Exploring Air Pollution and COVID-19 Linkages in South Asia

South Asia is at the epicenter of the global air pollution problems and still evolving in COVID-19 cases and fatalities. There is growing evidence of increased rates of COVID-19 in areas with high levels of air pollution. Air pollution is found to cause cellular damage and inflammation throughout the body and has been linked to higher rates of diseases, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, asthma, and other comorbidities. All these conditions also potentially increase the risk of death in COVID-19 patients. The causal link between the exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 is still under investigation around the world, underpinned by rigorous scientific research and peer-review processes. However, in terms of the approach after a careful review of the literature, the instrumental variable (IV) approach is a prospective candidate to establish causality in a reduced-form analysis to overcome endogeneity and measurement errors of air pollution level. An analysis, therefore, using sufficiently anonymized individual and household level information on COVID-19, household air pollution, and other individual and household socioeconomic endowments in the same primary sampling unit (PSU) of the individual and household survey would be necessary to establish the causality. The PSU data are usually available from demographic health surveys (DHS) with randomly displaced location information to maintain anonymity. Also, for the instrument of the exposure to ambient air pollution, the use of thermal inversions is suggested conditional on weather-related variables—for example, temperature, precipitation, wind velocity and direction, and humidity.

Industrial Policy as an Environmental Policy: Forest Preservation and the Industrialization of Manaus

The world is experiencing a major dilemma between the need to reduce global warming and to promote economic development. Brazil has the largest tropical rainforest on the planet, which plays an important role in this scenario. In the heart of this forest there is a special economic zone (SEZ), the Manaus Free Trade Zone. Studies indicate that there is a positive relationship between this economic activity and the level of forest conservation in the state of Amazonas, where the Manaus Free Trade Zone is located. There is important literature on SEZs, examining their economic and environmental impact in general, and specifically examining the Manaus Free Trade Zone. There is also a proposal to turn this SEZ into a major Brazilian economic initiative to protect the Amazon rainforest.

How Do Attitudes and Perceptions Affect Environmental Preferences?

Environmental preferences or willingness to pay (WTP) values tend to be heterogeneous and evolving over time. Attitudes and related theories worked as an alternative observation scope to the more conventional sociodemographic characteristics, explaining preference heterogeneity in environmental economics. Perception as a concept, on the other hand, is too illusive to be exclusively examined so is better treated as an attitude. Although not popular in mainstream environmental economics, the research interest in the attitude–WTP relationship has continued since the late 1990s and has increased and been relatively steady between 2006 and 2020. According to the lessons from the established behavioral models, attitudes are normally categorized as either general or specific. General attitudes are situation-invariant and slow to change, whereas specific attitudes are situational and quick to change. The early pioneering studies of the attitude–WTP relationship used mostly ad hoc measures for environmental attitudes roughly from 1990, followed by the studies of more systematic representation roughly from 2000, and by those of hybrid models roughly from 2010. There were segmentation-based and parameterization-based approaches to incorporating attitudinal characteristics into valuation models. In particular, parameterization has appeared in three generations: indirect inclusion of indicators, sequential estimation using factor analysis, and integrated hybrid models. As future prospects, first, general environmental attitudes might play an important role in the coming decade because of their relative stability (i.e., situation invariant), comparability, and wide influence, determining environmental preferences and behaviors. Second, a potential difference between the segmentation-based and parameterization-based approaches requires further investigation. Third, the role of hybrid models and the payment parameter that is arbitrarily constrained demand more studies for accurate estimation of mean WTP values. The evolving nature of human preferences could be understood only when the observation scope for latent attitudes is enlightened enough to guide studies of environmental economics, to lead environmental policies, and to accomplish sustainable development.

Economics of Campus Sustainability

Can sustainability initiatives support positive economics, or are they necessarily cost-additive? With thousands of colleges and universities across the globe actively pursuing sustainability and carbon-neutrality goals, the question of how to balance institutional sustainability priorities and fiscal responsibility hovers in discussions ranging from utility planning to student programming. Educational institutions often heavily weigh the economics and academics of a potential sustainability project. However, pressing issues with long-term implications, such as climate change and rising operations costs, can make campus sustainability projects an appealing option. Institutions will incorporate the environmental, financial, and social aspects of a decision differently and through different avenues of funding. Examples of measures that institutions of higher education are taking to incorporate sustainability include adaptations of campus infrastructure, operations, and administrative leadership, and those measures necessarily intersect with financial planning and outcomes. An overview of general models and specific institutional examples of sustainability initiatives in the areas of infrastructure, operations and management, education and community engagement, and administration indicate that sustainability measures, especially for environmental sustainability, can contribute to positive campus economics. This outcome, however, is most likely when decision-making considers both long-term and cross-sectoral impacts to evaluate the true cost–benefit profile as it applies to the institution as a whole.

Water Supply, Sanitation, and the Environment

Sustainable Development Goal No. 6 (SDG 6) has committed all nations of the world to achieving ambitious water supply and sanitation targets by 2030 to meet the universal basic needs of humans and the environment. Many lower-middle-income countries and all low-income countries face an uphill challenge in achieving these ambitious targets. The cause of poor performance is explored, some possible ways to accelerate progress toward achieving SDG 6 are suggested. The analysis will be of interest to a three-part audience: (a) readers with a general interest on how SDG 6 can be achieved; (b) actors with policy interest on improving water supply and safe sanitation (WSS) service issues; and (c) activists skeptical of conventional WSS policy prescriptions who advocate out-of-the-box solutions to improve WSS delivery.

Economics of Environmental Compliance and Enforcement

Enforcement activity by regulators plays an important and sometimes underappreciated role in the effectiveness of environmental regulation by encouraging regulated entities to comply. Nearly all ex ante cost-benefit analyses assume 100% compliance with regulation. One notable exception is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2008 lead renovation rule in which a 75% compliance rate was assumed when estimating the ex ante benefits and costs, based on the literature regarding compliance rates in the construction sector. Why do entities comply with environmental regulation? Economists typically use deterrence models to explain the incentives for compliance. They began with simple models that used the frequency of inspections and the size of penalties to calculate the expected cost of noncompliance, but the models have since become more sophisticated along several dimensions. Dynamic penalty strategies by regulators can significantly increase the cost of being labeled a serious violator. Stochastic fluctuations in pollution levels with regular self-reporting requirements can lead firms to over-comply on average to avoid the risk of reporting violations. Inspections and enforcement actions at one facility can have general deterrence impacts at other facilities nearby as well as a specific deterrence impact at the inspected facility. Violations and penalties may impose additional costs on firms in terms of loss of reputation and pushback from customers and people living nearby. These differences in reputational costs may help explain observed heterogeneity in compliance behavior by firms. Compliance and enforcement behaviors are also affected by the institutional, legal, and scientific context in which they occur. Even with regulations set at the national level, enforcement activity is often carried out at the sub-national level, with the possibility of considerable heterogeneity across jurisdictions in terms of enforcement stringency. This is most obvious in federal countries such as the United States, where enforcement responsibilities for many regulations are delegated to state agencies, and with supra-national regulatory systems such as the European Union, where national agencies are responsible for enforcing regulations. It can also arise in a large country, where even a strong central government may have difficulty ensuring similar enforcement behavior in different regions. Empirical research also developed over time, initially testing whether enforcement activity affected compliance, then testing for heterogeneous impacts across different firms or different enforcement tools, then moving to more robust research designs. Variations in enforcement intensity have also been used to proxy for overall regulatory stringency in empirical studies of the economic impact of environmental regulation.

Optimal and Real-Time Control of Water Infrastructures

Humanity has been modifying the natural water cycle by building large-scale water infrastructure for millennia. For most of that time, the principles of hydraulics and control theory were only imperfectly known. Moreover, the feedback from the artificial system to the natural system was not taken into account, either because it was too small to notice or took too long to appear. In the 21st century, humanity is all too aware of the effects of our adaptation of the environment to our needs on the planetary system as a whole. It is necessary to see the environment, both natural and hman-made as one integrated system. Moreover, due to the legacy of the past, the behaviour of the man-madeparts of this system needs to be adapted in a way that leads to a sustainable ecosystem. The water cycle plays a central role in that ecosystem. It is therefore essential that the behaviour of existing and planned water infrastructure fits into the natural system and contributes to its well-being. At the same time, it must serve the purpose for which it was constructed. As there are no natural feedbacks to govern its behaviour, it will be necessary to create such feedbacks, possibly in the form of real-time control systems. To do so, it would be beneficial if all persons involved in the decision process that establishes the desired system behaviour understand the basics of control systems in general and their application to different water systems in particular. This article contains a discussion of the prerequisites for and early development of automatic control of water systems, an introduction to the basics of control theory with examples, a short description of optimal control theory in general, a discussion of model predictive control in water resource management, an overview of key aspects of automatic control in water resource management, and different types of applications. Finally, some challenges faced by practitioners are mentioned.

Stormwater Management and Roadways

Nonpoint source pollution is common in highly developed areas worldwide, degrading downstream water quality conditions and causing algal growth, aquatic toxicity, and sometimes fish kills. Stormwater runoff that results from rainfall or snowmelt events creates high-flow runoff from impervious surfaces and adjacent areas transporting multiple pollutants to the receiving waters. Although water quality regulations in the developed world have been effective in cleaning up wastewater discharges, their success with remediating stormwater discharges has not been consistent. An exploration of the sources, characteristics, and treatment of roadway runoff, a type of runoff that can be toxic and more difficult to manage because of the linear nature of the road network, is necessary. Since 1975, there have been more than 50 major roadway studies quantifying the sources and types of runoff contaminants like sediment, metals, inorganic salts, and organic compounds. Vehicle sources of pollutants are considered the most pernicious of all roadway contaminants, with brakes and tires being major sources. In the last decade, the leachate from tire wear particles has been linked to toxicity in coho salmon. Nonstructural stormwater management minimizes contamination by using source controls; for example, the elimination of almost all lead in automotive fuel has reduced roadway lead contamination significantly and the introduction of low-copper brake pads in the United States is expected to reduce roadway copper contamination over time. Structural stormwater management practices treat contaminated roadway runoff using small natural treatment systems; this is due in large part to the linear nature of roadways that makes larger regional systems more difficult. Since 2000, treatment performance has improved; however, there is still a great need for further improvement. Suggestions for treatment improvements include designing with low maintenance in mind; applying machine learning to the existing data; improving the understanding of road-land pollutant dynamics; using a transdisciplinary applied research approach to identify the means to improve treatment and reduce toxicity; improving the media used in treatment systems to enhance performance; improving structural strength of permeable pavement; and increasing implementation by facilitating ways to allow/encourage small, effective, and less costly alternatives.

Bioeconomic Models

Bioeconomic models are analytical tools that integrate biophysical and economic models. These models allow for analysis of the biological and economic changes caused by human activities. The biophysical and economic components of these models are developed based on historical observations or theoretical relations. Technically these models may have various levels of complexity in terms of equation systems considered in the model, modeling activities, and programming languages. Often, biophysical components of the models include crop or hydrological models. The core economic components of these models are optimization or simulation models established according to neoclassical economic theories. The models are often developed at farm, country, and global scales, and are used in various fields, including agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and environmental sectors. Bioeconomic models are commonly used in research on environmental externalities associated with policy reforms and technological modernization, including climate change impact analysis, and also explore the negative consequences of global warming. A large number of studies and reports on bioeconomic models exist, yet there is a lack of studies describing the multiple uses of these models across different disciplines.

The Economics of Tropical Rainforest Preservation

Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse areas on Earth. They contribute to ecosystem functions, including regulating water flow and maintaining one of the most important carbon sinks on the planet, and provide resources for important economic activities, such as timber and nontimber products and fish and other food. Rainforests are not empty of human population and are sites of ethnically and culturally diverse cultures that are responsible for many human languages and dialects. They also provide resources for important economic activities, such as timber and nontimber products. However, tropical deforestation caused by the expansion of agricultural activities and unsustainable logging continues at very high levels. The causes of forest loss vary by region. Livestock is the main driver in the Amazon, but commercial plantations (soybeans, sugar cane, and other tradable crops) also have an impact on deforestation, in many cases associated with violent conflicts over land tenure. In Southeast Asia, logging motivated by the tropical timber trade plays an important role, although palm oil plantations are an increasing cause of deforestation. In Africa, large-scale agricultural and industrial activities are less important, and the most critical factor is the expansion of subsistence and small-scale agriculture. However, trade-oriented activities, such as cocoa and coffee plantations in West Africa and logging in Central Africa, are becoming increasingly important. Public policies have a strong influence on these changes in land use, from traditional community-based livelihood practices to for-profit livestock, cultivation, and timber extraction. Investments in infrastructure, tax and credit incentives, and institutional structures to stimulate migration and deforestation represent economic incentives that lead to deforestation. Poor governance and a lack of resources and political will to protect the traditional rights of the population and environmental resources are another cause of the continuous reduction of tropical forests. Consequently, deforestation prevents the expansion of economic activities that could be established without threats to the remnants of native forest. There are also negative social consequences for the local population, which suffers from the degradation of the natural resources on which their production is based, and is hampered by air pollution caused by forest fires. In some situations, a vicious cycle is created between poverty and deforestation, since the expansion of the agricultural frontier reduces the forest areas where traditional communities once operated, but without generating job opportunities. New approaches are required to reverse this paradigm and to lay the foundation for a sustainable economy based on the provision of ecosystem services provided by tropical forests. These include (a) better governance and public management capacity, (b) incentives for economic activities compatible with the preservation of the tropical forest, and (c) large-scale adoption of economic instruments to support biodiversity and ecosystem services. Public policies are necessary to correct market failures and incorporate the values of ecosystem services in the land use decision process. In addition to penalties for predatory actions, incentives are needed for activities that support forest preservation, so the forest is worth retaining rather than clearing. Improving governance capacity, combining advanced science and technology with traditional knowledge, and improving the management of existing activities can also help to ensure sustainable development in tropical forest regions.