2008 SIM-series

In 2008, 14 working papers were published under the SIM series.


SIM 01-2008: Using Google Earth for GIS Road Maps
For the transport sector emissions analysis, a good database of the urban road maps is required. This working paper describes a methodology to develop a set of road maps in GIS format using Google Earth.

SIM 02-2008: Four Simple Equations for Vehicular Emissions Inventory
This working paper explains four different equations to develop an emissions inventory - using base as (a) number of vehicles (b) fuel consumption by mode (c) passenger kilometers traveled or (d) ambient data followed by source apportionment. Each methodology has its advantages and disadvantages and an explanation is provided for developing the involved parameters.

SIM 03-2008: Informed Decision Support for AQM in Developing Cities

SIM 04-2008: Simple and Interactive Models for Air Pollution Analysis
This working paper provides an overview of the SIM-air analytical tool for the rapid assessment and integrated analysis.

SIM 05-2008: Urban Air Pollution Analysis for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
This is an executive summary of the analysis conducted for the city of Ulaanbaatar with 2005 as the base year and particulates as the criteria pollutant. An AQM action plan for year 2020 was developed. A series of management options were analysis following the development of an emissions inventory and dispersion modeling.

SIM 06-2008: Estimating Health Impacts of Urban Air Pollution
This working paper presents a methodology to estimate health impacts - mortality and morbidity - of urban air pollution. A summary of the dose response functions and literature is also presented.

SIM 07-2008: Estimating Road Dust Emissions: Methods & Parameters
Dust 1.01, an excel based tool to calculate dust emissions on paved and unpaved roads, due to vehicular activity.

SIM 08-2008: Co-Benefits: Management Options for Local Pollution & GHG Emission Control
This working paper presents a summary of possible co-benefits of various management options - for outdoor and indoor air pollution.

SIM 09-2008: Air Pollution & Co-Benefits Analysis for Hyderabad, India
This is an executive summary of the analysis conducted for the city of Hyderabad with 2006 as the base year and particulates as the criteria pollutant. A Co-benefit AQM action plan was developed for year 2020 and submitted to local pollution control board.

SIM 10-2008: What is Particulate Matter - Composition & Summary?

SIM 11-2008: Urban Transport in India - Not so Fast for Nano Car
This working paper describe the urban transport - public and private in India and possible implications or benefits of have a small and efficient cars.

SIM 12-2008: DIESEL Program in Bangkok
For details visit - DIESEL Page

SIM 13-2008: VAPIS - Vehicular Air Pollution Information System
This is an explanation for methodology No.1 presented in SIM 02-2008 and an excel based tool to plug and play.

SIM 14-2008: An "Air Quality Management" Action Plan for Hanoi, Vietnam
This is a summary of the AQM action plan for 2020 developed for the city of Hanoi, with 2006 as the base year.

SIM-air - Simple Interactive Models for better air quality @ www.sim-air.org

Clean Air News - January 4th, 2009

Clean Air News - 2009 Issue No.01
(News Every Sunday - Last issue December 28th, 2008)

Times of India, December 29th, 2008
Improvement in public transport in Pune, India, a must in 2009.

Washington Post, December 26th, 2008
Climate Change May Boost Contact With Pollutants.

Science Daily, December 27th, 2008
No Quick Or Easy Technological Fix For Climate Change.

World Watch Institute, December 29th, 2008
Clean Coal: Wave of the Future or Empty Rhetoric.

New York Times, December 15th, 2008
Australia Unveils Targets to Cut Pollution.

India Together, December 24th, 2008
Driving away cars from city centres by Darryl D'Monte

The City Fix, December 29th, 2008
Mumbai Transportation: Where is the Money at?

Wired, December 29th, 2008
Motorcycles Finally Go Green.

Network Musings, December 12th, 2008
Advice for Cities & Towns on Green Transport.

Reuters, December 31st, 2008
Beijing's New Year Resolution - Scrap Polluting Cars.

Clear the Air - Hong Kong, December 23rd, 2008
Clean Coal Best Way To Fuel Asia's Growth.

Inhabitat, December 29th, 2008
New York City to Install Super-Efficient LED Streetlamps.

The News, December 31st, 2008
EPD Fails to Control Air Pollution in Lahore, Pakistan.

