Economic Effects of Forest Decline Due to Air Pollution. Study of the Literature Concerning Methods and Results

One of the greatest potential economic effects of air pollution and regional acidification is that on forests. The Regional Acidification INformation and Simulation (RAINS) model developed by this Project has submodels dealing with the acidification of forest soil and of direct effects of SO2 on forest vegetation. This literature survey, financed primarily by HAPRO, the Finnish Research Project on Acidification, takes an important first step in examining the methodologies for evaluating the economic effects of air pollution on forests, and gives some preliminary estimates for three European countries. It is possible that, in the future, predictions of biochemical effects by environmental models such as RAINS will be linked with economic data to give predictions of the economic effects of regional air pollution