Use of Great Lakes Air Toxics Emissions Inventory data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for risk screening
- Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources, Madison, WI (United States). Bureau of Air Management
This paper discusses one way to use the Great Lakes Regional Air Toxics Emissions Inventory with a Geographic Information System (GIS) application to conduct an air toxics risk screening analysis. The emissions inventory was developed using the Regional Air Pollutant Inventory Development System (RAPIDS). This system allowed eight Great Lakes States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and the Province of Ontario to populate the Great Lakes Regional Air Toxics Emissions Inventory with emissions data in a common format. A GIS system is used to convert emissions data into exposure estimates. Census data are then used with the exposure information to document where exposed populations reside. This study is conducted using data for Beloit, WI/South Beloit, IL, a town which straddles the border of Illinois and Wisconsin. The purpose of the study is to illustrate the use of emissions inventories to screen for air toxics hot spots. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has developed a GIS emissions screening model to analyze impacts of multiple sources of air pollution. A tool called the Risk Screening Model was created in 1992 based on an EPA grant to interpret emissions information from EPA`s Toxics Release Inventory database. The dispersion analysis for the risk screening model uses generic modeling runs from the Industrial Source Complex 3 Short Term (ISCST 3) model, an EPA approved regulatory air model, and calculates the concentrations at the receptors. The objective of the model is to combine air dispersion analysis data and census data to determine the magnitude and spatial extent of concentrations of air pollutants from one or multiple stationary point sources. The ability to visualize and explain the impacts of the emissions is a very powerful aid to explaining air pollution issues to the public and decision and policy makers.
- OSTI ID:
- 351208
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-970677--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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