Design and demonstration of a next-generation air quality attainment assessment system for PM2.5 and O3

Due to the increasingly stringent standards, it is important to assess whether the proposed emission reduction will result in ambient concentrations that meet the standards. The Software for Model Attainment Test—Community Edition (SMAT-CE) is developed for demonstrating attainment of air quality standards of O₃ and PM_2.5. SMAT-CE improves computational efficiency and provides a number of advanced visualization and analytical functionalities on an integrated GIS platform. SMAT-CE incorporates historical measurements of air quality parameters and simulated air pollutant concentrations under a number of emission inventory scenarios to project the level of compliance to air quality standards in a targeted future year. An application case study of the software based on the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) shows that SMAT-CE is capable of demonstrating the air quality attainment of annual PM_2.5 and 8-hour O₃ for a proposed emission control policy.     

Development and case study of a science-based software platform to support policy making on air quality

This article describes the development and implementations of a novel software platform that supports real-time, science-based policy making on air quality through a user-friendly interface. The software, RSM-VAT, uses a response surface modeling (RSM) methodology and serves as a visualization and analysis tool (VAT) for three-dimensional air quality data obtained by atmospheric models. The software features a number of powerful and intuitive data visualization functions for illustrating the complex nonlinear relationship between emission reductions and air quality benefits. The case study of contiguous U.S. demonstrates that the enhanced RSM-VAT is capable of reproducing the air quality model results with Normalized Mean Bias < 2% and assisting in air quality policy making in near real time.     

A modeling study of coarse particulate matter pollution in Beijing: regional source contributions and control implications for the 2008 Summer Olympics

In the last 10 yr, Beijing has made a great effort to improve its air quality. However, it is still suffering from regional coarse particulate matter (PM10) pollution that could be a challenge to the promise of clean air during the 2008 Olympics. To provide scientific guidance on regional air pollution control, the Mesoscale Modeling System Generation 5 (MM5) and the Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) air quality modeling system was used to investigate the contributions of emission sources outside the Beijing area to pollution levels in Beijing. The contributions to the PM10 concentrations in Beijing were assessed for the following sources: power plants, industry, domestic sources, transportation, agriculture, and biomass open burning. In January, it is estimated that on average 22% of the PM10 concentrations can be attributed to outside sources, of which domestic and industrial sources contributed 37 and 31%, respectively. In August, as much as 40% of the PM10 concentrations came from regional sources, of which approximately 41% came from industry and 31% from power plants. However, the synchronous analysis of the hourly concentrations, regional contributions, and wind vectors indicates that in the heaviest pollution periods the local emission sources play a more important role. The implications are that long-term control strategies should be based on regional-scale collaborations, and that emission abatement of local sources may be more effective in lowering the PM10 concentration levels on the heavy pollution days. Better air quality can be attained during the Olympics by placing effective emission controls on the local sources in Beijing and by controlling emissions from industry and power plants in the surrounding regions.     

Contribution of Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluents to Nutrient Dynamics in Aquatic Systems: A Review

Excessive nutrient loading (considering nitrogen and phosphorus) is a major ongoing threat to water quality and here we review the impact of nutrient discharges from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to United States (U.S.) freshwater systems. While urban and agricultural land uses are significant nonpoint nutrient contributors, effluent from point sources such as WWTPs can overwhelm receiving waters, effectively dominating hydrological characteristics and regulating instream nutrient processes. Population growth, increased wastewater volumes, and sustainability of critical water resources have all been key factors influencing the extent of wastewater treatment. Reducing nutrient concentrations in wastewater is an important aspect of water quality management because excessive nutrient concentrations often prevent water bodies from meeting designated uses. WWTPs employ numerous physical, chemical, and biological methods to improve effluent water quality but nutrient removal requires advanced treatment and infrastructure that may be economically prohibitive. Therefore, effluent nutrient concentrations vary depending on the particular processes used to treat influent wastewater. Increasingly stringent regulations regarding nutrient concentrations in discharged effluent, along with greater freshwater demand in populous areas, have led to the development of extensive water recycling programs within many U.S. regions. Reuse programs provide an opportunity to reduce or eliminate direct nutrient discharges to receiving waters while allowing for the beneficial use of reclaimed water. However, nutrients in reclaimed water can still be a concern for reuse applications, such as agricultural and landscape irrigation.     

RURAL RESIDENTIAL WATER DEMAND: AN ECONOMETRIC AND SIMULATION ANALYSIS1

ABSTRACT: This study proposes that demand management through pricing policies can be used in conjunction with supply management to solve water supply problems. Economic principles are shown to apply to rural residential water use. A demand function for water was developed based on cross-sectional water use data collected in Kentucky. Price was found to be a significant determinant of the quantity of water demanded. A constant price elasticity of -0.92 was found. The demand function was used in a simulation analysis to determine reservoir capacity needed to supply water needs of a rural community. The simulation revealed that price can significantly affect required reservoir storage.     

