HR: 1330h
AN: U32A-0031    [PDF]
TI: Evaluating the Impact of Air Pollution on Human Health in China: the Price of Clean Air
AU: * Wang, X
EM: xwang@princeton.edu
AF: Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Robertson Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AU: Mauzerall, D L
EM: mauzeral@princeton.edu
AF: Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Robertson Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AU: Hu, Y
EM: ythu@themis.ce.gatech.edu
AF: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332 United States
AU: Russell, A G
EM: ted.russell@ce.gatech.edu
AF: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332 United States
AU: Woo, J
EM: woojh21@cgrer.uiowa.edu
AF: Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, University of Iowa, 252 Iowa Advanced Technology Labs, Iowa City, IA 52242 United States
AU: Streets, D G
EM: dstreets@anl.gov
AF: Argonne National Laboratory, DIS/900, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439 United States
AB: Population growth, rapid urbanization and economic development are contributing to increased energy consumption in China. One of the unintended consequences is poor air quality due to a lack of environmental controls. The coal dependent energy structure in China only worsens the situation. Quantification of the environmental costs resulting from air pollution is needed in order to provide a mechanism for making strategic energy policy that accounts for the life-cycle cost of energy use. However, few such studies have been conducted for China that examine the entire energy system. Here we examine the extent to which public health has been compromised due to elevated air pollution and how China could incorporate environmental costs into future energy and environmental policies. Taking the Shandong region in eastern China as a case study, we develop a high-resolution regional inventory for anthropogenic emissions of NOx, CO, PM2.5, PM10, VOCs, NH3 and SO2. SMOKE (Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions Modeling System) is used to process spatial and temporal distributions and chemical speciation of the regional emissions, MM5 (the Fifth-Generation NCAR/Penn State Meso-scale Model, Version 3) is used to generate meteorology and Models3/CMAQ (Community Multi-scale Air Quality Modeling System) is used to simulate ambient concentrations of particulates and other gaseous species in this region. We then estimate the mortality and morbidity in this region resulting from exposure to these air pollutants. We also estimate the monetary values associated with the resulting mortality and morbidity and quantify the contributions from various economic sectors (i.e. power generation, transportation, industry, residential and others). Finally, we examine the potential health benefits that adoption of best available or advanced energy (coal-based, in particular) and environmental technologies in different sectors could bring about. The results of these analyses are intended to provide insight into whether China should choose to continue business as usual, adopt marginal, additional environmental controls for conventional energy technologies, or leapfrog to advanced, low-emission energy technologies. Finally, we make recommendations on which energy sector priority should be placed after environmental costs are taken into account.
DE: 0345 Pollution--urban and regional (0305)
SC: U
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting