A Hybrid Model to Analyze Air Pollution Spread Scales in Xi\u27 an and Surrounding Cities

Air quality analysis and prediction are very important in environmental research as airborne pollution has become a significant health threat, especially in Chinese urban agglomerations. Most previous analysis systems have been based on direct factors, such as pollutant concentrations, wind speeds and direction, relative humidity, and temperature; however, the air quality in a city is also affected by the air quality conditions in surrounding areas. This paper proposes a novel strategy for the analysis and forecast of air quality levels, for which Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are employed to elucidate the complex relationships between air quality and meteorological predictor variables. The experimental results in the study demonstrated that the normalized EEMD-ANN model outperformed other models in terms of the Precise, MAE and MAPE. The proposed model, therefore, demonstrated its potential as an administrative tool for issuing air pollution forecasts and for designing suitable abatement strategies

Regional Transport and Its Association with Tuberculosis in the Shandong Province of China, 2009-2011

Human mobility has played a major role in the spread of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) through transportation; however, its pattern and mechanism have remained unclear. This study used transport networks as a proxy for human mobility to generate the spatial process of TB incidence. It examined the association between TB incidence and four types of transport networks at the provincial level: provincial roads, national roads, highways, and railways. Geographical information systems and geospatial analysis were used to examine the spatial distribution of 2217 smear-positive TB cases reported between 2009 and 2011 in the Shandong province. The study involved factors such as population density and elevation difference in conjunction with the types of transport networks to predict the disease occurrence in space. It identified spatial clusters of TB incidence linked not only with transport networks of the regions but also differentiated by elevation. Our research findings provide evidence of targeting populous regions with well-connected transport networks for effective surveillance and control of TB transmission in Shandong.postprin

Advances in Green Infrastructure Planning

The expansion of urban areas has facilitated the conversion of undeveloped lands, which has led to environmental degradation, such as loss of habitats, hydro-modification, and the collapse of existing ecosystems. Recent climate change has exacerbated these damages by causing more frequent and serious hazards. To attenuate the impacts of urbanization and the negative effects of climate change, green infrastructure (GI) planning (e.g., nature-based strategies, technologies, policies, and solutions) has arisen as an important approach for balancing urban development and nature. GI offers a variety of benefits to our cities by reducing stormwater runoff, heat waves, and air pollution; expanding wildlife habitats; and increasing recreational opportunities and even nearby property values

Numerical modeling of micro-scale wind-induced pollutant dispersion in the built environment

Despite recent efforts directed towards the development of cleaner and more efficient energy sources, air pollution remains a major problem in many large cities worldwide, with negative consequences for human health and comfort. If the transport of pollutants by wind in urban areas can be predicted in an accurate way, remedial measures can be implemented and the exposure of people and goods to pollution can be decreased to limit these negative effects. This prediction can be achieved by experimental techniques, on-site or in wind tunnels, but also numerically, with the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).In this thesis CFD is used to simulate wind-induced pollutant dispersion in the built environment. The accuracy of this approach in terms of pollutant concentration prediction always needs to be assessed. The reason is twofold. First, the wind flow around buildings is turbulent and cannot be solved exactly with CFD. This type of flow must therefore be approximated with so-called turbulence models. Second, various types of errors are present in the numerical solution and can affect its accuracy. The Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence modeling approaches are the most widely used in computational wind engineering. They are compared in this thesis, and evaluated by comparison with reference wind-tunnel experiments. In the first part, several generic cases of simplified isolated buildings are considered and, in the second part, an applied case of pollutant dispersion in an actual urban area (part of downtown Montreal) is studied. In the computations, care is taken to accurately simulate three key aspects of urban pollutant dispersion: (1) the atmospheric boundary layer flow, (2) the wind flow around buildings, and (3) the dispersion process. On average, the transport of pollutants by wind can be seen as the combination of, on the one hand, the transport by the mean flow and, on the other hand, the transport by the turbulent fluctuations. This decomposition is used here to evaluate the RANS – with various turbulence models – and LES approaches. Overall, the better performance of LES in terms of flow and concentration field prediction is demonstrated. In addition, LES has the advantage to provide the time-resolved velocity and concentration fields. Given the good accuracy of LES, this approach is used to investigate the physical mechanism of pollutant dispersion for the case of a simplified isolated building. The vortical structures present in the shear layers developing from the roof and sides of the building are shown to play a crucial role in the turbulent mass transport process. LES used as a research tool also allows evaluating models employed with RANS for turbulent mass transport, which is often assumed to act as a diffusion mechanism. The results of this study show that this hypothesis is not always valid and in some cases the turbulent mass flux in the streamwise direction is directed from the low to high levels of mean concentration (counter-gradient diffusion)

Laboratory simulations of local winds in the atmospheric boundary layer via image analysis

