Public Value of Enforcing the PM2.5 Concentration Reduction Policy in South Korean Urban Areas

Estimating the economic value of ultrafine particle information: a contingent valuation method

Global concern regarding ultrafine particles (UFPs), which are particulate matter (PM) with a diameter of less than 100 nm, is increasing. These particles are difficult to measure using the current methods because their characteristics are different from those of other air pollutants. Therefore, a new monitoring system is required to obtain accurate UFP information, which will raise the financial burden of the government and people. In this study, we estimated the economic value of UFP information by evaluating the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the UFP monitoring and reporting system. We used the contingent valuation method (CVM) and the one-and-one-half-bounded dichotomous choice (OOHBDC) spike model. We analyzed how the respondents' socio-economic variables, as well as their cognition level of PM, affected their WTP. Therefore, we collected WTP data of 1040 Korean respondents through an online survey. The estimated mean WTP for building a UFP monitoring and reporting system is KRW 6958.55-7222.55 (USD 6.22-6.45) per household per year. We found that people satisfied with the current air pollutant information, and generally possessing relatively greater knowledge of UFPs, have higher WTP for a UFP monitoring and reporting system. We found that people are willing to pay more than the actual installation and operating costs of current air pollution monitoring systems. If the collected UFP data is disclosed in an easily accessible manner, as is current air pollutant data, it will be possible to secure more public acceptance for expanding the UFP monitoring and reporting system nationwide.

Active Soil Filter System for Indoor Air Purification in School Classrooms

An active soil filter system was newly designed and evaluated to obtain a higher removal efficiency of fine particulate matter (PM) for indoor air purification in schools. Unlike passive air purification systems that remove PM using only plant leaves, air purification can be maximized by filtering polluted indoor air directly between the soil particles supporting the plant. The novel system is composed of a composite soil layer and a suction blower that forces outside air into the soil layer. It was found that the air purification performance was improved as the inflow air velocity upstream of the soil is decreased and the soil stacking height increased. The lower the soil moisture, the better the air purification performance. Considering both the classroom environment and the system's energy consumption, it is recommended that the soil stacking height is 150 mm, the soil inflow air velocity is 2 cm/s, and the relative humidity is 35%. Under these conditions, the air purification efficiency for PM_2.5 is 41.5%. The indoor air purification system using the soil filter system, along with the currently used plant leaves medium, is expected to improve the indoor air quality in public facilities, such as school classrooms.

Economic Valuation of Improving Environmental Degradations in Korea Using Choice Experiment

This study aims to quantitatively identify the economic value of the comprehensive improvement of environmental degradations caused by climate change. The research method applied to that is the choice experiment. Fine particulate matter, algae bloom, and heat waves were selected as individual attributes constituting environmental problems. It was found that the willingness to pay could not be induced for any level of improvement in algal bloom. It was concluded that if heat waves improved to the medium level where the number of heat-related illnesses and estimated deaths decreased by 50% compared to the current level, there would be a loss in value by USD 13.33. The value of improving environmental problems is USD 7.69 per household per year, and the improvement of fine particulate matter was the highest value attributed by consumers. This study is significant in that it comprehensively evaluates severe environmental problems, reflects their priorities and importance, and assesses the value for each level. It provides important foundational data for establishing effective budget input strategies to maximize consumer benefits and aids in the preparation of effective policies by establishing more detailed goals to achieve net-zero carbon emissions and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Economic Valuation of Reducing Submerged Marine Debris in South Korea

Submerged marine debris (SMD) scattered between sea level and the bottom of the sea damages the habitats of marine life and threatens its growth in South Korea. The collection of SMD is more difficult and expensive than that of coastal and floating debris. The government is trying to achieve a 33% reduction in SMD by 2023 by expanding its collection, which requires huge additional investments and additional information about the economic value or benefits of the reduction. This article seeks to conduct an economic valuation of the reduction by employing contingent valuation (CV), which asks people to indicate their willingness to pay (WTP) for the reduction. A dichotomous choice CV survey was undertaken with 1000 households by a professional survey firm through person-to-person interviews during July 2019. Overall, people understood the CV questions well and reported the WTP responses for a hypothetical market successfully created with CV. Although 37.9% of interviewees stated zero WTP, the average of the yearly household WTP was estimated as 5523 Korean won (KRW) (USD 4.92). This value ensures statistical significance. The population’s WTP for the reduction would be KRW 110.30 billion (USD 99.75 million) per year over the next five years. It was found that the reduction is socially beneficial since the value was greater than the costs involved in the reduction.

Performance Evaluation of Hybrid Air Purification System with Vegetation Soil and Electrostatic Precipitator Filters

This paper describes designing, manufacturing, and evaluating an eco-friendly modular-type air purification system to enhance the removal efficiency of fine particulate matter (PM) in urban public spaces, especially in hotspots. This system consists of artificial soil based-vegetation and electrostatic precipitator (ESP) filters. Unlike the so-called passive removal method, which adsorbs fine PM only by the leaves of plants, the vegetation soil filter based on multi-layered different artificial soils adopts an active removal method in which air purification is performed in the soil itself, bypassing external air by using the air circulation fan in the soil. The ESP filter is designed and evaluated to have a high fine PM removal efficiency, even at high suction velocity, to remove large amounts of outdoor fine PM. Throughout the experimental measurements on the hybrid air purification system with vegetation soil and ESP filters, it is observed that the vegetation soil filter has a 78.5% reduction efficiency for PM2.5 and a 47% for PM10 at the inlet air velocity of 0.15 m/s. The ESP filter also has a 73.1% reduction efficiency for PM2.5 and 87.3% for PM10 at an inlet air velocity of 3 m/s. Based on the performance evaluations of the vegetation soil filter and the ESP filter, it is noted that each individual module will be applied to an air purification tower with vertical expansion and installed in a high concentration area of fine PM in a downtown area to contribute to the fine PM reduction in the community.

Source country-specific burden on health due to high concentrations of PM2.5

Asian countries face frequent spikes in concentrations of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM_2.5), which may consist of domestic emissions, transported pollutants from neighboring countries, and secondary aerosol formation (SAF). We aimed to estimate the burden on health in South Korea due to PM_2.5 exposure from source countries. We computed the health benefits of meeting air quality guidelines during high pollution periods or spike periods. We used daily mortality counts, PM_2.5 concentrations, and primary and secondary contributions to pollutant levels in seven cities and nine provinces in South Korea during 2006-2016. Generalized additive mixed modeling with a Poisson distribution and random effects in 16 regions was used to examine the short-term effects of PM_2.5 on mortality. We computed attributable burden due to PM_2.5 exposure and the potential benefits of meeting the air quality guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO, 25 μg/m³) and the Korea Ministry of Environment (50 and 35 μg/m³ before and after 2015, respectively). A concentration-response curve showed a non-linear relationship between daily mortality counts and PM_2.5 levels. The short-term health impacts of PM_2.5 were suggested to be 1638 non-accidental deaths in 2016 in South Korea due to daily domestic emissions and pollutants transported from neighboring countries. Of these, 1509, 995, or 238 deaths could have been prevented if the daily mean PM_2.5 concentration had been kept below 25, 35, or 50 μg/m³. After accounting for the contribution of SAF to PM_2.5, primary sources of PM_2.5 resulted in 258-860 and 26-88 deaths due to pollution transported from China and North Korea, respectively, and 162-538 deaths were due to domestic emissions. Meeting the air quality guidelines of the WHO could have prevented most of these deaths.

Assessment of Daily Personal PM2.5 Exposure Level According to Four Major Activities among Children

Particulate matters less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5), whose concentration has increased in Korea, has a considerable impact on health. From a risk management point of view, there has been interest in understanding the variations in real-time PM2.5 concentrations per activity in different microenvironments. We analyzed personal monitoring data collected from 15 children aged 6 to 11 years engaged in different activities such as commuting in a car, visiting a commercial building, attending an education institute, and resting inside home from October 2018 to March 2019. The fraction of daily mean exposure duration per activity was 72.7 ± 18.7% for resting inside home, 27.2 ± 14.4% for attending an education institute, and 11.5 ± 9.6% and 5.3 ± 5.9% for visiting a commercial building, commuting in a car, respectively. Daily median (interquartile range) PM2.5 exposure amount was 88.9 (55.9–159.7) μg in houses and that in education buildings was 43.3 (22.9–55.6) μg. Real-time PM2.5 exposure levels varied by person and time of day (p-value < 0.05). This study demonstrated that our real-time personal monitoring and data analysis methodologies were effective in detecting polluted microenvironments and provided a potential person-specific management strategy to reduce a person’s exposure level to PM2.5.

Estimating the Young Generation’s Willingness to Pay (WTP) for PM2.5 Control in Daegu, Korea, and Beijing, China

This research aimed to examine the willingness to pay (WTP) of the young generation (the age group from 18 to 29) for the participatory solutions and actions on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution control and abatement in Daegu, Korea, and Beijing, China. This study found out that Korean respondents and Chinese respondents shared a wide range of similarities, both in terms of socio-demographic characters like age, family size, and house/apartment ownership, as well as a number of perceptions related to environmental and social responsibilities. Around one-third of the Korean respondents and one-fifth of the Chinese respondents expressed negative WTP due to primary reasons such as lack of trust in the effectiveness of PM2.5 control measures (Korea) and limitation of budget (China). The mean estimated values of WTP with and without explanatory variables in Korea were merely slightly higher than those in China. The mean WTP without control variables in Korea was 11,882.97 KRW/month (10.61 USD/month) and the one in China was 65.09 CNY/month (9.48 USD/month). The mean WTP with explanatory variables for Daegu, Korea, was KRW 11,982.33 (USD 10.70) per person per month, and the one for Beijing, China, was CNY 64.84 (USD 9.40) per person per month. The annual total WTP for Daegu, Korea, was assessed around KRW 47572 million (USD 42.45 million), whereas the estimated total WTP for Beijing, China, was around CNY 3260.14 million (USD 474.94 million) per year. Based on the results and the findings, this study proposes to further strengthen the comprehensive cooperation between China and Korea in the field of air quality improvement, with a particular focus on PM2.5 control and abatement and cooperation in academic circles and among the general public.

Willingness to Pay Price Premium for Smartphones Produced Using Renewable Energy

Due to air pollution and greenhouse gases issues associated with the use of fossil fuels and nuclear safety issues after the Fukushima accident, consumers are increasingly in favor of commodities produced using electricity generated from relatively expensive renewable energy (RE) rather than cheap fossil fuels or nuclear energy. This is usually called ‘RE100’. The objective of this study is to examine South Korean consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) price premium for a RE100 commodity using the specific case of smartphones. We accomplished the purpose by conducting a contingent valuation survey of 1000 individuals in August 2018 and analyzing the data gathered from the survey. In addition, the spike model was applied to dealing with the zero WTP responses. Based on the analysis results, an average price premium was statistically significantly estimated to be KRW 11,699 (USD 10.5) for all respondents. This is worth 1.6% of the price for a conventional non-RE100 smartphone (KRW 750,000 or USD 673.9) and is higher than the cost increase (0.97%) when producing RE100 smartphones. Therefore, it can be seen that South Korean consumers have sufficient acceptance for RE100 smartphones.

Evaluating Residential Consumers’ Willingness to Pay to Avoid Power Outages in South Korea

South Korea experienced a nationwide rolling blackout in 2011 due to a rapid increase in the power demand and a lack of power supply facilities. In particular, the residential sector suffered from considerable inconveniences due to power outages, such as the interruption of elevators’ operation and the stopping of all electronic appliances. Since then, ensuring a stable supply of electricity has emerged as an important task. This note aims to analyze residential consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid power outages. For this purpose, 1000 households were surveyed, applying the contingent valuation (CV) method during May 2018. The respondents understood the CV question well and gave meaningful answers. The results show that the mean of households’ monthly WTP amounts to KRW 1522 (USD 1.41). This value is statistically significant. Converting it into an annual value and then expanding the value to the country indicate that the annual national value amounts to KRW 360.7 billion (USD 335.3 million). Since a substantial amount of investments should be made by power suppliers to prevent power outages in the residential sector, this value may be accepted as the upper limit of the benefits ensuing from those investments.

The Public Willingness to Pay for Reducing the Incidence of Hazardous Chemical Spill Accidents by Half in South Korea

Hazardous chemical spill (HCS) accidents, which occur due to careless workers, transport accidents, etc., can be harmful to humans. Recently, an average of 96 cases of HCS accidents have taken place in South Korea annually. As a result, the government is trying to reduce the incidence of HCS accidents by 50%. Government officials are seeking information about the value that the enforcement of the reduction plan will bring for the public. This knowledge will help government officials decide whether to implement the reduction plan. This article seeks to acquire information about the public willingness to pay (WTP) for the reduction plan, employing the contingent valuation (CV) technique. For this purpose, a total of 1000 households living in South Korea participated in the CV survey in 2017. The data on the WTP were gathered using a dichotomous choice question and analyzed using the spike model. Forty-five percent of the respondents were willing to accept an increase in income taxes to carry out the reduction plan. The mean household WTP estimate was obtained as KRW 3830 (USD 3.41) per annum. The national value expanded from the sample to the population is worth KRW 74.8 billion (USD 66.6 million) per year. This value implies the public value of the reduction plan and can be applied in policy analysis and decision-making concerning the reduction of the incidence of HCS accidents.