The Periphery on the Map? USA’s Air pollution Mapping and Analysis Program in South Korea

• In Event: Environmental Visualizations: Connecting Images, Knowledge, and Politics I

Abstract

This paper examines how the ‘BenMAP(Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program),’ free and open-source software developed by U.S. EPA, both shapes and is shaped by atmospheric pollution policies and research in South Korea. BenMAP is originally designed to estimate the health impacts and economic value resulting from changes in air quality, and provide scientific basis for the management of air quality in USA. EPA constantly promotes BenMAP to policymakers and researchers in other countries as well, which enables its users to visualize air pollution and resulting benefits with just a few clicks. South Korean government and scholars, who have been urged to cope with the worsening air pollution, have been developing and utilizing ‘Korean-Style’ Ben MAP with the help of EPA since 2003.
This paper investigates how BenMAP technology itself is reconstructed into Korean-Style one, how this newly adapted technology affects research and policies in practice, and what the implications of using American technology in Korea are, considering center/periphery power dynamics. In the first part of the paper, it traces the social construction of imported technology by focusing on the Korean researchers’ tweaking efforts to make ‘Korean-Style’ BenMAP. Secondly, this paper analyzes how Korean-Style BenMAP actually facilitates or confines air pollution research and policy evaluations in Korea. Thirdly, by paying attention to the EPA’s steady efforts to disseminate its program in Korea, this paper aims to show the politics of mapping and analysis program, revealing the power dynamics between the center and the periphery.

Author

• joohui kim, Seoul National University