A quantitative methodology for indexing environmental sensitivity and pollution potential

A methodology for rating the suitability of sites forthe location of industrial facilities is formulated and appliedto the case of a coal-fired power plant location. The methodologycomprises two major interlinked components: the environmentalplant location indexing component, which involves theidentification, scaling and weighting of environmentalsensitivity factors; and the impact analysis component, whichinvolves the superimposition of the pollution generation impactsof an industrial facility on spatially gridded zones of variousenvironmental sensitivities. For each rectangular areal unitdefined by a square grid, the Unit Pollution Potential Index isdetermined by the severity and distribution of key environmentalsensitivity factors and the coverage of superimposed pollutanteffects as determined by contaminant fate and transport models.For any alternative site of a planned facility, the summation ofthe unit indices over the area of influence of the facilityprovides the quantitative Pollution Index, which can be used as abasis for comparison of alternative sites for planned facilities.For this paper, this methodology is applied to the hypotheticalcase of the siting of a coal-fired power plant in thenortheastern region of the United States, in which threealternative sites are considered. The three sites: A, B and Cyielded indices of 47.83, 47.91 and 47.6, respectively, indicatingthat site C is the most suitable for siting the power plant.