Mapping Urban Air: Detecting, Reporting and Managing Trends in Urban CO2 Emissions

Most people on earth live in cities and they are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions. Cities are also where exposure to poor air quality is most frequent and most variable. Understanding and managing the path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, improved public health and lower public health inequities requires a view into the emissions and atmospheric chemistry of cities with the fine grained detail that allows evaluation of specific processes and variations from one neighborhood to another. In this talk, I’ll describe the development of the Berkeley Environment, Air Quality and CO2 Network (BEACO2N http://beacon.berkeley.edu/about/), a dense network for mapping urban CO2, NOx, CO, O3 and aerosol. Integration of the BEACO2N maps with sophisticated Bayesian inversions employing high resolution weather models provides unique observational constraints on spatial and temporal patterns of CO2 and other emissions. For the SF Bay Area, the BEACO2N atmospheric observations provide evidence for a 7-yr decreasing trend associated with electric and more fuel-efficient transportation. In contrast, they show that little progress has been made toward switching from natural gas to renewable forms of energy for buildings. Time permitting, comparison to Los Angeles, Houston and Providence will be described.

Speaker: Ron Cohen, UC Berkeley

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