HEM version 4.2 (January 2, 2023)

Bug Fixes

Item

Modification

HEM4 Sections Affected

1

Fixed reset_index bug in MaxRisk.py on line 42. The
blocksummary_df data frame index was being reset but
the inplace=True option was not set so the index remained
the same. This caused a problem further down in the code
where rows are dropped if the population is 0.
Blocksummary_df could have duplicate indexes and one of
the duplicates may have a population of 0.

Run HEM4

2

Corrected bug that prevented start/end meteorology times
from having the same YMD but different hours. The
function that constructed the date/time variable was not
including hour.

Run HEM4

Selection of Facility List
Options file

3

Adjusted the Alternate Receptor versions of the summary
programs to utilize the new "receptor type" column in the
All Inner and All Outer Receptor files to correct missing
index errors.

Summarize Risks

4

Altered the KMLWriter code to display and identify all user
supplied receptors in the facility KMZfile, for every
receptor type.

Run HEM4

Enhancements

Item

Modification

HEM4 Sections Affected

1

Incorporated Aermod v22112.

Run HEM4

2

Incorporated the use of the 2020 Decennial Census block
population.

Run HEM4

3

Incorporated the use of the five year averages from the
2016-2020 American Community Survey demographic data
in the Demographic Assessment module.

Demographic Assessment

4

Added message to warn user not to enter too long of a
path name in the filename entry box of the Demographic
Assessment module.



5

Added the "Above Twice the Poverty Level" demographic
to the Demographic Assessment summaries.



6

Changed footnotes in Demographic Assessment
summaries to reflect use of 2020 Census and 2016-2020
ACS data.



7

Changed "Minority" to "People of Color" in all
Demographic Assessment summaries, in keeping with
EJSCREEN.



8

Changed the method of block group defaulting in the
Demographic Assessment module from using county
demographics to instead using the demographics of the
nearest block group, via a default ACS file.




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9

Changed the name of the "missing" block group file to the
"defaulted" block group file in the Demographic
Assessment module.



10

Excluded blocks with zero population from the defaulted
block group list in the Demographic Assessment module.



11

Implemented use of the Great Circle distance to find blocks
within the maximum modeling distance, and to identify
blocks in the Chronic Block Summary within a specified
radius in the Demographic Assessment module.

Run HEM4

12

Changed "Minority" to "People of Color" in all EJ Dash
windows.

Analyze Outputs

13

Added the "Above Twice the Poverty Level" demographic
to the EJ Dash windows.



14

Updated the Emissions Variation template input files to

Run HEM4



reflect the HEM requirement that temporal factors

Selection of Emission



(scalars) must average to 1 to maintain the user's tons per

Variation input file



year (TPY) of emissions in the HAP Emissions input file.





Note: This is not an AERMOD requirement, only a HEM





requirement.



15

Changed "Community Assessment" to "Demographic
Assessment".

Demographic Assessment

16

Default urban/rural setting is determined by computing
the population density within 3km of the facility center. If
density > 750 people/km2 then urban, otherwise rural. If
facility is urban, then the urban population is computed by
summing all block populations within 20km of the facility
center.

Run HEM4

17

EJ module records facilities that are skipped because their
facility folders are empty. The list is written out to
"Skipped EJ facilities.xlsx".

Demographic Assessment

18

Enabled the "receptor type" field to be used in helping
determine whether a receptor can be the MIR or max
TOSHI location. This required adding a "receptor type"
column to the Block Summary Chronic, All Inner Receptors,
and All Outer Receptors output files.

Run HEM4

19

Left padded user receptor ID's with 0's to make them 10
characters long and consistent with the format of the
Census block ID.

Run HEM4


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