Optimal Control Applied to Air Pollution

Abstract

The industrial revolution has been the beginning of an experiment consisting in changing the composition of the atmosphere by projecting gigatons of chemicals. In recent years evidences have accumulated that the impact on the biosphere and human health, is complex and potentially disastrous. The costs associated with the health effects of pollution keep increasing with evidences of new effects [2]. The mitigation of air pollution comes at a very significant cost and may even imply some difficult societal changes. On the other hand, the damages due to pollution are so substantial that it has become clear that failing to limit air pollution is potentially as costly as, or costlier than, engaging in a vigorous mitigation policy. So, if there is a trade-off between industrial activity and pollution level, then the relation between economic prosperity and pollution level has a different nature. The indirect cost of pollution is such that economic prosperity requires that the industrial activity be made environmentally friendly.

Mathematics has become the dominant language of the sciences, not because it is quantitative -- a common delusion -- but primarily because it permits a clear and rigorous reasoning about phenomena too complex to be handled with words.

H. Simon, Nobel Laureate in economics, 1976 [1].