Air Quality Management in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and Himalayan Foothills (GAINS-IGP-HF)

At present, both country specific AQM planning is undertaken for each of the four countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan) and integrated AQM planning that encompasses the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) and Himalayan Foothills (HF) area of (i) Bangladesh (both Bangladesh overall and Greater Dhaka Area/GDA); (ii) India (i.e. states of Punjab (incl. Chandigarh), Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi); (iii) Nepal (Kathmandu Valley and the air-polluted plain areas); (iv) Pakistan (Punjab Province), and (v) Bhutan is also being developed.

Significant parts of the analysis have been developed by the Pollution Managment (PM) Research Group using the GAINS model (Greenhouse gas – Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies) and adapted to the needs and requirements of work in the IGP region. More specifically, two versions of the model are used, a regional application for the Indo-Gangetic Plain (GAINS-IGP) and local application (GAINS-City). 

The key objectives of this project are: 

• to support the international expert team in establishing consistency and linkage between GAINS-IGP and GAINS-City models applied to IGP-HF regions at different scales,
• to develop, with the GAINS-IGP model, the cost-effectiveness analyses of policy intervention options to the specific needs of the states/provinces of the IGP-HF region
• to enable access to the tool and databases for the online version of the GAINS Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) model to the respective local expert teams,
• to conduct training sessions for the local experts to familiarize them with the operation of the GAINS-IGP tools for policy analyses, and on the update of databases, and
• to conduct training sessions to the decision makers from the IGP-HF region.