Ethnoracial Disparities in Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution in the United States: Comparing Data Sets from Satellites, Models, and Monitors

Kerr, Gaige Hunter; Goldberg, Daniel L.; Harris, Maria H.; Henderson, Barron H.; Hystad, Perry; Roy, Ananya; Anenberg, Susan C.

doi:10.1021/acs.est.3c03999

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…However, XGB_100m consistently captured larger disparities and improvements in disparities in exposure to NO 2 for all scenarios and socioeconomic variables. Kerr et al found contrasting results as their LUR model (national model at a 100 m resolution) underestimated disparities in exposure to NO 2 compared to a CTM (12 km resolution). However, national LUR models have been found to poorly capture local spatial trends especially in urban regions .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Capturing Exposure Disparities with Chemical Transport Models: Evaluating the Suitability of Downscaling Using Land Use Regression

Zalzal,

Minet,

Brook

et al. 2024

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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High resolution exposure surfaces are essential to capture disparities in exposure to traffic-related air pollution in urban areas. In this study, we develop an approach to downscale Chemical Transport Model (CTM) simulations to a hyperlocal level (∼100m) in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) under three scenarios where emissions from cars, trucks and buses are zeroed out, thus capturing the burden of each transportation mode. This proposed approach statistically fuses CTMs with Land-Use Regression using machine learning techniques. With this proposed downscaling approach, changes in air pollutant concentrations under different scenarios are appropriately captured by downscaling factors that are trained to reflect the spatial distribution of emission reductions. Our validation analysis shows that high-resolution models resulted in better performance than coarse models when compared with observations at reference stations. We used this downscaling approach to assess disparities in exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) for populations composed of renters, low-income households, recent immigrants, and visible minorities. Individuals in all four categories were disproportionately exposed to the burden of cars, trucks, and buses. We conducted this analysis at spatial resolutions of 12, 4, 1 km, and 100 m and observed that disparities were significantly underestimated when using coarse spatial resolutions. This reinforces the need for high-spatial resolution exposure surfaces for environmental justice analyses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Capturing Exposure Disparities with Chemical Transport Models: Evaluating the Suitability of Downscaling Using Land Use Regression

Zalzal,

Minet,

Brook

et al. 2024

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…This database has illuminated disproportionate violations of the Clean Air and Water Acts near U.S. carceral facilities as well as nationwide inequities related to the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act [2,3]. To our knowledge, no study has systematically investigated violations of the Clean Air Act across the U.S. nor explored the distribution of these violations among population subgroups, despite that marginalized populations experience disproportionate air pollution exposure and associated public health damages [4][5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disproportionate Clean Air Act violations occur in communities of color throughout the United States

Kerr,

Stedman,

Anenberg

2024

Environ. Res. Lett.

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The United States (U.S.) Clean Air Act seeks to prevent and abate ambient air pollution, while also providing a framework to identify and address violations. Little research has examined where or how frequently violations of the Clean Air Act occur and how marginalized communities may bear a disproportionate share of these violations, despite the fact that marginalized communities experience persistent, disproportionate pollution levels and associated health impacts. Here, we leverage data on Clean Air Act enforcement and compliance together with demographic data to show that the most serious violations of the Act—high priority violations (HPVs)—predominantly occur in communities of color throughout the U.S. Specifically, we find that the number of facilities with an HPV within communities with the largest proportion of people of color is nearly two times greater than in communities with the smallest proportion. Only 6% of facilities with an HPV address their violations within the timeframe mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and a larger share of facilities with an HPV in disadvantaged communities do not address their violations within this timeframe compared to facilities with an HPV in non-disadvantaged communities. Enforcing agencies should improve how violations are communicated and addressed. To this end, we suggest several ways to empower individuals and communities with easy-to-access data related to Clean Air Act violations and that enforcement practices and reporting be standardized across enforcing agencies.

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“…Neighborhood-level NO 2 inequalities with race and ethnicity can be observed from space using the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). ,,− This was first demonstrated by Demetillo et al, who showed relative census tract-scale NO 2 inequalities based on TROPOMI tropospheric vertical column densities (TVCDs) oversampled to 0.01° × 0.01° agreed with results from fine-scale (250 m × 500 m) airborne remote sensing during the NASA Deriving Information on Surface Conditions from COlumn and VERtically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality (DISCOVER-AQ) in Houston. In addition, spatial patterns in oversampled TROPOMI TVCDs reflected NO 2 distributions at the surface, a conclusion based on comparisons with in-situ aircraft NO 2 vertical profiles from DISCOVER-AQ and surface measurements .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighborhood-Level Nitrogen Dioxide Inequalities Contribute to Surface Ozone Variability in Houston, Texas

Dressel,

Zhang,

Demetillo

et al. 2024

ACS EST Air

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In Houston, Texas, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air pollution disproportionately affects Black, Latinx, and Asian communities, and high ozone (O3) days are frequent. There is limited knowledge of how NO2 inequalities vary in urban air quality contexts, in part from the lack of time-varying neighborhood-level NO2 measurements. First, we demonstrate that daily TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) NO2 tropospheric vertical column densities (TVCDs) resolve a major portion of census tract-scale NO2 inequalities in Houston, comparing NO2 inequalities based on TROPOMI TVCDs and spatiotemporally coincident airborne remote sensing (250 m × 560 m) from the NASA TRacking Aerosol Convection ExpeRiment–Air Quality (TRACER-AQ). We further evaluate the application of daily TROPOMI TVCDs to census tract-scale NO2 inequalities (May 2018–November 2022). This includes explaining differences between mean daily NO2 inequalities and those based on TVCDs oversampled to 0.01° × 0.01° and showing daily NO2 column-surface relationships weaken as a function of observation separation distance. Second, census tract-scale NO2 inequalities, city-wide high O3, and mesoscale airflows are found to covary using principal component and cluster analysis. A generalized additive model of O3 mixing ratios versus NO2 inequalities reproduces established nonlinear relationships between O3 production and NO2 concentrations, providing observational evidence that neighborhood-level NO2 inequalities and O3 are coupled. Consequently, emissions controls specifically in Black, Latinx, and Asian communities will have co-benefits, reducing both NO2 disparities and high O3 days city wide.

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Ethnoracial Disparities in Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution in the United States: Comparing Data Sets from Satellites, Models, and Monitors

Cited by 6 publications

References 60 publications

Capturing Exposure Disparities with Chemical Transport Models: Evaluating the Suitability of Downscaling Using Land Use Regression

Capturing Exposure Disparities with Chemical Transport Models: Evaluating the Suitability of Downscaling Using Land Use Regression

Disproportionate Clean Air Act violations occur in communities of color throughout the United States

Neighborhood-Level Nitrogen Dioxide Inequalities Contribute to Surface Ozone Variability in Houston, Texas

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