AIR POLLUTION, HEALTH AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE POLICY ANDFUTURE TECHNOLOGIES: AN INTEGRATED MODEL ANALYSIS

The central research questions for this study were: 1) How will technologies and policy choices in response to global change impact air quality, human health and the economy on global to local scales by 2050? 2) What are the quantified costs and benefits of these different adaptation choices? Our focus was to assess the local air pollution impacts of energy and transportation technologies and air pollution and climate policies, separately and in combination. We assessed the impacts on human health and the economic benefits and costs of these policies and technologies. To conduct this research, we developed and used an integrated modeling framework. We developed model links between existing models of air quality, human health, and the economy. This involved linking the United States Regional Energy Policy (USREP) model, the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx), and the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis (BenMAP) program. We evaluated the potential uncertainties that arise with linking air quality to health impacts modeling, specifically addressing the question of model resolution. We used our coupled framework to evaluate carbon policies on a national and regional level, including cap-and-trade, clean energy, and transportation policies, and conducted associated sensitivity analysis.We then extended our methodology to assess health-related economic benefits endogenously, closing the loop and providing additional economic evaluation of our scenarios.