title: A cost-efficiency and health benefit approach to improve urban air quality.
abstract: When ambient air quality standards established in the EU Directive 2008/50/EC are exceeded, Member States are obliged to develop and implement Air Quality Plans (AQP) to improve air quality and health. Notwithstanding the achievements in emission reductions and air quality improvement, additional efforts need to be undertaken to improve air quality in a sustainable way - i.e. through a cost-efficiency approach. This work was developed in the scope of the recently concluded MAPLIA project "Moving from Air Pollution to Local Integrated Assessment", and focuses on the definition and assessment of emission abatement measures and their associated costs, air quality and health impacts and benefits by means of air quality modelling tools, health impact functions and cost-efficiency analysis. The MAPLIA system was applied to the Grande Porto urban area (Portugal), addressing PM10 and NOx as the most important pollutants in the region. Four different measures to reduce PM10 and NOx emissions were defined and characterized in terms of emissions and implementation costs, and combined into 15 emission scenarios, simulated by the TAPM air quality modelling tool. Air pollutant concentration fields were then used to estimate health benefits in terms of avoided costs (external costs), using dose-response health impact functions. Results revealed that, among the 15 scenarios analysed, the scenario including all 4 measures lead to a total net benefit of 0.3M€·y(-1). The largest net benefit is obtained for the scenario considering the conversion of 50% of open fire places into heat recovery wood stoves. Although the implementation costs of this measure are high, the benefits outweigh the costs. Research outcomes confirm that the MAPLIA system is useful for policy decision support on air quality improvement strategies, and could be applied to other urban areas where AQP need to be implemented and monitored.
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Miranda
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: jferreira@ua.pt.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Silveira
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Relvas
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duque
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roebeling
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.affiliation: EPIUnit-Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; National Institute of Public Health, Environmental Health Department, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gama
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sá
authors.affiliation: CESAM & Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Borrego
authors.affiliation: EPIUnit-Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; National Institute of Public Health, Environmental Health Department, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Teixeira
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000191:economics*; D002947:Cities; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D011174:Portugal
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants
keywords: Air quality modelling; Cost-benefit analysis; Emission abatement measures; Health impact functions