Martin Schultz, Performance Assessment in Water Quality Regulation
Committee: Scott Farrow - co-chair (EPP), Paul Fischbeck (SDS/EPP), Mitchell Small - co chair (CEE/EPP), and Jeanne VanBriesen (CEE)

      Regulatory decision support tools that integrate the physical and social science aspects of environmental decisions have the potential to improve the quality of regulatory decisions and raise their net social benefits. This thesis demonstrates analytical approaches to achieving such an integration in the development of water pollution trading programs and the evaluation of water pollution control regulations.
      Watershed-based systems approaches to water quality regulation involving pollution trading or point/non-point source offsets are being devised in response to total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) required under the Clean Water Act. A two-stage optimization algorithm combining a mixed-integer linear program and simulated annealing is developed to optimize trading ratios in accordance with a watershed objective given the combined actions of water treatment facilities acting independently to minimize treatment costs.
      The Index of Watershed Indicators (IWI) is an EPA index created to assess watershed vulnerability and condition in the United States. This index is critiqued and a recommendation to base the index on multiattribute utility theory is developed.
      Finally, a reduced-form model is developed for EPA’s National Water Pollution Control Assessment Model. The model is used to assess the economic benefits of combined sewer overflow controls in four states. Results are compared with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s control cost estimates. The sensitivity of these benefits to assumptions of the benefit cost-analysis is tested. Work supported by Carnegie Mellon’s Center for the Study and Improvement of Regulation; EPA’s Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation Fellowship (U-915513-01-0) and EPA Water and Watershed grant #4-82802101-0.

BIN Shui, Consumer Lifestyles Approach: A paradigm for understanding the role of consumers in energy use and environmental impacts
Committee: Hadi Dowlatabadi - chair (UBC), Baruch Fischhoff (SDS/EPP), Granger Morgan (EPP/ECE/Heinz), John Robinson (UBC)

      This thesis explores the relationship between consumer activities and their environmental impacts. Four studies are conducted to illustrate the great potential of such a focus to achieve energy conservation and greenhouse gas mitigation.
      The first study re-estimates U.S. energy use and CO2 emissions from the consumer’s perspective. The second explores the factors that are most important in influencing home energy use, who consumes more than others, and why. Study three presents an individual CO2 emission estimator software system which helps individuals to estimate their profiles of energy use and CO2 emissions. The fourth study explores what barriers may exist in consumer fuel choices for residential water heaters.
      Findings from the four studies demonstrate that: 1) the integration of top-down and bottom-up studies could provide a comprehensive understanding of issues related to consumer lifestyles and related energy and environmental impacts; 2) policies should aim to reduce both direct and indirect energy use and emissions over lengthy time horizons; 3) a national model is not a good proxy for regional policy – given significant regional differences, regionally tailored policies may be more effective and efficient in solving regional problems; and 4) providing information alone is not sufficient for effective energy conservation and CO2 reduction - information provided to consumers should be vivid, personalized, and targeted to specific energy users and end uses. Work supported by the Center for Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change through a cooperative agreement between the National Science Foundation grant (SBR-9521914) and Carnegie Mellon University.