Influence of regional development policies and clean technology adoption on future air pollution exposure

Abstract

a b s t r a c tFuture air pollution emissions in the year 2030 were estimated for the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) in central California using a combined system of land use, mobile, off-road, stationary, area, and biogenic emissions models. Four scenarios were developed that use different assumptions about the density of development and level of investment in transportation infrastructure to accommodate the expected doubling of the SJV population in the next 20 years. Scenario 1 reflects current land-use patterns and infrastructure while scenario 2 encouraged compact urban footprints including redevelopment of existing urban centers and investments in transit. Scenario 3 allowed sprawling development in the SJV with reduced population density in existing urban centers and construction of all planned freeways. Scenario 4 followed currently adopted land use and transportation plans for the SJV. The air quality resulting from these urban development scenarios was evaluated using meteorology from a winter stagnation event that occurred on December 15th, 2000 to January 7th 2001. Predicted base-case PM2.5 mass concentrations within the region exceeded 35 mg m À3 over the 22-day episode. Compact growth reduced the PM2.5 concentrations by w1 mg m À3 relative to the base-case over most of the SJV with the exception of increases (w1 mg m À3 ) in urban centers driven by increased concentrations of elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC).Low-density development increased the PM2.5 concentrations by 1e4 mg m À3 over most of the region, with decreases (0.5e2 mg m À3 ) around urban areas. Population-weighted average PM2.5 concentrations were very similar for all development scenarios ranging between 16 and 17.4 mg m À3 . Exposure to primary PM components such as EC and OC increased 10e15% for high density development scenarios and decreased by 11e19% for low-density scenarios. Patterns for secondary PM components such as nitrate and ammonium ion were almost exactly reversed, with a 10% increase under low-density development and a 5% decrease under high density development. The increased human exposure to primary pollutants such as EC and OC could be predicted using a simplified analysis of population-weighted primary emissions. Regional planning agencies should develop thresholds of population-weighted primary emissions exposure to guide the development of growth plans. This metric will allow them to actively reduce the potential negative impacts of compact growth while preserving the benefits.

Long-term particulate matter modeling for health effect studies in California – Part 1: Model performance on temporal and spatial variations

“…The host air quality model employed in the current study is based on the Eulerian source-oriented University of California, Davis/California Institute of Technology (UCD/CIT) chemical transport model Held et al, 2004;Held et al, 2005;Hixson et al, 2010Hixson et al, , 2012Hu et al, 2012Hu et al, , 2010Kleeman and Cass, 2001;Kleeman et al, 1997Kleeman et al, , 2007Mysliwiec and Kleeman, 2002;Rasmussen et al, 2013;Ying et al, 2008;Ying et al, 2007;Ying and Kleeman, 2006;Zhang and Ying, 2010). The UCD/CIT model includes a complete description of atmospheric transport, deposition, chemical reaction, and gas-particle transfer.…”

The Effect of Public Participation on Environmental Governance in China–Based on the Analysis of Pollutants Emissions Employing a Provincial Quantification

“…The latest research demonstrates that the performance of environmental governance lags behind the public environmental appeal in richer regions in China [59]. Public appeal improves the green development efficiency in China, and this effect in the eastern region is higher than in the western region [60].…”

“…By adopting new technology and new materials and reforming the original products, the efficiency of the resources and energy will be improved. Environmental technologies offer a new substantive orientation and management process for minimizing the ecological impacts of economic production while enhancing the competitiveness of firms [60]. Table 6 shows that technology exerts a positive effect on NH 4 emission reduction in the eastern region.…”

Les déplacements urbains et la pollution de l’air dans des villes intermédiaires : enjeux politiques et environnementaux

“…De plus, si la densité urbaine est susceptible de promouvoir le recours aux modes de transports alternatifs à la voiture et peut ainsi permettre une diminution des sources mobiles de pollution, elle contribue à la concentration des populations dans les quartiers centraux et péricentraux au sein desquels la qualité de l'air est la moins bonne, en dépit d'une baisse des émissions dues au trafi c automobile (Marshall et al ., 2005 ;De Ridder et al ., 2008 ;Bartholomew et Ewing, 2009 ;Schweitzer et Zhou, 2010). L'inhalation des polluants pourrait également être renforcée dans les villes compactes du fait d'un accroissement des déplacements (marche à pied et vélo) les plus exposés à la pollution (de Nazelle et al ., 2009 ;Hixson et al ., 2010 ;Schweitzer et Zhou, 2010). Les politiques d'aménagement urbain pourraient donc tenir compte de ces facteurs d'ordre sanitaire, en évitant ce qui serait qualifi é de « remplissage », et prendre en considération l'impact du bâti et de la morphologie urbaine dans son ensemble sur la concentration de la pollution : la densité d'urbanisation se révèle en effet néfaste à la dispersion des polluants, ceci étant renforcé par l'infl uence des constructions sur l'écoulement du vent et l'existence des îlots de chaleur urbain.…”