Social consequences associated with the use of various optimization methods in the protection of air quality

Abstract

The fundamental tactics employed by the EU against air contamination, which are intended to maintain concentrations at a level that does not exceed the permissible values, usually entail considerable expense. To reduce this to a minimum, the procedure of economic optimization of air quality can be applied. When performed for a heavily polluted industrial city, it shows that it is possible to maintain concentrations below the threshold of air quality standards with relatively moderate expenditure. These evaluations also reveal that variations in population density distribution call into question the conventional wisdom that uniform air quality standards provide the best protection against air contamination for a whole region. On the contrary, an optimization that forces a drop in concentration to be evenly spread over the population, without reference to air quality standards, may lead to more efficient protection of human health and make no difference to overall expenditure.

Keywords:

• integrated assessment modelling
• protection of air quality
• emission control expenditures
• cost optimization
• air protection policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Exchange rate of $1 ≈ 3.42 PLN.

Additional information

Funding

The work was co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) [grant number POIG.01.01.02-24-017/08] within the framework of “Smart Coke Plant Meeting the Requirements of Best Available Techniques”.