The New Nation, January 1st, 2009
Making an Environmentally Friendly City, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Guardian, January 2nd, 2009
NASA climate expert (James Hansen) makes personal appeal to Obama.

The Star Online, Malaysia, January 1st, 2009
Project towards making Penang smoke-free.

NY, USA, January 1st, 2009
Clean air for the New Year.

Tehran News, January 1st, 2009
Car exhaust fumes blamed for over 80% of air pollution in Tehran, Iran.

Ghana Business News, January 2nd, 2009
Ghanaians warned about effects of carbon emissions.

AFP, January 2nd, 2009
Hong Kong air pollution worst since records began.

Punch (Nigeria), December 31st, 2008
Steady Pace to Mega City Status for Lagos, Nigeria.

Reuters, January 2nd, 2009
Big solar power plant planned for northwest China.

Now Public, January 3rd, 2009
Two-stroke Engine Pollution Solution Bangkok, Thailand.

Happy New Year, 2009

Happy New Year.. may the year 2009 see better air pollution regulations and a speedy recovery to cleaner environment.

Happy Zeno Year by Abstruse Goose
Top 10 Green Stories of 2008 by CNN
Top 100 Environmental News of 2008 by Discover Magazine

With best Wishes,
Sarath
Urban Emissions.Info

Clean Air News - December 28th, 2008

Dear All,

this is new in the SIM-air series. This weekly post (on every Sunday) will include interesting news and articles on air pollution and climate change. For more details visit the UrbanEmissions page.

BBC - December 20th, 2008
Harvard physicist and climate change advocate John Holdren will be Mr Obama's scientific adviser.

Asian Times - December 18th, 2008
Vietnam counts cost of development, air pollution a major component.

Hurriyet Daily News - December 24th, 2008
Alarming air pollution in Ankara, Turkey.

Climate-L Daily Feed - December 18th, 2008
Economics of adaptation.

EcoWorld - December 22nd, 2008
Turning on solar thermal power.

Science Daily - December 19th, 2008
95% of the world's population lives on 10% of the world's land.

Science Daily - December 19th, 2008
Olympic Pollution Controls In Beijing China Had Big Impact On Air Pollution Levels.

Science Daily - December 23rd, 2008
A Price on Carbon not enough to save rainforests.

Science Daily - December 23rd, 2008
Developing countries lack means to acquire more efficient technologies.

Science Daily - December 24th, 2008
Does global warming lead to A change in upper atmospheric transport.

Economist - December 18th, 2008
Pocket world in figures - clean energy.

Economist - December 21st, 2008
Climate change diplomacy - fiddling with words.

NPR - December 23rd, 2008
What Mode Of Transportation Is Greenest?

Guardian - December 24th, 2008
Change at what price - Environmental year 2008 in review.

Guardian - December 23rd, 2008
UK - Government buildings emit more CO2 than all of Kenya.

NY Times - December 15th, 2008
Pollution or Technology Problem?

EcoWorldly - December 23rd, 2008
There is no point in calculating your carbon footprint - you need to understand it!

Wired - December 17th, 2008
Oil Is Not the Climate Change Culprit — It's All About Coal.

Clean Air vs. Polluted Air: How much, Where at, Why?

In the developing countries, the monitoring of air pollution is limited, due to limited capacity, supply of equipment, technical training, etc etc. Still, we manage the address the air pollution issues, with what is available. Same can be achieved and enhanced by combining the modeling efforts to forecast and validate air pollution in real time and support the compliance/regulation duties, along with some decision making support.

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) offered a course on air quality forecasting at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorological (Pune, India) between December 8-12.

Course material includes training on the modeling tools (WRF-Chem) and 101 lectures on various components of air pollution modeling.

Material for a similar course in Lima, Peru (June, 2006)

Also see

• Air Pollution Forecasting in the Offing in India (ToI, December 7th, 2008)
• AirNOW program by USEPA
  
• SmogCity - A play tool to understand physical and chemical processes of smog formation in a city
• Air Quality Forecasting in UK
• Mobile Signals to Identify Congestion Zones (India)
  

Cleaning the Air Helps Cool the Planet

this is the article published in Scientific American this week.. It is important we talk about climate change, mitigation and adaptation, technological and management options to manage climate change, but if we want to put the money where our mouth is, then "cleaning the local air pollution" is the cost effective and best option.