A case study characterizing animal fecal sources in surface water using a mitochondrial DNA marker

Water quality impairment by fecal waste in coastal watersheds is a public health issue. The present study provided evidence for the use of a mitochondrial (mtDNA) marker to detect animal fecal sources in surface water. The accurate identification of fecal pollution is based on the notion that fecal microorganisms preferentially inhabit a host animal’s gut environment. In contrast, mtDNA host-specific markers are inherent to eukaryotic host cells, which offers the advantage by detecting DNA from the host rather than its fecal bacteria. The present study focused on sampling water presumably from non-point sources (NPS), which can increase bacterial and nitrogen concentrations to receiving water bodies. Stream sampling sites located within the Piscataqua River Watershed (PRW), New Hampshire, USA, were sampled from a range of sites that experienced nitrogen inputs such as sewer and septic systems and suburban runoff. Three mitochondrial (mtDNA) gene marker assays (human, bovine, and canine) were tested from surface water. Nineteen sites were sampled during an 18-month period. Analyses of the combined single and multiplex assay results showed that the proportion of occurrence was highest for bovine (15.6%; n = 77) compared to canine (5.6%; n = 70) and human (5.7%; n = 107) mtDNA gene markers. For the human mtDNA marker, there was a statistically significant relationship between presence vs. absence and land use (Fisher’s test p = 0.0031). This result was evident particularly for rural suburban septic, which showed the highest proportion of presence (19.2%) compared to the urban sewered (3.3%), suburban sewered (0%), and agricultural (0%) as well as forested septic (0%) sites. Although further testing across varied land use is needed, our study provides evidence for using the mtDNA marker in large watersheds.     

空气污染与健康效益评估工具BenMAP CE研发

为了评估空气污染带来的健康冲击、评估健康效益,克服现有评估工具(BenMAP V4.0)计算速度缓慢及用户体验较差等问题,受美国环保署委托,设计并研发了新一代空气污染与健康效益评估工具BenMAP CE,搭建了BenMAP CE的框架,进行了详细功能设计,并利用美国环保署提供的数据进行了实测.测试结果表明,基于相同的输入文件和设置,BenMAP CE能重现BenMAP V4.0的计算结果,相比现有的评估工具,BenMAP CE具有良好的用户体验、强大的GIS展示功能及大幅提高的计算速度.BenMAP CE是考虑了污染物环境浓度削减、人口密度、收入差异等经济因素的综合性评估工具,能为决策者评估空气污染控制措施所带来的健康效益提供辅助决策依据.     

大气污染防治综合科学决策支持平台的开发及应用

大气污染防治和环境治理的紧迫性和复杂性需要科学有效的决策,而以费效评估为标志的综合决策评估模型是支撑环境决策和管理的重要工具.当前以ABaCAS（Air Pollution Control Cost-Benefit and Attainment Assessment System,空气污染控制成本效益与达标评估系统）为代表的综合决策评估模型可以实现对特定减排方案的费效评估,然而无法支持开展基于费效的达标路径优化,以及对应不同环境目标下减排策略的优化制定.针对上述问题,建立了大气污染防治综合科学决策支持平台.该平台以ABaCAS的4个核心模块为基础,建立了新的基于环境目标的反算技术（LE-CO）及优化集成运行模式（ABaCAS-OE）,实现了对不同环境目标要求的减排量反算,并对优化的减排策略下的空气质量改善效果、目标可达性、控制成本及健康收益进行快速估算.将大气污染防治综合科学决策支持平台应用到京津冀及周边地区"2+26"城市,反算了2035年达标要求下的减排情景,以及对应减排方案的费用与效益.结果表明,相较于2015年,预测了2035年京津冀及周边地区的PM_2.5、SO₂、NO_x、VOCs、NH₃排放量需分别减排70%~87%、49%~85%、66%~74%、51%~66%、0~40%才可达标,并且该情景可以带来可观的效益,费用-效益比达3.7.未来大气污染防治综合科学决策支持平台的研究将进一步面向多目标、多行业、多组分、多区域的精细化调控技术,实现经济、能源、排放、浓度、成本、健康、生态、气候一体化的综合决策,以全面支撑我国大气污染防治的综合科学决策.      

基于响应面模型的区域大气污染控制辅助决策工具研发

基于CMAQ模型结果,利用高维克里金插值算法,建立了排放控制因子与污染物环境浓度的响应面模型(RSM),实现了大气污染可控源排放与复合污染水平的实时函数响应.研究结果显示,RSM对PM2.5的预测结果与CMAQ实际模拟结果的误差在容许范围内(最大误差小于0.20μg.m-3,3.89%).基于所建立的RSM,开发了RSM-VAT区域大气污染控制可视化辅助决策工具.使用RSM-VAT对美国8个典型城市的PM2.5污染状况进行了控制情景分析,通过"可视化展示"和"图表分析"二大模块,输出不同控制情景下的环境污染物浓度的实时响应图、可视化展示和数据分析图表等结果.