Hence the study throws light on the factors that are contributing towards the vulnerability of human health to air pollution.