A note on co-benefits of various management options @ Series 08-2008.

Earlier blog on co-benefits here.

210,000 Christmas lights !!

if this is not waste, then what is.

Other side of Atlantic, we have the UNFCCC convention in Poznan, discussing how to save energy, so another can have 210,000 Christmas lights, synchronized with music on home computer



I will give 10 for the effort and the art work.

Clean Coal = Healthy Smoking

it is still bad, no matter how little the burning is.

An article on CNN quoting, Al Gore, ".... but Gore, who said that "clean coal" was like "healthy smoking", is convinced that we need to change our habits now."

The argument should not be interpreted as "don't use", but "use wisely".

The discussion is about prevention vs. control. A group of population conserving energy by changing their habits, doesn't translate to reduction in the electricity generation. The generation still continues to happen (and grow) and get diverted to a different population group. But, in theory, the incremental change that might have taken place because of the new population becoming on-grid, is avoided.

By changing our habits, we prevented the growth and by controlling the consumption at the generators, we are reducing the possible pollution levels. However, we are in need of large scale interventions, than clean coal technologies.

The climate change gurus might say this is important for saving the environment on a long term basis, but the near term air pollution, which is interlinked with the climate change, needs immediate attention.

If you look at the numbers projected by WHO on the possible mortality rates due to air pollution, the need to focus on local criteria pollutants, such as particulate matter, is now.

As the quote says, smoking even one cigarette is harmful.. however clean it may be. So, even if the power plant is using the cleanest of the coal, even if a group is using the low emission car abiding all standards, there is nothing better than not using or using less.

Also see

• An article "Carbon Dioxide and Climate" from July, 1959 issue of Scientific American
  
• Industry Butt Heads Over 'Clean Coal' @ NPR
• Air Impacts
• True Cost of Coal by Green Peace
• Future of Coal by MIT
• Clean Coal Technology by US DoE
• India & Coal Technology by PEW Climate
• World Coal Institute
• Coal Warriors: Enviros Take Aim at Clean Coal 'Myth' by Wall Street Journal
  

"Clean" Coal Advertisement !!

What is Particulate Matter?

For urban air pollution, among the many pollutants that are critical, the particulate (PM) pollution is the most important.

A working paper, supporting the SIM-air program presents "What is Particulate Matter?". This paper describes the composition of PM (by size and chemistry, primary and secondary), sources estimation based on studies around the world using bottom up (via emissions) and top-down (via source apportionment) methodologies, and impacts of PM on health and environment.

Cities highlighted in the paper are

• India - Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune
• Brazil - Sao Paulo
• Chile - Santiago
• Mexico - Mexico City
• Peru - Lima
• China - Beijing, Shanghai
• Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar
• Nepal - Kathmandu
• Bangladesh - Dhaka
• Thailand - Bangkok
• Philippines - Manila
• Vietnam - Hanoi
  

Also see

• World Development Indicators
• Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling by Prof. Mark Jacobson
• PM Research by USEPA
  
• Chemistry and Modeling Activities at NARSTO
• Calculator for fugitive dust emissions - v-dust
• Urban Air Pollution Analysis in Ulaanbaatar - Report
• Haze in North India - November 2008
• Haze in Eastern China - November 2006
• Overseas Pollution Hitting US - Science Daily
  
• Health Impacts of PM Exposure by USEPA
• Cost of Pollution in China by the World Bank
• Role of Aerosols in Climate Change - Science Daily
  
• Black Carbon Emerges as a Major Player - Science Daily
• Review of Source Apportionment Studies
• Air Impacts
• Air Pollution in Megacities - Molina Center at MIT
• Air Pollution as Climate Forcing - NASA
  

Non-Motorized Transport - Is it Worth it?

Yes, it does in many ways and one group lists 28 reasons to bike.

