MultiScale Impact Assessment

This chapter demonstrates the need for multiscale modeling of ozone and other air quality impacts stemming from emissions from the oil and gas industry. This need is illustrated in the context of possible ozone nonattainment in the metropolitan region of San Antonio, Texas due to oil and gas development in the Eagle Ford Shale (EFS). The conclusions of a coarse-grid regional air quality modeling study are discussed, along with results from a micro-scale ozone impact assessment using the HARC chemical transport model (CTM). Suggestions are provided on how micro-scale and regional modeling approaches can be blended in future ozone attainment demonstrations beyond the use of computationally intensive nested grids. These include the parameterization of micro-scale influences through artificial source terms in regional models and pattern recognition methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA).