BenMAP starter queries about grid shapefiles and cluster operation

[skunwar]

I am just starting to learn BenMAP and I had a few newbie-type questions about BenMAP that I wanted to ask the experienced users on this forum. It does looks like we do not have a devoted online forum for the community of BenMAP users (as I learned from the thread BenMAP help forum?). I have installed the most recent version of BenMAP (version 1.5.8.29 from August 25, 2023) on my Windows computer, and I can access BenMAP app there. Here are my beginner-type questions.

(1) Instead of using the GUI version of BenMAP (the BenMAP-CE), could I use the code (written in some language like R or some other language) to run BenMAP. I was thinking that if need arises, that would allow me to make some tweaks to the code to suit my purpose.

(2) I am using the most recent version available - 1.5.8.29 of August 25 2023 - is it possible to calculate health impacts not of ‘control minus baseline’ but just ‘baseline’ or just ‘control’ in this version? If so, how have folks been doing so?

(3) Is it possible to run BenMAP as a job on the computing cluster using a script rather than by clicking a button on the user interface? This is for the case where I would like to do hundreds or thousands of simulations.

(4) Are ESRI GIS shapefiles related to CONUS 12km CMAQ domain available from some public data source or individual researcher?

(5) The tutorials on BenMAP page of EPA for different continents and regions are all for deriving health impacts of monitored (sensor) PM2.5 but I was looking for a tutorial that uses CMAQ-modeled PM2.5 instead. Do folks know if such a tutorial exists?

(6) The recommended grid for CONUS is something like AlbersEqualArea projected to NAD83 (if I understand correctly) but my CMAQ grid used LambertConicConfirmal. Is it fine to project LCC to NAD83 directly for use in BenMAP?

I would be happy to clarify these questions if they are unclear. I also apologize this thread is about BenMAP and not CMAQ, SMOKE, etc.

[Ryan]

I can answer these questions raised by you. However, I would suggest you carefully read through BenMAP documents and publications from BenMAP team which already clarifies all of these questions.

@skunwar

could I use the code (written in some language like R or some other language) to run BenMAP.

Answer: Of course you can and there are few papers that have been using BenMAP this way. However, I never used the developer version of BenMAP given the complexity of the code.

@skunwar

is it possible to calculate health impacts not of ‘control minus baseline’ but just ‘baseline’ or just ‘control’ in this version

Answer: It is possible to estimate the health impacts this way. A simple way is to create a baseline csvfile with all values setting 0, then the difference would be pure conc from you concerned scenario. It is fairly easy to do using Python.

@skunwar

Is it possible to run BenMAP as a job on the computing cluster using a script rather than by clicking a button on the user interface?

Answer: Again, you can use the developer version which is running through source code.

@skunwar

Are ESRI GIS shapefiles related to CONUS 12km CMAQ domain available from some public data source or individual researcher?

Answer: You can find the shpefile in BenMAP and output it as it is.

@skunwar

Do folks know if such a tutorial exists?

Answer: There are a few learning materials available. Simply check all training materials.

@skunwar

The recommended grid for CONUS is something like AlbersEqualArea projected to NAD83 (if I understand correctly) but my CMAQ grid used LambertConicConfirmal. Is it fine to project LCC to NAD83 directly for use in BenMAP?

Answer: I always create the files by my own. So, I do not use the default CONUS file.