Estimating externality of population health exposure to near-road vehicular emissions

This study presents a methodology to develop finely resolved population health exposure metrics from vehicular emissions and to estimate their corresponding monetary values. The US Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory models, namely MOVES and AERMOD models, are employed for estimating traffic related particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions and near‐road pollutant concentrations respectively. Population health exposure is assessed using an exposure metric of intake fraction (iF) that measures the fraction of the pollutant inhaled by an exposed population over a defined period of time. The methodology is carried out on a real world case study of the Gold Coast region in City of Chicago. Results show that 75% of concentrations occur within 300 m which translates to 78% of population health exposure. In contrast, their physical impacts and economic losses incurred in a much wider area reaching out to a distance of 800 m and capturing 93% of the total impact.