Diogo Lopes

Integrating health on air quality assessment — review report on health risks of two major european outdoor air pollutants: PM and NO

Quantifying the impact of air pollution on the public’s health has become an increasingly critical component in policy discussion. Recent data indicate that more than 70% of the world population lives in cities. Several studies reported that current levels of air pollutants in urban areas are associated with adverse health risks, namely, cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer. IARC recently classified outdoor air pollution and related particulate matter (PM) as carcinogenic to humans. Despite the air quality improvements observed over the last few years, there is still continued widespread exceedance within Europe, particularly regarding PM and nitrogen oxides (NOx). The European Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC requires Member States to design appropriate air quality plans for zones where air quality does not comply with established limit values. However, in most cases, air quality is only quantified using a combination of monitored and modeled data and no health impact assessment is carried out. An integrated approach combining the effects of several emission abatement measures on air quality, impacts on human health, and associated implementation costs enables an effective cost–benefit analysis and an added value to the decision-making process. Hence, this review describes the basic steps and tools for integrating health into air quality assessment (health indicators, exposure-response functions). In addition, consideration is given to two major outdoor pollutants: PM and NO2. A summary of the health metrics used to assess the health impact of PM and NO2 and recent epidemiologic data are also described.

Current air quality plans in Europe designed to support air quality management policies

Abstract The intensification of the human activity in urban areas as a result of the increasing population has contributed to the air pollution worsening in cities. To reverse this trend, the European Commission established a legal framework to improve the air quality. Thereby the Member States need to develop air quality plans (AQP) for zones and agglomerations where air quality limit values are exceeded, in order to implement pollution control strategies and meet the legal requirements. Understanding the reasons for the levels of air quality non–compliance as well as evaluating available and commonly used tools to predict the air quality and their effects, is crucial for the decision–making process on air quality management policies. Based on a compilation of regional and local AQP, a review of assessment capabilities and used modeling tools to evaluate the effects of emission abatement measures on the air quality and health was performed. In most cases, models are applied to estimate emissions and to assess the resulting air quality from both reference and emission abatement scenarios. Air quality’s impacts on the health and environment are rarely quantified. Regarding the air quality assessment, beyond the modeling, monitored data for validation of simulations are also used. Some studies, however, do not include the use of air quality models, considering the monitoring network as spatially representative of the study domain (e.g. Lisbon Region, Riga, Malta). In order to overcome methodological limitations for quantifying the impacts of emission abatement measures, economic evaluation techniques or even Integrated Assessment Methodologies (IAM) have been developed. IAM, already applied in some AQP or case studies, namely for Antwerp and London, are used for assessing how reductions in emissions contribute to improve air quality, reduce exposure and protect human health.

Network mobility for vehicular networks

Vehicular networks, which have been initially designed to support safety applications, are now also envisaged as a way to provide internet access to its users while in the vehicles. Due to the high mobility of the vehicles and of the network formed by the vehicles, a significant number of handovers of the vehicles between road side units will be in place. We have designed and implemented a seamless network handover mechanism that is able to move a network of vehicles between different infrastructure units, even in connections with a different number of vehicles to the infrastructure. This mobility approach is also integrated in a connection manager that provides seamless communication between vehicles and/or the infrastructure, electing the best technology and network to maintain the vehicle connected without breaking any active sessions of the users. To validate and evaluate the proposed handover approach, two real-world vehicular testbeds were developed, both combining two technologies: WAVE/IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 802.11g. The results of handovers performed on various road scenarios show that the proposed mobility approach provides transparent mobility for both vehicles and passengers, even in mobility between networks with a different number of vehicles to the infrastructure.

Air Quality Modelling to Support Decision-Making: Scenario and Optimization Approaches

In this work a multi-objective approach to define air quality policies is proposed based on the RIAT+ (Regional Integrated Assessment Modelling Tool) system. The solutions of the decision problem represent cost-effective policies at the sectorial level. The methodology is being applied to the Porto urban area, one of the most polluted areas in Portugal, and optimal control policies up to 2020 will be selected.

Urban Air Quality Plans In Europe:A Review On Applied Methodologies

Air pollution is seen as one of the most pressing problems in many urban areas with serious implications on the environment and human health. Focusing on this critical issue, the 2008 European Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) requires European Member States to design appropriate Air Quality Plans (AQP) for zones and agglomerations where the air quality does not comply with the limit/target values. A review of assessment capabilities and modelling tools used to evaluate the effects of emission abatement measures on the air quality and health has been performed based on a compilation of regional and local AQP. In general, models are applied to estimate emissions and to assess the current air quality and the impact of emission abatement scenarios. Some studies, however, still consider the monitoring network as spatially representative of the study domain and do not include the use of air quality models (e.g. Lisbon Region, Riga, Malta). At this regional/local scale it is not a common practice to apply a more integrated air quality and health approach based on Integrated Assessment Methodologies (IAM). Notwithstanding, there are some exceptions, such as the AQP of Stockholm, Antwerp, Athens, London and several regions of Italy and Denmark, which integrate the assessment of how reductions in emissions improve air quality, reduce human exposure and protect human health. The costs associated to the effectiveness of emission abatement measures are also included in these IAM contributing to the selection of the most cost-effective abatement measures. Air Pollution XXII 315 www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) WIT Transactions on Ecology and The Environment, Vol 183,