Optimal air pollution control strategies: a case study

Air pollution can be controlled at a regional level in several different ways, such as emission standards, taxes, permits, etc. The European Community decided to set standards on environmental quality, namely on the distribution of pollutant concentrations measured at ground level. This paper deals with the problem of evaluating the trade-offs between such ambient standards and pollution abatement costs. For this purpose, a two-objective linear program is formulated and solved for a 300 km2 region in northern Italy, using a simulation model to evaluate the effects of each pollution source. The software developed forms the basis of a more complete decision support system for this type of complex problem. Its structure and components are described in detail