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Air pollutants from fossil fuel fired power plants harm the environment and human health. More than 91% of Iran’s electricity production is from thermal power plants that use natural gas, diesel, and fuel oil. We apply the impact pathway approach to estimate the health impacts arising from Iranian fossil-based electricity generation emission, and in a next step, we calculate monetary costs of the estimated damages, for a one-year period starting from 20 March 2016 through 2017. We use the new version of SIMPACTS (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria) to investigate the health effects from 61 major Iran fossil-based power plants separately. The selected plants represent 95.6% of total Iran fossil-based power generation. Using the individual and different power plant estimates, we avoid extrapolation and our results can be considered more reliable, taking into account spatial differences. The total damage cost is 723.42 million USD (2000). The damage cost per generated electricity varies from 0.06 to 22.41 USD/MWh and average plant damage cost is 2.85 USD/MWh. Accounting for these external costs indicates the actual costs of fossil energy. The results are useful for policy makers to compare the health costs from these plants and to decide on cleaner energy sources and to take measures to increase benefits for society.

This study assesses the environmental damage caused by copper mining on surface water bodies in Chile. The few official records on the discharges and concentrations of arsenic and copper only allow for identifying the impacts of some mining operations in the regions of Coquimbo, Valparaíso, and O’Higgins. The economic valuation is carried out through the impact pathway approach, which relates copper production, discharges, concentrations, and dose-response coefficients to establish effects on health and agriculture. The results show that the economic damage due to water pollution occurs mainly in the regions of Coquimbo and O’Higgins. The above is explained because the greatest externalities are generated in agricultural areas, while the damage to health is low because of the small population exposed (97.6% versus 2.4%). Finally, total damages represent 0.43%, 0.26%, and 0.0001% of copper sales in the mining operations analyzed in the regions of Coquimbo, O’Higgins, and Valparaíso, respectively. Este estudio tiene como objetivo evaluar el daño ambiental provocado por la minería del cobre sobre cuerpos de agua superficiales en Chile. Los pocos registros oficiales sobre las descargas y concentraciones de arsénico y cobre solo permiten identificar los impactos de algunas operaciones mineras en las regiones de Coquimbo, Valparaíso y O’Higgins. La valoración económica se realiza a través del método de la función de daño, la cual relaciona la producción de cobre, descargas, concentraciones y coeficientes de dosis-respuesta para establecer los efectos sobre la salud y agricultura. Los resultados muestran que el daño económico por la contaminación del agua ocurre principalmente en las regiones de Coquimbo y O’Higgins. Lo anterior, se explica porque las mayores externalidades se producen en las zonas agrícolas, mientras que el daño a la salud es bajo por la escasa población expuesta (97,6% versus 2,4%). Finalmente, los daños totales representan respectivamente el 0,43%, 0,26% y 0,0001% de las ventas de cobre en las operaciones mineras analizadas en las regiones de Coquimbo, O’Higgins y Valparaíso.

The contingent valuation method (CVM) is used to measure non-market value. However, the CVM evaluates values using the subjective survey responses of consumers. Therefore, to analyze non-market value, we improve an integrated analysis module, which is divided into the following three parts: (1) a dose–response function that describes the relationship between noise exposure and annoyance, (2) the calculation of willingness to pay to reduce the noise level from the spike model in the CVM analysis, and (3) the calculation of the non-market value–related benefits by linking steps 1 and 2 above. We use the proposed integrated analysis module to analyze the value of noise reduction in South Korea. From this integrated analysis module, we find that a 1 dB reduction in living noise generated from a construction site has a value from 4578 KRW (USD$3.94) to 5794 KRW (USD$4.99) and that this value varies depending on the noise exposure level. The integrated analysis module can thus be used to improve noise policies in South Korea.

Brown coal has been the major source of energy for more than 150 years for the Czech economy, but its role in the coming decades is nowadays the source of heated debate. Many of the recurring discussions address the coal reserves that were set aside in 1991 in order to halt the massive destruction of the landscape and the unprecedented deterioration of the human environment in Northern Bohemia. We study the proposed variants of the revised mining limits using the impact-pathway approach in order to quantify and monetize the health effects of airborne emissions from coal mining and the use of extracted coal for the production of electricity and heat. We find that the dominant health impacts associated with the revision of the limits, estimated to be up to 7 billion euros over the 2015–2050 period, will stem from the use of coal for the production of electricity and heat and that a large part of the impact will be borne by populations outside the Czech Republic.

This paper reviews and compares 11 studies that have estimated external costs of fossil electricity generation by benefits transfer. These studies include 13 countries and most of these countries are developing countries. The impact pathway approach is applied to estimate the environmental impact arising from fossil fuel-fired power plant’s air emission and the related damages on human health. The estimated damages are used to value the monetary external costs from fossil fuel electricity generation. The estimated external costs in the 13 countries vary from 0.51 to 213.5 USD (2005) per MW h due to differences in fossil fuel quality, location, technology, and efficiency of power plants and additionally differences in assumptions, monetization values, and impact estimations. Accounting for these externalities can indicate the actual costs of fossil energy. The results can be applied by policy makers to take measures to avoid additional costs and to apply newer and cleaner energy sources. The described methods in the selected studies for estimating the external costs with respect to incomplete local data can be applied as a useful example for other developing countries.

