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<p>Air pollution remains a persistent global environmental risk affecting human health, agricultural productivity, and ecosystem stability. Effective air quality monitoring is therefore essential for evidence-based environmental management and climate-resilient policy planning. However, conventional air quality indices primarily rely on pollutant concentration thresholds and often neglect the influence of meteorological factors, particularly precipitation, which significantly modulates PM2.5 dynamics. This study proposes a Standardized Precipitation Adjusted Air Quality Index (SPAAQI), a probabilistic framework that explicitly integrates precipitation variability into PM2.5 assessment. The development of SPAAQI follows a three-stage methodology. First, PM2.5 and precipitation time series are independently standardized using appropriate probabilistic transformations. Second, the ratio of the standardized PM2.5 index to the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is constructed to capture the inverse and climate-sensitive interaction between pollutant accumulation and rainfall events. Third, this ratio is further standardized to produce SPAAQI, a continuous and comparable precipitation-adjusted air quality metric. The proposed framework is applied to monthly PM2.5 and precipitation data (January 1998–February 2025) for seven major cities in Punjab, Pakistan. The results demonstrate that SPAAQI effectively captures spatial and temporal heterogeneity in pollution dynamics and identifies persistent high-risk conditions. In Lahore and Gujranwala, the steady-state probabilities of the “unhealthy” and “very unhealthy” categories were estimated at 34.3% and 36.5%, respectively, indicating sustained exposure to elevated pollution levels. By incorporating precipitation normalization within a standardized probabilistic structure, SPAAQI provides a climate-sensitive alternative to conventional AQI systems and enables more robust long-term air quality assessment. The findings highlight the importance of precipitation-adjusted monitoring frameworks for informed pollution control strategies and public health policy.</p>

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A standardized precipitation-adjusted air quality index for integrated monitoring of PM2.5 concentrations

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月17日

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  • Wajiha Batool Awan,
  • Zulfiqar Ali

摘要

Air pollution remains a persistent global environmental risk affecting human health, agricultural productivity, and ecosystem stability. Effective air quality monitoring is therefore essential for evidence-based environmental management and climate-resilient policy planning. However, conventional air quality indices primarily rely on pollutant concentration thresholds and often neglect the influence of meteorological factors, particularly precipitation, which significantly modulates PM2.5 dynamics. This study proposes a Standardized Precipitation Adjusted Air Quality Index (SPAAQI), a probabilistic framework that explicitly integrates precipitation variability into PM2.5 assessment. The development of SPAAQI follows a three-stage methodology. First, PM2.5 and precipitation time series are independently standardized using appropriate probabilistic transformations. Second, the ratio of the standardized PM2.5 index to the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is constructed to capture the inverse and climate-sensitive interaction between pollutant accumulation and rainfall events. Third, this ratio is further standardized to produce SPAAQI, a continuous and comparable precipitation-adjusted air quality metric. The proposed framework is applied to monthly PM2.5 and precipitation data (January 1998–February 2025) for seven major cities in Punjab, Pakistan. The results demonstrate that SPAAQI effectively captures spatial and temporal heterogeneity in pollution dynamics and identifies persistent high-risk conditions. In Lahore and Gujranwala, the steady-state probabilities of the “unhealthy” and “very unhealthy” categories were estimated at 34.3% and 36.5%, respectively, indicating sustained exposure to elevated pollution levels. By incorporating precipitation normalization within a standardized probabilistic structure, SPAAQI provides a climate-sensitive alternative to conventional AQI systems and enables more robust long-term air quality assessment. The findings highlight the importance of precipitation-adjusted monitoring frameworks for informed pollution control strategies and public health policy.