HR: 10:20h
AN: U31D-01 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: Assessing the Health Impacts of Air Pollution Regulations Using BenMAP, the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program
AU: * Hubbell, B
EM: hubbell.bryan@epa.gov
AF: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, MD C339-01, RTP, NC 27711 United States
AU: McCubbin, D
EM: Donald_McCubbin@Abtassoc.com
AF: Abt Associates, Inc., Environmental Research Area 4800 Montgomery Lane, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814 United States
AU: Hallberg, A
EM: Aaron_Hallberg@abtassoc.com
AF: Abt Associates, Inc., Environmental Research Area 4800 Montgomery Lane, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814 United States
AB: The U.S. EPA Office of Air and Radiation has developed BenMAP, the environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program, a new software tool for estimating the health and environmental impacts of environmental regulations. BenMAP is the US EPA's premier tool for estimating benefits associated with air pollution reduction strategies, and has recently been used in evaluating US EPA's Proposed Non-Road Diesel Vehicle Standards and the proposed Clear Skies Act legislation. BenMAP is a geographic information system (GIS) that uses modeled and monitored air quality data combined with population forecasts to develop estimates of changes in community level exposure to ambient environmental pollution (currently ambient air pollution, e.g. ozone and PM). These estimated changes in exposure to ambient pollution are used as inputs to concentration-response functions derived from the epidemiological literature, along with data on baseline incidence of health effects, i.e. county level age and cause specific mortality rates. The resulting point estimates of changes in incidence of health effects, along with their associated uncertainty distributions (currently based on reported standard errors in the literature), are then multiplied by economic unit values (represented by distributions), i.e. the cost of a hospital admission, to derive dollar estimates of health benefits. BenMAP is unique in that it uses highly detailed census and health data matched with spatially detailed environmental quality data to estimate health benefits. The program can also provide estimates of the uncertainty associated with the estimated benefits. Other features of the program include the ability to pool results from multiple studies of the same endpoint, using fixed or random effects weights, or user supplied weights. BenMAP also incorporates functions to manipulate and combine information on environmental quality from many different sources. For the current version focusing on air pollution, these sources include monitor data from the AIRS network and model data from a number of different models, including REMSAD, CMAQ, and CAMx. Users can create spatially interpolated air quality surfaces using monitored data, modeled data, or a combination of both, using the model data to scale the monitored data, across time, space, or both. These air quality surfaces can then be combined with the population data to create exposure maps. Exposure maps can also be exported to GIS ready shape files with .dbf data structures. The BenMAP software includes integrated mapping and visualization functions, so that users can easily view their air quality data, model inputs such as population, and the results of analyses. BenMAP can export results to standard spreadsheet formats, as well as to shape files for use in other geographic information systems, such as ArcView. BenMAP is a new and extremely powerful tool. It is a key component in EPA's drive to produce fast, policy-relevant analyses for decision-makers and should be a useful addition to the policy analyst's toolbox.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0345 Pollution--urban and regional (0305)
DE: 6304 Benefit-cost analysis
DE: 6309 Decision making under uncertainty
DE: 6615 Legislation and regulation
SC: U
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting