Developing a practical tool to evaluate the cost and benefit of PM2.5 pollution control measures on air quality improvement in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract

Ho Chi Minh City authorities are currently developing PM2.5 pollution control measures and implementing the Clean Air Plan (CAP) with a vision for 2030. This mission will be more convincing if the benefits from these control measures are argued. At the same time, decision-makers always need practical tools to perform assessments, compare different scenarios, quantify the impact of PM2.5 exposure and demonstrate the effectiveness of PM2.5 pollution reduction program. This study aims to present a modelling framework platform implemented in the Environment, Public Health, and Economic Benefit Management Support Integrated System (HEBIS) through a comparative analysis based on CAP's health benefit-to-control cost ratio. Moreover, implementing CAP measures also created net benefits as improvements in public health were generally much higher than technical costs. These results are the evidence to prioritize implementing different air pollution solutions from CAP. Furthermore, the HEBIS tool has provided a practical framework by which managers could further build appropriate policies to achieve multiple environmental, economic, and human health benefits.

Keywords

• Benefit-to-cost ratio
• CAP
• HEBIS
• Health impacts
• PM2.5 distributions