Scientist maps CO2 emissions for entire US to improve environmental policymaking

Date:
October 5, 2020
Source:
Northern Arizona University
Summary:
With wildfires in the West and hurricanes in the Gulf, the nation
is affected by extreme weather-related events resulting from
climate change.

In response, lawmakers across the country are developing
policies to reduce emissions, but the data they have is often
inadequate. Scientists have now detailed greenhouse gas emissions
across the entire US with details on economic sector, fuel and
combustion process.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
With intense wildfires in the western U.S. and frequent, intense
hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the nation is again affected by extreme weather-related events resulting from climate change. In response,
cities, states and regions across the country are developing policies
to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases, chiefly carbon dioxide
(CO2). Even though many state and local governments are committed to
these goals, however, the emissions data they have to work with is often
too general and too expensive to provide a useful baseline and target
the most effective policy.


========================================================================== Professor Kevin Gurney of Northern Arizona University's School of
Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems today published results in
the Journal of Geophysical Research detailing greenhouse gas emissions
across the entire U.S.

landscape at high space- and time-resolution with details on economic
sector, fuel and combustion process.

Gurney, who specializes in atmospheric science, ecology and public policy,
has spent the past several years developing a standardized system, as
part of the Vulcan Project, that quantifies and visualizes greenhouse
gases emitted across the entire country down to individual power plants, neighborhoods and roadways, identifying problem areas and enabling
better decisions about where to cut emissions most effectively. Leading
up to the nationwide study, Gurney produced emissions maps of several
different large cities, including the Los Angeles megacity, Indianapolis,
the Washington, D.C./Baltimore metropolitan area and Salt Lake City.

Funded by NASA, Gurney developed the high-resolution emissions map as
an effective tool for scientific and policy applications. His goal is
to provide policymakers across the nation with a means to strategically
address problem areas instead of taking an inefficient, costly approach.

"We're providing U.S. policymakers at national, state and local scales
with a scalpel instead of a hammer. Policies that might be relevant to California are possibly less relevant for Chicago or New York. They need
to have information that reflects their unique conditions but follows
a rigorous, standardized scientific approach. In this way, they can
have confidence in the numbers which, in turn, will stimulate smart
investment in reducing emissions." One of the strengths of Gurney's
approach is validation by atmospheric monitoring of CO2 from ground-based
and satellite instruments.

"By synthesizing the detail of building and road-scale emissions
with the independence and accuracy of atmospheric monitoring," Gurney
said, "we have the best possible estimate of emissions with the most policy-relevant detail." An animated video of the Vulcan Project output
is available online.

Through characterization of CO2 emissions across the entire US landscape
every kilometer, from coast to coast, Gurney points out that the system
offers every US city an inventory on emissions. "By extracting all cities
in the US from our data product, we can offer every city a consistent
and comprehensive assessment of their emissions. Like the US weather forecasting system, this problem is best solved with a single systemic
approach and shared with city stakeholders so they can do what they know
how to do better than anyone -- reduce emissions in ways that meet their individual needs." Gurney said.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Northern_Arizona_University. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Kevin R. Gurney, Jianming Liang, Risa Patarasuk, Yang Song, Jianhua
Huang, Geoffrey Roest. The Vulcan Version 3.0 High‐Resolution
Fossil Fuel CO 2 Emissions for the United States. Journal
of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2020; 125 (19) DOI:
10.1029/2020JD032974 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201005122145.htm

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