ExternE : externalities of energy : methodology 2005 update

The ExternE methodology provides a framework for transforming impacts that are expressed in different units into a common unit - monetary values. It has the following principal stages: 1) Definition of the activity to be assessed and the background scenario where the activity is embedded. Definition of the important impact categories and externalities. 2) Estimation of the impacts or effects of the activity (in physical units). In general, the impacts allocated to the activity are the difference between the impacts of the scenario with and the scenario without the activity. 3) Monetisation of the impacts, leading to external costs. 4) Assessment of uncertainties, sensitivity analysis. 5) Analysis of the results, drawing of conclusions. The ExternE methodology aims to cover all relevant (i.e. not negligible) external effects. The purpose of ongoing research is to cover more effects and thus reduce gaps and in addition refine the methodology to reduce uncertainties. Currently, the following impact categories are included in the methodology and described in detail in this report: 1) Environmental impacts: Impacts that are caused by releasing either substances (e.g. fine particles) or energy (noise, radiation, heat) into the environmental media air, soil and water. The methodology used here is the impact pathway approach. 2) Global warming impacts: For global warming, two approaches are followed. First, the quantifiable damage is estimated. However, due to large uncertainties and possible gaps, an avoidance cost approach is used as the recommended methodology. 3) Accidents: Accidents are rare unwanted events in contrast to normal operation. A distinction can be made between impacts to the public and occupational accident risks. Public risks can in principle be assessed by describing the possible accidents, calculating the damage and by multiplying the damage with the probability of the accidents. An issue not yet accounted for here is the valuation so-called ‘Damocles’ risks, for which high impacts with low probability are seen as more problematic than vice versa, even if the expected value is the same. A method for addressing this risk type has still to be developed

The Environmental Burden of Disease due to transportation noise in Flanders (Belgium) 2004

Exposure to environmental noise due to rail, road and air traffic affects public health. Cardiovascular diseases, sleep disturbance and annoyance are the most-reported harmful effects of noise exposure in scientific literature. In this article, the transportation noise burden of disease in Flanders is quantified based on the disability adjusted life year methodology (DALY), combining the burden due to premature death and disability in a single index. The estimation relies on relevant health statistics, exposure-response relationships and the distribution of exposure. The estimated number of DALYs due to environmental noise in Flanders 2004 was 20 517, corresponding to 1.7% of the total burden of disease in Flanders or 21.8% of the total environmental burden of disease in Flanders due to particular matter, ozone, carcinogenic air pollutants (i.e. lead, ultra violet radiation, benzene, radon, nickel, arsenic and polyaromatic hydrocarbons) and noise. The results establish that traffic- related noise exposure has a large impact on public health. Nevertheless, the results must be interpreted carefully because of the rather large uncertainty range attributable to the variety in exposure level, the uncertainty in exposureresponse functions and the choice of severity weight.

Ten Years of Research and Policy on Particulate Matter Air Pollution in Hot Spot Flanders

Air pollution is a systemic risk embedded in environmental, political, social and economic systems. Risk assessments on air pollution therefore involve communication between several stakeholders at multiple scale levels. This study focuses on a small part of the risk assessment, evaluating actions or decisions on both policy and research fields using an importance-performance/feasibility analysis as a scoring methodology. Subsequently, results were discussed by researchers and policy makers at a closed workshop to guarantee a safe place for knowledge integration. Learned aspects and new insights are useful for future scenarios on air pollution. This study was performed in Flanders, the European hot spot for air particulate matter. After 10 years of policy efforts in Flanders, the daily air particulate matter PM10 standard, which was enforced by the European Commission (EC) in 1999, is still being exceeded more times than allowed. No exemption for not achieving this standard was granted by the EC. What went wrong on policy and research fields in Flanders and how can this situation be prevented in the future taking into account the new PM2.5 standard that will be implemented in 2015 (European Directive 2008/50/EC)? Results of the importance-performance/feasibility analysis on actions related to PM research and policy in Flanders and discussions at the workshop, improving the communication between researchers and governmental stakeholders, are looked at

Impact of time–activity patterns on personal exposure to black carbon

Time-activity patterns are an important determinant of personal exposure to air pollution. This is demonstrated by measuring personal exposure of 16 participants for 7 consecutive days: 8 couples of which one person was a full-time worker and the other was a homemaker; both had a very different time-activity pattern. We used portable aethalometers to measure black carbon levels with a high temporal resolution and a PDA with GPS-logger and electronic diary. The exposure to black carbon differs between partners by up to 30%, although they live at the same location. The activity contributing most to this difference is transport: Average exposure in transport is 6445 ng m(-3), followed by exposure during shopping (2584 ng m(-3)). Average exposure is lowest while sleeping (1153 ng m(-3)) and when doing home-based activities (1223 ng m(-3)). Full-time workers spend almost twice as much time in transport as the homemakers. As a result of the study design we measured in several different homes, shops, cars, etc. enabling a better insight in true overall exposure in those microenvironments. Other factors influencing personal exposure are: background concentrations and location of residence in an urban, suburban or rural environment. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved