Assessing the Effectiveness of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Managing Delhi’s Air Quality

Assessing the Effectiveness of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Managing Delhi’s Air Quality | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Assessing the Effectiveness of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Managing Delhi’s Air Quality Tanvi Anand, Abhishek Chakraborty This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8155465/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Air pollution remains a persistent issue that affects our health and well-being. North Indian cities are particularly prone to poor air quality during the colder months. The Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) was introduced as an air quality management policy in January 2017 to address Delhi's poor air quality during the colder months. It is a dynamic policy implemented based on the Air Quality Index (AQI), which progressively increases the severity of sanctions on various activities. However, the effectiveness of GRAP has not yet been evaluated rigorously. This study aims to fill this gap and propose necessary changes in analysing this policy for the post-COVID years of 2022–2025. The current analysis reveals that most improvements (when they occur) in AQI appear to be driven by meteorological variability rather than pollution management efficacy. It is found that all GRAP stages (1 to 4) were at best moderately effective in improving/managing AQI, with a < 40% success rate. At times, the implementation of GRAP worsened AQI, likely due to changes in atmospheric reactivity and/or long-range transport. The study revealed a lack of transparency in estimating and reporting key parameters (such as AQI) and details on actual on-the-ground implementation. GRAP’s uniform, reactive, and PM control-based measures fail to address localized AQ issues and secondary pollution. Additionally, the GRAP implementations are sometimes inconsistent, failing to adhere to the established AQI-based standards. Based on the outcome of this study, a comprehensive list of remedial measures is suggested to improve GRAP’s efficacy and effectiveness. Air Quality Index Graded Response Action Plan Delhi Air Pollution Ventilation Coefficient Policy Impact Evaluation Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplemantryInformation.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8155465","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":565411852,"identity":"a8b1e03e-fdc9-4abc-a56d-65359c730396","order_by":0,"name":"Tanvi Anand","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Powai","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tanvi","middleName":"","lastName":"Anand","suffix":""},{"id":565411853,"identity":"cec6675e-b32b-45b3-b908-40bfc5d259d2","order_by":1,"name":"Abhishek 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North Indian cities are particularly prone to poor air quality during the colder months. The Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) was introduced as an air quality management policy in January 2017 to address Delhi's poor air quality during the colder months. It is a dynamic policy implemented based on the Air Quality Index (AQI), which progressively increases the severity of sanctions on various activities. However, the effectiveness of GRAP has not yet been evaluated rigorously. This study aims to fill this gap and propose necessary changes in analysing this policy for the post-COVID years of 2022\u0026ndash;2025. The current analysis reveals that most improvements (when they occur) in AQI appear to be driven by meteorological variability rather than pollution management efficacy. It is found that all GRAP stages (1 to 4) were at best moderately effective in improving/managing AQI, with a\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;40% success rate. 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