Feature Selection and Analysis in Air Quality Data

Air pollution is one of the greatest problems being faced by mankind. Millions of people die each year because of reasons directly or indirectly related to air pollution. Effective strategies to counter the harmful effects of air pollution are an imperative need of the times. The responses to the air pollution problems are usually knee-jerk reactions, which don’t help in the long run. For developing an effective counter-strategy for combating air pollution, it is necessary to focus the efforts on the pollutants that are most responsible for the air pollution. This paper focuses on identifying the pollutant that plays the most important role in defining the Air Quality Index of a region and also attempts to establish the trend patterns followed by the identified pollutant. This will help the decision makers to devise counter-strategies well in advance for countering the harmful effects of the main pollutant thereby helping to reduce air pollution.