Andrade et al. (2017) Air quality in the megacity of São Paulo: Evolution over the last 30 years and future perspectives, Atmospheric Environment 159, 66–82.

More Info.

The special joint NECTAR Cluster 2/6 workshop on Smart Cities – Governing Accessibility, Air Pollution and Equity will be held at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, August 24-25, 2017. The conference will bring together leading researchers from Europe, North America and South America.

More Info.

Rivas et al., Determinants of black carbon, particle mass and number concentrations in London transport microenvironments, Atmospheric Environment, Volume 161, July 2017, Pages 247-262, ISSN 1352-2310, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.05.004.

Abstract: We investigated the determinants of personal exposure concentrations of commuters’ to black carbon (BC), ultrafine particle number concentrations (PNC), and particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5 and PM10) in different travel modes. We quantified the contribution of key factors that explain the variation of the previous pollutants in four commuting routes in London, each covered by four transport modes (car, bus, walk and underground). Models were performed for each pollutant, separately to assess the effect of meteorology (wind speed) or ambient concentrations (with either high spatial or temporal resolution). Concentration variations were mainly explained by wind speed or ambient concentrations and to a lesser extent by route and period of the day. In multivariate models with wind speed, the wind speed was the common significant predictor for all the pollutants in the above-ground modes (i.e., car, bus, walk); and the only predictor variable for the PM fractions. Wind speed had the strongest effect on PM during the bus trips, with an increase in 1 m s−1 leading to a decrease in 2.25, 2.90 and 4.98 μg m−3 of PM1, PM2.5 and PM10, respectively. PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations in car trips were better explained by ambient concentrations with high temporal resolution although from a single monitoring station. On the other hand, ambient concentrations with high spatial coverage but lower temporal resolution predicted better the concentrations in bus trips, due to bus routes passing through streets with a high variability of traffic intensity. In the underground models, wind speed was not significant and line and type of windows on the train explained 42% of the variation of PNC and 90% of all PM fractions. Trains in the district line with openable windows had an increase in concentrations of 1 684 cm−3 for PNC and 40.69 μg m−3 for PM2.5 compared with trains that had non-openable windows. The results from this work can be used to target efforts to reduce personal exposures of London commuters.

Keywords: Personal exposure assessment; Transport mode; Commuting; Linear regression; Extrapolation

Dr Anne Dorothée Slovic will be in London giving a research seminar on ASTRID organized within the COHESION research network which is co-hosted by  the Connected Cities Research Group at the University of Greenwich and  UCL, next Wednesday:

Time and Place

12:00 – 13:00 Wednesday 14th June at Stockwell Street Library: Room 11_3003, 10 Stockwell street, London SE10 9BD

TITLE: Accessibility and air pollution in São Paulo: The ASTRID survey design

Abstract
There have been many studies to date focusing on health outcomes of traffic emissions in megacities e.g. São Paulo (Lima et al., 2013, Yoshizaki et al., 2010, Perin et al., 2010, Pérez-Martínez et al., 2014) and it has been established that experimental campaigns provide rich information on the interrelation between urban travel and emission exposure. The new methods designed within the ASTRID project are intended to extend those findings with aspects of disparity and social justice. ASTRID targets the criteria pollutants for measurements along with meteorological parameters and spatial coordinates in different transport environments (e.g. car, buses, train, pedestrian) for different age groups using low-cost personal monitoring equipment (Kumar et al., 2014a). This presentation delivered by Dr Anne Dorothée Slovic will explain the survey approach taken in São Paulo and will contrast it with the experimental design in The Netherlands and the UK.

The University of Surrey has just launched the Global Centre for Clean Air Research , headed by Prof. Prashant Kumar. The Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) will see the University leading on collaborative, cutting-edge research to identify an action plan to ensure ‘clean air for all’.

More info.