Air Quality and Health Impacts of Electrifying Chicago's Municipal Vehicle Fleet
Abstract
The Chicago metropolitan region, occupied by approximately 9.5 million people, has begun to grapple with two modern sustainability challenges common to urban centers - climate change and poor air quality. Climate change has exposed Chicagoland's citizens to more intense and persistent heat waves as well as more frequent extreme precipitation and flooding events. In addition, air quality in the Chicago region has been in EPA non-attainment status for ozone concentrations since 2012. These environmental threats have put the public health of Chicagoland residents at risk, with a disproportionate burden falling on disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. As the transportation sector is the largest contributor to urban air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improvements in this sector could provide a major advance toward meeting emissions reduction and public health goals. Therefore, our research investigates the co-benefits of the electrification of Chicago's municipal vehicle fleet (transit buses, school buses and refuse trucks). Using the two-way coupled Community Multi-Scalar Air Quality-Weather Research and Forecasting (CMAQ-WRF) model to simulate air quality over the city of Chicago, we quantify the air quality benefits and tradeoffs of municipal vehicle electrification at a 1.3 km resolution. Emissions from the National Emissions Inventory for municipal vehicles are altered to simulate enhanced and total electrification. The resolution of the model allows for analyses approaching neighborhood scales, and facilitates identification of populations vulnerable to heightened and/or persistent air pollution exposure, as well as individual bus/municipal vehicle routes for which co-benefits are maximized via EV adoption. To assess the health impacts of EV expansion, we employ the EPA's Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program (BenMAP-CE) which applies health impact functions to quantify the impact that changes in surface ozone and fine particulate matter have on respiratory illness hospitalizations and premature mortality rates. This research provides a framework for a cost-benefit analysis by city officials and planners to assess the co-benefits of fleet electrification, and how such a transition can support a city's sustainability goals.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.A21P2832R
- Keywords:
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- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 1632 Land cover change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1637 Regional climate change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE