Showing papers on "Air quality index published in 2008"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the current state of understanding of the air pollution problems in China's mega cities and identify the immediate challenges to understanding and controlling air pollution in these densely populated areas.
2,164 citations
TL;DR: In 1989, the government of Mexico City introduced a program, Hoy No Circula, that banned most drivers from using their vehicles one weekday per week on the basis of the last digit of the vehicle's license plate as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In 1989, the government of Mexico City introduced a program, Hoy No Circula, that bans most drivers from using their vehicles one weekday per week on the basis of the last digit of the vehicle’s license plate. This article measures the effect of the driving restrictions on air quality using high‐frequency measures from monitoring stations. Across pollutants and specifications there is no evidence that the restrictions have improved air quality. Evidence from additional sources indicates that the restrictions led to an increase in the total number of vehicles in circulation as well as a change in composition toward high‐emissions vehicles.
474 citations
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TL;DR: In 1989, the government of Mexico City introduced a program, Hoy No Circula, that banned most drivers from using their vehicles one weekday per week on the basis of the last digit of the vehicle's license plate.
Abstract: In 1989, the government of Mexico City introduced a program, Hoy No Circula, that bans most drivers from using their vehicles one weekday per week on the basis of the last digit of the vehicle’s license plate. This article measures the effect of the driving restrictions on air quality using high-frequency measures from monitoring stations. Across pollutants and specifications there is no evidence that the restrictions have improved air quality. Evidence from additional sources indicates that the restrictions led to an increase in the total number of vehicles in circulation as well as a change in composition toward high-emissions vehicles.
465 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a multi-pollutant index (MPI) considering the combined level of the three criteria pollutants (i.e., TSP, SO2, and NO2) in view of the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for Air Quality.
463 citations
TL;DR: The Public Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA) project assessed the effects of short-term exposure to air pollution on daily mortality in Bangkok, Thailand, and in three cities in China: Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Wuhan.
Abstract: BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although the deleterious effects of air pollution from fossil fuel combustion have been demonstrated in many Western nations, fewer studies have been conducted in Asia. The Public Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA) project assessed the effects of shortterm exposure to air pollution on daily mortality in Bangkok, Thailand, and in three cities in China: Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Wuhan. METHODS: Poisson regression models incorporating natural spline smoothing functions were used to adjust for seasonality and other time-varying covariates that might confound the association between air pollution and mortality. Effect estimates were determined for each city and then for the cities combined using a random effects method. RESULTS: In individual cities, associations were detected between most of the pollutants [nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter ≤ 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), and ozone] and most health outcomes under study (i.e., all natural-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality). The city-combined effects of the four pollutants tended to be equal or greater than those identified in studies conducted in Western industrial nations. In addition, residents of Asian cities are likely to have higher exposures to air pollution than those in Western industrial nations because they spend more time outdoors and less time in air conditioning. CONCLUSIONS: Although the social and environmental conditions may be quite different, it is reasonable to apply estimates derived from previous health effect of air pollution studies in the West to Asia.
418 citations
TL;DR: The efficiency of atmospheric cleansing by trees in congested Chinese cities could be improved by planting more trees other than shrubs or grass, diversifying species composition and biomass structure, and providing sound green space management.
395 citations
TL;DR: The focus is on the ways in which health-relevant measures of air quality, including ozone, particulate matter, and aeroallergens, may be affected by climate variability and change.
347 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the effect of green roofs and green walls on air pollution in urban Toronto and found that a 10-20% increase in the surface area for green roofs on downtown buildings would contribute significantly to the social, financial and environmental health of all citizens.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of green roofs and green walls on air pollution in urban Toronto. The research looked at the synergistic effects on air pollution mitigation of different combinations of vegetation by manipulating quantities of trees, shrubs, green roofs and green walls in the study area. The effects of these manipulations were simulated with the Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) model developed by the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Regional Station. While UFORE contains several modules, Module—D quantifies the levels of air pollution for contaminants such as NO2, S02, CO, PM10 and ozone as well as hourly pollution removal rates and the economic value of pollutant removal. Six vegetation scenarios were developed within the Toronto study area to compare different subsets of vegetation and their effect on air contaminants. Results of the study indicate that grass on roofs (extensive green roofs) could augment the effect of trees and shrubs in air pollution mitigation, placing shrubs on a roof (intensive green roofs) would have a more significant impact. By extension, a 10–20% increase in the surface area for green roofs on downtown buildings would contribute significantly to the social, financial and environmental health of all citizens.
346 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the impact of three "criteria" air pollutants on infant health in New Jersey in the 1990s by combining information about mother's residential location from birth certificates with information from air quality monitors.
Abstract: We examine the impact of three "criteria" air pollutants on infant health in New Jersey in the 1990s by combining information about mother's residential location from birth certificates with information from air quality monitors. In addition to large sample size, our work offers three important innovations: First, because we know the exact addresses of mothers, we select those mothers closest to air monitors to ensure a more accurate measure of air quality. Second, since we follow mothers over time, we control for unobserved characteristics of mothers using maternal fixed effects. Third, we examine interactions of air pollution with smoking and other predictors of poor infant health outcomes. We find consistently negative effects of exposure to pollution, especially carbon monoxide, both during and after birth. The effects are considerably larger for smokers than for nonsmokers as well as for older mothers. Since automobiles are the main source of carbon monoxide emissions, our results have important implications for regulation of automobile emissions.
336 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a hybrid model combining ARIMA and ANN is proposed to improve forecast accuracy for an area with limited air quality and meteorological data, using surface meteorological and PM10 measurements.
334 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an approach to infer ground-level nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations by applying local scaling factors from a global three-dimensional model (GEOS-Chem) to tropospheric NO2 columns retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard the Aura satellite is presented.
Abstract: [1] We present an approach to infer ground-level nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations by applying local scaling factors from a global three-dimensional model (GEOS-Chem) to tropospheric NO2 columns retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard the Aura satellite. Seasonal mean OMI surface NO2 derived from the standard tropospheric NO2 data product (Version 1.0.5, Collection 3) varies by more than two orders of magnitude ( 10 ppbv) over North America. Two ground-based data sets are used to validate the surface NO2 estimate and indirectly validate the OMI tropospheric NO2 retrieval: photochemical steady-state (PSS) calculations of NO2 based on in situ NO and O3 measurements, and measurements from a commercial chemiluminescent NO2 analyzer equipped with a molybdenum converter. An interference correction algorithm for the latter is developed using laboratory and field measurements and applied using modeled concentrations of the interfering species. The OMI-derived surface NO2 mixing ratios are compared with an in situ surface NO2 data obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality System (AQS) and Environment Canada's National Air Pollution Surveillance (NAPS) network for 2005 after correcting for the interference in the in situ data. The overall agreement of the OMI-derived surface NO2 with the corrected in situ measurements and PSS-NO2 is −11–36%. A larger difference in winter/spring than in summer/fall implies a seasonal bias in the OMI NO2 retrieval. The correlation between the OMI-derived surface NO2 and the ground-based measurements is significant (correlation coefficient up to 0.86) with a tendency for higher correlations in polluted areas. The satellite-derived data base of ground level NO2 concentrations could be valuable for assessing exposures of humans and vegetation to NO2, supplementing the capabilities of the ground-based networks, and evaluating air quality models and the effectiveness of air quality control strategies.
TL;DR: In this paper, an explicit spatial econometric perspective and account for spatial dependence and endogeneity using recently developed Spatial 2SLS estimation methods is taken into account, using the Kelejian-Prucha HAC estimator.
Abstract: In the valuation of the effect of improved air quality through the estimation of hedonic models of house prices, the potential “errors in variables” aspect of the interpolated air pollution measures is often ignored. In this paper, we assess the extent to which this may affect the resulting empirical estimates for marginal willingness to pay (MWTP), using an extensive sample of over 100,000 individual house sales for 1999 in the South Coast Air Quality Management District of Southern California. We take an explicit spatial econometric perspective and account for spatial dependence and endogeneity using recently developed Spatial 2SLS estimation methods. We also account for both spatial autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity in the error terms, using the Kelejian–Prucha HAC estimator. Our results are consistent across different spatial weights matrices and different kernel functions and suggest that the bias from ignoring the endogeneity in interpolated values may be substantial.
