Grantee Research Project Results
2009 Progress Report: Impact of Emission Reductions on Exposures and Exposure Distributions: Application of a Geographic Exposure Model
EPA Grant Number: R833624Title: Impact of Emission Reductions on Exposures and Exposure Distributions: Application of a Geographic Exposure Model
Investigators: Marshall, Julian D. , Ramachandran, Gurumurthy
Institution: University of Minnesota School of Public Health
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: September 1, 2007 through October 31, 2010 (Extended to February 29, 2012)
Project Period Covered by this Report: September 1, 2007 through September 30,2010
Project Amount: $459,556
RFA: Development of Environmental Health Outcome Indicators (2006) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , Air
Objective:
The objective of this project is to quantify source-to-receptor relationships and evaluate potential emissions reduction strategies.
Progress Summary:
Research efforts to date have involved training a new student (Ms. Katie Lundquist) to run the necessary models, and updating and automating those models (the CAMx air dispersion model and the University of Minnesota mobility-based exposure model).
The exposure model has been updated to run using the current version of Visual Studio and code written for post-processing model output. A major component of this study is evaluating emissions reduction strategies in terms of environmental equity. To this end, a system to quantify various environmental equity metrics and compare model results has been developed.
Ms. Lundquist spent 1 week at ENVIRON International Corporation (Novato, California) in an intensive training session on CAMx. Previous research used emissions inventories from the 2001 Multiple Air Toxics Exposure Study II (MATES II) study. We have updated our inputs to reflect changes found in the 2007 MATES III study, including updating the emission inventory and the meteorological data.
Using the MATES III study and the mobility-based exposure model, Ms. Lundquist determined base-case exposure levels for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from diesel engines and then compared the exposure impacts of emission reductions from the following sources: on-road mobile sources, off-road mobile sources, ships, trains, and stationary sources. We compared intake rates among sources for participants in the travel-activity diary. Additionally, we quantified environmental justice using the Gini coefficient, Atkinson coefficient, and relative difference between high- and low-socioeconomic status groups.
Results can be framed in terms of two impacts—reductions in mean exposure level and reductions in environmental injustice—for each emission reduction option. Although environmental policy may seek options that improve both impacts, trade-offs are likely between the two. It might not be possible to optimize for both goals. Our research aims to highlight tradeoffs and win-win opportunities. Preliminary results suggest that reductions to ship and train emissions would have the maximum exposure and environmental justice benefit per emission reduction, as compared to on-road, off-road, or stationary sources. More research is needed, however, and will be carried out to compare calculation methods and to test the sensitivity of the results to specific methodological choices. Finally, to obtain more robust policy recommendations from our modeling, we hope to incorporate cost analyses into our evaluations.
Future Activities:
Future activities will include incorporating the cost of reducing pollution from each of the five diesel particulate matter sources into the results. We also will analyze spatial and temporal variability in the exposure and environmental-justice impacts of specific emission reduction options.
Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 15 publications | 6 publications in selected types | All 6 journal articles |
|---|
| Type | Citation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Marshall JD. Environmental inequality:air pollution exposures in California's South Coast Air Basin. Atmospheric Environment 2008;42(21):5499-5503. |
R833624 (2008) R833624 (2009) R833624 (2011) R833624 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
Supplemental Keywords:
Exposure, air pollution, intake fraction, sensitive subpopulations, decision making, California, South Coast Air Basin, environmental justice, intake fraction, CAMx air dispersion modelRelevant Websites:
http://personal.ce.umn.edu/~marshall/ Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.