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Modeling the Effects of Air Quality Policy Changes on Water Quality in Urban Areas

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Abstract

This paper describes the development and application of an integrated modeling framework composed of an urban air chemistry model, an urban runoff model, and a water-quality model. The models were linked to simulate the fate and transport of air emissions of nitrogen compounds in the air, urban watershed, surface water runoff, and in a coastal receiving-water body. The model linkage is demonstrated by evaluating the potential water quality implications of reducing NO x emissions by 32%, volatile organic compound emissions by 51%, and ammonia emissions by 30%, representing changes from 1987 levels to proposed 2000 target levels in Los Angeles, California, USA. Simulations of the Los Angeles dry season during the summer of 1987 (June 1 to August 31) indicated that by reducing emissions from 1987 to proposed year 2000 levels, the dry deposition nitrogen loads to Santa Monica Bay and the Ballona Creek watershed were reduced 21.4% and 15.0%, respectively. Water quality modeling results indicated that dry season atmospheric load reductions to the Ballona Creek Estuary did not reduce chlorophyll-a levels or significantly raise nighttime dissolved oxygen levels because the magnitude of the reductions was negligible compared to non-atmospheric inputs of nitrogen compounds. Simulations of the time period from November 18, 1987 to December 4, 1987 during the Los Angeles wet season indicated that air emissions reductions produced an 18.6% reduction in the dry deposition nitrogen load to Santa Monica Bay, a 15.5% reduction in the dry deposition nitrogen load to the Ballona Creek watershed, a 16.8% reduction in the wet deposition nitrogen load to the Ballona Creek watershed, and a 16.1% reduction in the stormwater discharge load from the Ballona Creek watershed. Although the wet season load reductions are significant, modeling results of the ultimate effect on the Ballona Creek Estuary water quality were inconclusive.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Arkansas, 4190 Bell Engineering Center, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 72701, USA

    Steven J. Burian (Assistant Professor)

  2. Energy and Environmental Analysis, Group TSA-4, MS-F604, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA

    Timothy N. McPherson, Michael J. Brown & Gerald E. Streit

  3. Group EET, MS-J534, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA

    H.J. Turin

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  1. Steven J. Burian
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  2. Timothy N. McPherson
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  4. Gerald E. Streit
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  5. H.J. Turin
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Burian, S.J., McPherson, T.N., Brown, M.J. et al. Modeling the Effects of Air Quality Policy Changes on Water Quality in Urban Areas. Environmental Modeling & Assessment 7, 179–190 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016328822334

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