TL;DR: It is found that large metropolitan regions ranking highly on a quantitative index of sprawl experience a greater number of ozone exceedances than more spatially compact metropolitan regions, suggesting that urban spatial structure may have effects on ozone formation that are independent of its effects on precursor emissions.
TL;DR: In this paper, the correlation of NO2 to other ambient pollutants measured with passive samplers was evaluated at two transects perpendicular to an expressway with nearly 400,000 vehicles per day, and the correlations with active PM measurements made with Dust-Trak and P-trak monitors were in the range 0.64-0.78.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a different approach to derive information on individual preferences for local environmental quality by analyzing data drawn from the German socioeconomic panel in an attempt to explain differences in self-reported levels of well-being in terms of environmental quality.
TL;DR: This study quantified PM(10) removal by Santiago's urban forests based on socioeconomic strata and using field and real-time pollution and climate data via a dry deposition urban forest effects model and determined that municipal urban forest management efficiency was similar to these other air quality improvement measures.
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of climate change on ozone air quality were investigated using a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) driven by meteorological fields from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies general circulation model.
Abstract: [1] We investigate the effects on U.S. ozone air quality from 2000–2050 global changes in climate and anthropogenic emissions of ozone precursors by using a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) driven by meteorological fields from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies general circulation model (NASA/GISS GCM). We follow the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change A1B scenario and separate the effects from changes in climate and anthropogenic emissions through sensitivity simulations. The 2000–2050 changes in anthropogenic emissions reduce the U.S. summer daily maximum 8-hour ozone by 2–15 ppb, but climate change causes a 2–5 ppb positive offset over the Midwest and northeastern United States, partly driven by decreased ventilation from convection and frontal passages. Ozone pollution episodes are far more affected by climate change than mean values, with effects exceeding 10 ppb in the Midwest and northeast. We find that ozone air quality in the southeast is insensitive to climate change, reflecting compensating effects from changes in isoprene emission and air pollution meteorology. We define a ‘‘climate change penalty’’ as the additional emission controls necessary to meet a given ozone air quality target. We find that a 50% reduction in U.S. NOx emissions is needed in the 2050 climate to reach the same target in the Midwest as a 40% reduction in the 2000 climate. Emission controls reduce the magnitude of this climate change penalty and can even turn it into a climate benefit in some regions.
TL;DR: Analysis of sensitivity analyses provides evidence that the AQHI represents a valid approach to formulating an index with the objective of allowing people to judge the relative probability of experiencing adverse health effects from day to day.
Abstract: Air quality indices currently in use have been criticized because they do not capture additive effects of multiple pollutants, or reflect the apparent no-threshold concentration-response relationsh...
TL;DR: Based on a systematic review of literature on adverse health effects of air pollution, the World Health Organization has updated its Air Quality Guidelines in 2005 as discussed by the authors, which is intended to be relevant and applicable worldwide and takes into consideration large regional inequalities in exposures to air pollution.
Abstract: Based on a systematic review of literature on adverse health effects of air pollution, the World Health Organization has updated its Air Quality Guidelines in 2005. The current update is intended to be relevant and applicable worldwide and takes into consideration large regional inequalities in exposures to air pollution. It recommends guideline levels for particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide, as well as the set of interim targets for these pollutants’ concentrations, encouraging gradual improvement of air quality and reduction of health impacts of the pollution.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the impact of air pollution (particulate matter) on fetal, infant, and child mortality in Indonesia and found that the pollution led to 15,600 missing children in Indonesia.
Abstract: Smoke from massive wildfires blanketed Indonesia in late 1997 This paper examines the impact this air pollution (particulate matter) had on fetal, infant, and child mortality Exploiting the sharp timing and spatial patterns of the pollution and inferring deaths from "missing children" in the 2000 Indonesian Census, I find that the pollution led to 15,600 missing children in Indonesia (12% of the affected birth cohorts) Prenatal exposure to pollution largely drives the result The effect size is much larger in poorer areas, suggesting that differential effects of pollution contribute to the socioeconomic gradient in health
TL;DR: In this article, an intensive field campaign, Program of Regional Integrated Experiments of Air Quality over Pear River Delta (PRIDE-PRD2004), was carried out in the Pearl River Delta in October 2004 to provide an in-depth understanding and a comprehensive record of O3, PM2.5 and other air pollutants in this quickly developing region of China.