1. Increase in local property values
2. Correlation with Overall Wealth
3. Less Public Money Is Needed To Create a High Quality Transportation System
4. High-Tech Business Is Attracted by a Perceived Better Quality of Life
5. Improved Personal Finances
6. Better Physical Health
7. Better Mental and Emotional Health
8. Fewer Overweight and Obese Citizens
9. More Free Time
10. More Beauty
11. Greater Mobility
12. Inclusion of Senior Citizens
13. More Equitable Living for Low Income Earners
14. Increased Sense of Community
15. Individual Opportunities for Safer Travel
16. Less Congested Roads
17. Safer, Quieter Neighborhoods
18. More Resources for Public Use
19. Enhanced and More Credible Metropolitan Image
20. Better Air Quality
21. Visually More Appealing Metropolitan Area
22. Cleaner Surface and Ground Water
23. Quieter City
24. Slowed Pace of Global Warming
25. More Sustainable Lifestyle
26. Recognition for Leadership in Sound Environmental Policy
27. Readiness for Other Environmental Initiatives
28. Enhanced Quality of Life for Women

Also see

• Velo Mondial
• Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia (SUMA)
  
• Bicycling as a Legitimate & Viable Form
• Bikepaths pay for themselves
• Cyclists Inciting Change thru LIVE exchange (CICLE)
  
• Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) at gTKP
• Role of NMT from Cities on the Move
• Transport Knowledge on Google - www.knoogle.net
  

Estimating Health Impacts of Urban Air Pollution

A working paper, supporting the SIM-air program presents a methodology, resources (dose response functions for mortality and morbidity), and example calculations for Estimating Health Impacts of Urban Air Pollution.

Air pollution in the urban centers is a growing concern for the public and government bodies; owing to growing number of vehicles on the road, increasing number of industries, domestic use of fossil and biomass fuels for heating and cooking. And the consequences of being exposed to air pollution due to various pollutants, such as:

• Effects on human health - Premature mortality, asthma attacks, respiratory symptoms, chronic bronchitis, oxygen deficiency in blood, eye irritation, and genetic and reproductive damages
• Effects on vegetation - Productivity loss and slower photosynthesis for vegetation
• Effects on material and structure - Corrosion of metal, accelerated erosion on building and monument
• Effects on comfort and aesthetics - Bad smell, reduced vision distance, quick paling of paint on buildings
• Effects on ecosystem (atmosphere, soil and water body) - Local human health), regional (acid rain), and global (climate change)

It is important to note that that

• The methodology is based on empirical dose response functions based on epidemiological studies conducted around the world and the calculations based on these should be taken into consideration as guidelines for comparison and decision making and should not be taken literally for conclusions.
• The uncertainty exists in calculations, every step of the way, but this is a good place to start, especially when comparing scenarios and establishing the cost effectiveness of the interventions with human health estimates as a baseline.
• The results of this methodology are as good as the inputs. The more detailed the analysis on the spatial distribution of the pollution levels for various scenarios and exposure levels based on the population distribution, the better the results.
• A literature search of similar studies in the region and the methodologies applied will help better the equation.

For more details http://www.urbanemissions.info

Also see

• Literature review on health impacts of outdoor air pollution (2004) by Health Effects Institute
• Methodology for estimating premature death associated with exposure to PM2.5 pollution by California Air Resources Board (2008)
• Presentations on epidemiological studies in Asia at BAQ 2008
• Core health indicators (2006) by World Health Organization (WHO)
  
• Cost of Pollution in China by The World Bank
• Comparative Quantification of Health Risks by WHO
  

Co-Benefits: Management Options for Local Pollution & GHG Emissions Control

While discussing the co-benefits, it is important to understand two things. (a) Economic, social, and environmental growth (triple bottom line) – occurs first in the urban centers (b) The urban centers will be the first to react to any policy and regulation changes on emission control – local and global.


Focusing on global emissions alone will not be enough - we need to get out of this pervasive either-or thinking. Local pollution and global climate change are not mutually exclusive. Instead, they are meant to be tackled together. One without the other will not work. It’s a matter of simple mathematics and increasing the effectiveness of the interventions via co-benefits.

Due to regulations and compliance issues for urban centers – industrial and residential, the primary driver for any policy intervention remains the local air pollution. It is important to note that reducing local air pollution via technical, policy, or economic interventions, leads to co-benefits reducing not only the particulate pollution but also regional pollutants such as sulfur dioxide causing acid rain or carbon dioxide leading to climate change.

Point being, for an effective strategy towards a low carbon society, actions need to be customized and addressed at the local level, with local priorities at hand.

Full paper on "Co-Benefit Options" for urban Asia is available as SIM Working Papers @ http://www.urbanemissions.info/simair