Air quality estimates in Taiyan, Shanxi Province, China

Abstract

In a previous cost-benefit analysis of local air quality improvements in Shanxi, a simple linear relationship between emissions and surface concentrations was assumed (Aunan et al., 2004). This study looks more closely at the relationship between emissions and concentrations and employs a dispersion model to estimate the local air quality in Taiyuan based on the emissions from a variety of sources from large industry to households. We show that even with limited data availability we were able to make fairly accurate estimates of the air quality. We utilized the model on five abatement projects ranging from emission reductions in the households to tall industrial stacks. We show that the measures targeted at smaller industries and household consumption are often the most effective in terms of improving local air quality because these sources have low emission heights and are located in the immediate vicinity of the population. The larger industrial sources, though potent in the emission reduction, often have such tall stacks that the emissions are fairly diluted before they reach the ground and therefore have little effect on the concentration of particles or SO2 in the city.