You are here:
C-PORT: A Community-Scale Near-Source Air Quality System to Assess Port-Related Air Quality Impacts
Citation:
Arunachalam, S., T. Barzyk, V. Isakov, A. Venkatram, M. Snyder, N. Rice, B. Naess, AND K. Talgo. C-PORT: A Community-Scale Near-Source Air Quality System to Assess Port-Related Air Quality Impacts. 16th International Conference on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling for Regulatory Purposes, Varna, BULGARIA, September 08 - 11, 2014.
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Atmospheric Modeling and Analysis Division (AMAD) conducts research in support of EPA mission to protect human health and the environment. AMAD research program is engaged in developing and evaluating predictive atmospheric models on all spatial and temporal scales for forecasting the air quality and for assessing changes in air quality and air pollutant exposures, as affected by changes in ecosystem management and regulatory decisions. AMAD is responsible for providing a sound scientific and technical basis for regulatory policies based on air quality models to improve ambient air quality. The models developed by AMAD are being used by EPA, NOAA, and the air pollution community in understanding and forecasting not only the magnitude of the air pollution problem, but also in developing emission control policies and regulations for air quality improvements.
Description:
With increasing activity in global trade, there has been increased activity in transportation by rail, road and ships to move cargo. Based upon multiple near-road and near-source monitoring studies, both busy roadways and large emission source at the ports may impact local air quality within several hundred meters of the ports. As the volume of trucking and freight movement increases, near-road air quality along transportation routes could be affected well outside port boundaries. Port expansion also could include changes in emissions from the port itself, as additional resources are added to account for the potential increase in freight, which could affect air quality in bordering communities. Health effects have been associated with near-road exposures and proximity to large emission sources, so characterizing emission sources is important for understanding potential health effects. To address this need, we have developed a new community-scale tool called C-PORT to model emissions related to all port-related activities – including, but not limited to ships, trucks, cranes, etc. – and predict concentrations at fine spatial scales in the near-source environment. While the long-term objective is to make this web-enabled tool for easily studying air quality and exposure related to ports at any U.S. port, the initial development is focusing on the Port of Charleston in South Carolina, USA, to complement a field-study that was conducted during Spring 2014 to take air quality measurements in residential neighborhoods in the port vicinity. The C-PORT modeling system includes reduced-form approaches to model dispersion of area, point, and line sources related to port activities, and emissions and activity information from the Port of Charleston. The use of the reduced-form approach to model port-related activities in C-PORT enables us to examine what-if scenarios of changes in emission volume, such as due to changes in traffic counts, fleet mix, speed, or in port emissions due to equipment or vehicles in near real-time. The C-PORT model can be used to examine different scenarios of air quality impacts in order to identify potentially at-risk populations located near emission sources, and the effects that port expansion may have on them. We will present the C-PORT modeling system prototype for the Charleston port, and highlight the benefits of such a screening-level tool with illustrative examples, and associated challenges for expanding C-PORT to model other U.S. ports