Estimating Regional Contributions to Atmospheric Haze Using GIS. 2005 ESRI International User Conference

ArcObjects was used to develop a customized spatial mapping tool to aid in characterizing relationships between air pollutant emissions and downwind air quality observations. The tool, called Emission Impact Potential (EIP), combines backward-trajectory meteorological analyses with emission inventory data to calculate and visualize emissions source regions most likely to impact a specified air pollution monitoring site. EIP generates spatial probability distributions that account for the spatial distribution of emissions and wind trajectory probability distributions. Thus, pollutant emissions that are most likely to affect a measurement location are weighted more heavily in correlation analyses. This analysis approach helps to identify emissions source regions likely to impact specified monitoring sites and to more intelligently target emission reductions to improve downwind air quality