HARC’s air quality work includes modeling, health impact assessments, emission reduction technologies, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions inventories, air quality monitoring technology and policy, and regional mitigation and adaptations strategies. HARC’s air quality work dynamically synthesizes rigorous research and policy assessments and has become a trademark in the region.
View Air ResourcesHARC’s air quality team develops and demonstrates appropriate practices for air quality model applications and evaluations in a community-focused research framework. It employs a combination of traditional and novel modeling techniques to assess local, regional, state, and national air quality using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, Comprehensive Air quality Model with extensions (CAMx) model, and machine learning modeling approaches.
In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri slammed Texas’ energy and water systems, took hundreds of lives, and caused billions in economic losses. Our geospatial analysis describes Uri’s impacts on electricity generation, natural gas and water supplies, and air quality, and highlights strategies to improve resource resilience at the household, community, and statewide levels.
HARC uses various datasets to study the impacts of air quality on community health, including EPA’s AirNow, EPA’s National Emission Inventory (NEI) database, NOAA’s Vulcan, and NASA’s fleet of Earth-observing satellites. Most recently, we analyzed the impact from urban heat islands in our area. Working with multiple community partners, we collected data and produced reports on two occasions to better inform communities on where the heat is highest and helped to identify key next steps for these areas.
