Newswise — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Institute for the Environment has been awarded a $5.7 million contract with the Environmental Protection Agency to continue and expand their operation of the Community Modeling and Analysis System (CMAS) center.
The center's technology models air quality and pollution levels; the advanced, open-source program is designed to allow national and international modeling experts to contribute to and refine tools for addressing air quality issues.
Based in its Center for Environmental Modeling for Policy Development (CEMPD), the institute has hosted the system since 2003. The institute has continued to build the system's technical foundation, and operates a center to distribute services and train scientists from around the world to use the software.
The award grants the CEMPD the leadership of the CMAS center for another seven years. Adel Hanna, Ph.D., principal investigator of the grant, a research professor at the institute and director of CEMPD, will continue to serve as director of the system's center.
Lawrence Band, Ph.D., institute director and Voit Gilmore Distinguished Professor and chair of the geography department in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, said that in addition to funding research and jobs in the state, the EPA grant would bring dollars to North Carolina as scientists from around the world come to UNC to learn modeling and analysis skills in training sessions and at an annual conference.
Band said the grant would also allow the University to help promote sustainable growth in North Carolina and the nation through its ability to track and predict levels of air pollution relative to air quality standards, measures of the level of air pollution that the EPA and state dictate cities must stay below. Serious human health impacts may result if these standards are not met, and cities can have development and economic activity curtailed.
"This contract provides valuable environmental technology to the state and nation, and important high end research and development jobs to UNC and the state," Band said. "This award is a good reflection of the vital role the CEMPD plays in the science and policy of air quality and human health."
"The EPA should be commended for recognizing the important work conducted at UNC and the Institute for the Environment," said U.S. Rep. David Price (D-NC), a member of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds the EPA. "This funding and the jobs it will support are certainly welcome in these trying economic times and our state's difficult fiscal situation. The impact of this announcement, however, reaches far beyond our local economy " it can help make our skies cleaner and our citizens healthier, and represents a thoroughly deserving investment in our common future."
More information on the program can be found at: www.cmascenter.org
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