A comprehensive approach for quantifying environmental costs associated with unpaved roads dust

ABSTRACT

This study attempted to quantify the environmental damage costs associated with unpaved roads dust in Wyoming. Dust has profound impacts on human health, agriculture, and livestock. Incorporating the environmental impacts in the decision making process can highly enhance the planning process and maximise the social welfare especially at the local level. It was found that, dust associated with unpaved roads is responsible for environmental damages that worth $2429/mile/year. The majority of this cost is related to changes in annual crops yield (68%) and human health (38%). Unpaved roads dust seems to have a minor impact on livestock production (1%). The total estimated environmental damage costs in Wyoming is $32 million/year. This value is equal to 0.08% of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 4.7% of the gross value added by the agriculture sector in the state. In addition, these impacts represent 0.1% of the total personal income in the state. A life cycle cost comparison showed that maintaining unpaved roads using chemical suppressants is 48% cheaper than traditional maintenance methods considering service life and environmental impacts. The obtained results from this analysis can be used as basis for cost to benefit evaluations in the management process.

KEYWORDS:

• Unpaved roads
• dust
• air pollution
• external cost
• CMAQ

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Mountain Plains Consortium (MPC), Wyoming Counties, and the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT).