1166618 - Data Resources and Their Application for AERMOD Model Development

AERMOD is the U.S. EPA preferred model for many regulatory air dispersion modeling applications in the United States. The AERMOD model requires a considerable number of data resources to setup and execute an analysis. The locations, formats, accuracy, and resolution of available resources can change over time. One reason for these changes is that the data that are commonly relied upon in AERMOD are not primarily used for air dispersion modeling. To assist the modeling community with available data resources, EPA released a document of AERMOD Modeling System Data Resources in October 2021. This document focuses on resources for meteorological data, land use/land cover data, elevation data, and in-stack ratio information for NO2 modeling. Other types of inputs to AERMOD may also be required, depending on the application, such as information on meteorological observation and background monitor site locations, source locations, building locations and dimensions, property lines, and other datasets based on the selected modeling options. This paper will review publicly available data resources to help supplement the information provided by EPA in their Data Resources document. Data resources including publicly available mapping software, satellite data, and other GIS utilities will be discussed in the context of AERMOD modeling file development.