The COVID-19 epidemic has caused unprecedented impacts on the travel and tourism industry. The current study traced the impacts of COVID-19 on tourism in Iran using an “Impact Pathway (IP)” approach to identify impacts and possible mitigation strategies. The results illustrate two main impact pathways: negative impacts along the economic-institutional and socio-cultural dimensions, and positive impacts along the physical-environmental dimension. Using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) and ANP (analytic network process) models, we identified defensive and review strategies as optimal for increasing resilience against the impacts of COVID-19. These strategies control the threats and weaknesses of negative impacts and enhance the opportunities and strengths emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic for tourism. We use this information to identify optimal strategies for dealing with the impacts of this crisis on tourism. Most prominently among them is the development of an integrated management system that improves the coordination of the response of local government to crisis and that better orchestrates the combined efforts and integration of non-governmental organizations.

Full-cost accounting techniques incorporate the environmental and societal burdens a product generates through its manufacture, use, and disposal into that product’s price. This research generates full-cost prices for functionally equivalent chromated copper arsenate (CCA) treated wood and galvanized steel guardrail posts by combining previously conducted life cycle inventory analyses results with secondary emission valuation data. Based on the analysis, both CCA-treated posts and galvanized steel posts have environmental damage costs associated with emissions generated through the product’s manufacturing, use, and disposal stages. After developing full-cost prices for product alternatives, CCA-treated wood guardrail posts were found to be a more economical and environmentally responsible alternative to galvanized steel. In addition to generating full-cost prices, this research uses Monte Carlo simulation to provide estimates of variability around CCA-treated wood and galvanized steel damage costs.

Monetized environmental health impact assessments help to better evaluate the environmental burden of a wide range of economic activities. Apart from the limitations and uncertainties in physical and biological science used in such assessments, assumptions taken from economic valuation may also substantially influence subsequent policy-making considerations. This study attempts to demonstrate the impact of normative policy assumptions on quantified external costs using a case study of recently discussed variants of future coal mining and use of extracted coal in electricity and heat generation in the Czech Republic. A bottom-up impact-pathway approach is used for quantification of external costs. Several policy perspectives are elaborated for aggregating impacts that differ in geographic coverage and in how valuation of quantified impacts is adjusted in a particular perspective. We find that the fraction of monetized external impacts taken into policy-making considerations may vary according to choice of decision perspective up to a factor of 10. At present there are virtually no hard rules for defining geographical boundaries or adjusting values for a summation of monetized environmental impacts. We, however, stress that any rigorous external cost assessment should, for instance in a separate calculation, take account of impacts occurring beyond country borders.

Air pollution is the leading cause of the global burden of disease from the environment, entailing substantial economic consequences. International shipping is a significant source of NOx, SO2, CO and PM, which contributes to the increase in O3 levels that can cause known negative health impacts. Thus, this study aimed to estimate the health impacts of ozone ship-related air pollution in Portugal in 2015. To determine the health-related effects of this sector, shipping emissions were obtained from an Automatic Identification System based emission inventory using the Ship Traffic Emission Assessment Model (STEAM). Their contributions to SOMO35 (sum of ozone daily 8-h maximum means over 35 ppb in the calendar year, expressed in ppb per day) levels in Portugal were modelled using the EMEP/MSC-W chemistry transport model (simulations with and without shipping emissions). Log-linear functions based on WHO-HRAPIE relative risks for each health endpoint (all-cause and respiratory mortality, and cardiovascular and respiratory hospital admissions) were used to estimate the attributable fractions. Then, the excess burden of disease was calculated by multiplying the attributable fractions with the baseline incidence of each health endpoint and the population at LAU2 level. Costs associated with the health impacts were estimated as the product of the excess burden of disease and its unit health cost value. Shipping emissions contributed to an increase of 21% in the number of deaths for all-cause mortality and respiratory diseases, as well as hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. A total external cost of around 180 (86–266) M€ a yr-1 was estimated for these health endpoints in 2015. These results show that O3-related air pollution from ships is a considerable problem affecting the Portuguese population.

The growing global urbanization rate implies that the sustainability challenges are increasingly concentrated in cities. At today, around 75% of global energy is consumed in urban areas, so efforts must be addressed to transform existing urban energy systems into more sustainable systems. In this perspective, a key aspect to evolve toward a cleaner and affordable energy system is the development of Multi-Energy Systems (MES) modelling, whereby heat, electricity, fuels, transport, and other energy carriers closely interact with each other at various scales. MES can optimize technical, economic and environmental performance with respect to \"traditional\" independent energy systems, at both the operational and the planning stage. This paper presents a development of the existing MESsi modelling platform, consisting in the implementation of a model estimating the impacts on air quality and human health. MESsi is a novel distributed infrastructure for modelling and co-simulating Multi-Energy-Systems. It exploits modern software design patterns (i.e. microservices) to guarantee scalability, extendibility and easy maintenance of the system. Thus, MESsi is flexible in modelling and cosimulating different energy flows in a single solution made of different interoperable modules that can be deployed in a plug-and-play fashion. The module to be implemented in MESsi infrastructure is the DIATI integrated dispersion and externalities model (DIDEM). The DIDEM model is based on the impact pathway approach, linking the simulation of pollutants dispersion to the concentration-exposure- response functions provided by latest WHO recommendations. An overview of the potential integration steps in the modelling infrastructure is described in this paper. A discussion on possible application scenarios that have different spatio-temporal resolutions is also reported. The integration of DIDEM model in MESsi platform allows the inter-connection of a detailed impact assessment to a high-level energy system simulation.