Health and economic benefits of heavy-duty diesel truck emission control policies in Beijing

Shifen Cheng; Beibei Zhang; Peng Peng; Feng Lu

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2023.108152

Health and economic benefits of heavy-duty diesel truck emission control policies in Beijing

Environ Int. 2023 Sep:179:108152. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.108152. Epub 2023 Aug 16.

Authors

Shifen Cheng¹, Beibei Zhang¹, Peng Peng¹, Feng Lu²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; The Academy of Digital China, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China; Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: luf@lreis.ac.cn.

PMID: 37598595
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.108152

Abstract

PM_2.5 emissions from heavy-duty diesel trucks (HDDTs) have a significant impact on air quality, human health, and climate change, and seriously threaten the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Globally, a series of emission control measures have been implemented to reduce pollution emissions from HDDTs. Current studies assessing the impact of these measures on air quality and human health have mainly used coarse-grained emission data as input to dispersion model, resulting in the inability to capture the spatiotemporal variability of pollutant concentrations and tending to increase the uncertainty of health impact assessment results. In this study, we quantified the impact of pollution control policies for HDDTs in Beijing on PM_2.5 concentrations, human health, and economic losses by integrating policy scenario analysis, pollution dispersion simulation, public health impact and economic benefit assessment models, supported by high spatiotemporal resolution emission data from HDDTs. The results show that PM_2.5 concentrations from HDDTs exhibit significant spatial aggregation characteristics, with the intensity of aggregation at night being about twice as high as that during the day. The emission hotspots are mainly concentrated in the sixth, fifth and fourth rings and major highways. Compared to the "business as usual" scenario in 2018, the current policy of updating the fuel standard to China VI and the emission standard to China 6 can reduce PM_2.5 concentrations by 96.72%, thereby avoiding 612 premature deaths, which is equivalent to obtaining economic benefits of 1.65 billion CNY. This study further emphasizes the importance of high spatiotemporal resolution emission data during traffic dispersion modeling. The results can help improve the understanding of the effectiveness of emission reduction measures for HDDTs from a health benefit perspective.

Keywords: Dispersion model; Health impact assessment; Heavy-duty diesel trucks; Scenario analysis; Traffic emissions.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Beijing
China
Humans
Motor Vehicles*
Particulate Matter
Policy*

Substances

Particulate Matter