TL;DR: In this article, an interpolation model that can be classified as a detrended Kriging model is proposed for real-time assessment of ambient air quality in the EU Air Quality Directive.
TL;DR: The Program of Regional Integrated Experiments on Air Quality over Pearl River Delta of China 2004 (PRIDE-PRD2004) as mentioned in this paper was an intensive field campaign conducted from 4 October to 5 November 2004 at two super-sites: an urban site in Guangzhou city (23.13°N, 113.26°E).
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared three approaches for estimating within-urban spatiotemporal variability in ambient concentrations: spatial interpolation of monitoring data, an empirical/statistical model based on geographic analyses (LUR), and an Eulerian grid model (community multiscale air quality model, CMAQ).
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show adverse health effects associated with short-term and long-term exposure to air pollution in Asian cities, including PM, NO2, SO2, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone.
Abstract: “Air pollution and population health” is one of the most important environmental and public health issues. Economic development, urbanization, energy consumption, transportation/motorization, and rapid population growth are major driving forces of air pollution in large cities, especially in megacities. Air pollution levels in developed countries have been decreasing dramatically in recent decades. However, in developing countries and in countries in transition, air pollution levels are still at relatively high levels, though the levels have been gradually decreasing or have remained stable during rapid economic development. In recent years, several hundred epidemiological studies have emerged showing adverse health effects associated with short-term and long-term exposure to air pollutants. Time-series studies conducted in Asian cities also showed similar health effects on mortality associated with exposure to particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) to those explored in Europe and North America. The World Health Organization (WHO) published the “WHO Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs), Global Update” in 2006. These updated AQGs provide much stricter guidelines for PM, NO2, SO2 and O3. Considering that current air pollution levels are much higher than the WHO-recommended AQGs, interim targets for these four air pollutants are also recommended for member states, especially for developing countries in setting their country-specific air quality standards. In conclusion, ambient air pollution is a health hazard. It is more important in Asian developing countries within the context of pollution level and population density. Improving air quality has substantial, measurable and important public health benefits.
TL;DR: Not the advisory drove their behavior change, but rather the perception of poor air quality, which was not related to PM(2.5) or ozone measurements.
TL;DR: The comparison between population growth rates and air and water quality suggest that multiple factors affect the environmental quality, and that approaching rates of urbanisation through the lens of 'resiliency' can be an effective integrative concept for studying the capacity of urban areas to respond to rapid rates of change.
TL;DR: Exposure characterization for elementary school children to a variety of air pollutants has been assessed using land-use regression models, and correlations across seasons for a given pollutant were determined to assess how much the within-city spatial variability of NO2 varies with time.
TL;DR: The IEA ECBCS Annex 41 as mentioned in this paper has been used to advance development in modelling the integral heat, air and moisture transfer processes that take place in "whole buildings" by considering all relevant parts of its constituents.
Abstract: Humidity of indoor air is an important factor influencing the air quality and energy consumption of buildings as well as durability of building components. Indoor humidity depends on several factors, such as moisture sources, air change, sorption in materials and possible condensation. Since all these phenomena are strongly dependent on each other, numerical predictions of indoor humidity need to be integrated into combined heat and airflow simulation tools. The purpose of a recent international collaborative project, IEA ECBCS Annex 41, has been to advance development in modelling the integral heat, air and moisture transfer processes that take place in “whole buildings” by considering all relevant parts of its constituents. It is believed that full understanding of these processes for the whole building is absolutely crucial for future energy optimization of buildings, as this cannot take place without a coherent and complete description of all hygrothermal processes. This paper will illustrate some of the modelling work that has taken place within the project and present some of the simulation tools used.
Clarkson University1, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation2, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission3, China National Nuclear Corporation4, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre5, Nuclear Energy Agency6, KAERI7, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission8, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute9, Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology10, Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission11, International Atomic Energy Agency12
TL;DR: The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the measurements of concentrations and composition of particulate air pollution in two size fractions across the participating countries.