Author(s)

E. Brizio, G. Genon & M. Poggio

Abstract

The ExternE project is a research program of the European Commission devoted to the assessment of the external costs associated to airborne pollution. The ExternE methodology individuates the emission rates, calculates the year mean concentrations of the pollutants at the ground level on the basis of atmospheric dispersion models (e.g. AERMOD) and individuates the subjects exposed to the pollutants in the considered area (the number, the distribution and the age classes of the hit populations, types and distribution of crops). After that, proper exposure-response functions are applied in order to determine the impacts on the various receptors. In particular, impacts on human health, crops, building materials, forests and ecosystems can be calculated. Finally, the methodology can monetize the calculated physical impacts on the basis of particular econometric methods. The described methodology has been applied in order to find the best locality starting from three proposed sites for a municipal solid waste incinerator for the city of Turin, in North-Western Italy, by minimizing the total damage due to the emitted pollutants, taking into account the avoided emissions due to the realisation of a district heating system, to the increment of the electric energy production and to the reduction of the MSW landfilling in this way, the best localities correspond to the sites where a substantial increment of the district heating is possible. However, even if the district heating system wasn’t increased by the incineration, the environmental balance would be largely positive. Keywords: incinerator, AERMOD, concentration, district heating, damage, MSW, avoided emissions, environmental balance, advantage.

Keywords

incinerator, AERMOD, concentration, district heating, damage, MSW, avoided emissions, environmental balance, advantage.