Agricultural exposure to ozone and acid precipitation

The incompatibility of environmental and socioeconomic data has limited direct empirical analysis of the impacts of air pollution on farm-level productivity. The kriging procedure was used to create state- and county-level indexes for ozone, NO₃, and SO₄, for the northeastern United States for 1980 and 1990. This paper (a) presents county-level air-quality indexes (AQIs) to measure crop exposure to air pollutants and (bl combines environmental and economic data to identify geographic areas where air pollution is likely to impose the greatest economic costs to agriculture. It is hoped that this information, combined with the AQIs will be useful for future statistical analysis of the effects of air pollution on farm- and county-level measures of agricultural performance. Air quality in 1990 was much improved over 1980 in most counties. However, some areas of New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania. Vermont and Virginia still experience relatively high levels of acidic depositions. Portions of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey. North Carolina and Pennsylvania were identified as areas of high potential economic vulnerability to ozone pollution.