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AIR POLLUTION, HEALTH AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE POLICY ANDFUTURE TECHNOLOGIES: AN INTEGRATED MODEL ANALYSIS
Impact/Purpose:
The central research questions for this study are: 1) How will technologies and policy choices in response to global change, specifically transportation technologies, impact air quality, human health and the economy on global to local scales by 2050? 2) What are the quantified costs and benefits of these different adaptation choices? Our focus will be to assess the local air pollution impacts of 1) emerging vehicle technologies such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and biofuels and 2) air pollution and climate policies, separately and in combination. We will assess their impacts on human health and the economic benefits and costs of these policies and technologies.
Description:
Outcomes of this research will include: 1) Developing modeling capability to facilitate better understanding of the interplay between human activities, air pollution and regulatory requirements, climate policy, and human health and large-scale economic factors at local to global scales in approximately 2050. These tools will account for uncertainty and variability in projections of a future world that includes global change. 2) Providing insights to the air quality community about “win-win,” “win-lose” and “lose-lose” strategies for air quality regulation and climate change, and quantify potential human health benefits. We will coordinate with regional- and state-level air quality decision-makers and evaluate the robustness of our predictions applied to relevant science and policy questions. 3) Providing insights to the air quality community about the potential for societal changes, especially collective choices about personal vehicle technologies and fuels, to impact air quality, and identify potential unintended consequences of these large-scale changes.