In the atmospheric boundary layer, under high pressure conditions and negligible geostrophic winds, problems associated with pollution are the most critical. In this situation local winds play a major role in the evaluation of the atmospheric dynamics at small scales and in dispersion processes. These winds originate as a result of nonuniform heating of the soil, either when it is homogeneous or in discontinuous terrain in the presence of sea and/or slopes. Depending on the source of the thermal gradient, local winds are classified into convective boundary layer, sea and land breezes, urban heat islands, and slope currents. Local winds have been analyzed by (i) simple analytical models; (ii) numerical models; (iii) field measurements; (iv) laboratory measurements through which it is impossible to completely create the necessary similarities, but the parameters that determine the phenomenon can be controlled and each single wind can be separately analyzed. The present paper presents a summary of laboratory simulations of local winds neglecting synoptic winds and the effects of Coriolis force. Image analysis techniques appear suitable to fully describe both the individual phenomenon and the superposition of more than one local wind. Results do agree with other laboratory studies and numerical experiments

Urban-Rural-Partnerships

This is a reprint of the Special Issue “Urban-Rural-Partnerships: Sustainable and Resilient” in Land, which, based on the URP2020 objectives, invited original contributions dealing with interactions in regional systems, particularly between urban and rural actors, institutions and projects to tackle great societal challenges. The 16 contributions published included conceptual and methodological papers, as well as case studies dedicated to striking examples and providing transferable knowledge and solutions. The guest editors hope that the contributions will stimulate learning processes on various levels, i.e. cross- and transdisciplinary as well as from the local level to entire regions to the broader European and international levels, in order to foster an understanding of integrated regional and urban–rural development

Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability-Volume 2

Our world is facing many challenges, such as poverty, hunger, resource shortage, environmental degradation, climate change, and increased inequalities and conflicts. To address such challenges, the United Nations proposed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), consisting of 17 interlinked global goals, as the strategic blueprint of world sustainable development. Nevertheless, the implementation of the SDG framework has been very challenging and the COVID-19 pandemic has further impeded the SDG implementation progress. Accelerated efforts are needed to enable all stakeholders, ranging from national and local governments, civil society, private sector, academia and youth, to contribute to addressing this dilemma. This volume of the Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability book series aims to offer inspiration and creativity on approaches to sustainable development. Among other things, it covers topics of COVID-19 and sustainability, environmental pollution, food production, clean energy, low-carbon transport promotion, and strategic governance for sustainable initiatives. This book can reveal facts about the challenges we are facing on the one hand and provide a better understanding of drivers, barriers, and motivations to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all on the other. Research presented in this volume can provide different stakeholders, including planners and policy makers, with better solutions for the implementation of SDGs. Prof. Bao-Jie He acknowledges the Project NO. 2021CDJQY-004 supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. We appreciate the assistance from Mr. Lifeng Xiong, Mr. Wei Wang, Ms. Xueke Chen and Ms. Anxian Chen at School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing University, China

Analysis of changes in air pollution quality and impact of COVID-19 on environmental health in Iran: application of interpolation models and spatial autocorrelation.

peer reviewedIn the global COVID-19 epidemic, humans are faced with a new challenge. The concept of quarantine as a preventive measure has changed human activities in all aspects of life. This challenge has led to changes in the environment as well. The air quality index is one of the immediate concrete parameters. In this study, the actual potential of quarantine effects on the air quality index and related variables in Tehran, the capital of Iran, is assessed, where, first, the data on the pollutant reference concentration for all measuring stations in Tehran, from February 19 to April 19, from 2017 to 2020, are monitored and evaluated. This study investigated the hourly concentrations of six particulate matters (PM), including PM2.5, PM10, and air contaminants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), and carbon monoxide (CO). Changes in pollution rate during the study period can be due to reduced urban traffic, small industrial activities, and dust mites of urban and industrial origins. Although pollution has declined in most regions during the COVID-19 quarantine period, the PM2.5 rate has not decreased significantly, which might be of natural origins such as dust. Next, the air quality index for the stations is calculated, and then, the interpolation is made by evaluating the root mean square (RMS) of different models. The local and global Moran index indicates that the changes and the air quality index in the study area are clustered and have a high spatial autocorrelation. The results indicate that although the bad air quality is reduced due to quarantine, major changes are needed in urban management to provide favorable conditions. Contaminants can play a role in transmitting COVID-19 as a carrier of the virus. It is suggested that due to the rise in COVID-19 and temperature in Iran, in future studies, the effect of increased temperature on COVID-19 can be assessed

Numerical Simulations of the Urban Microclimate

As global urbanization is accelerating and the majority of the world\u27s population continues to reside in cities, sustainable urban development is becoming increasingly crucial. Evaluation of the urban microclimate is a vital aspect of planning sustainable cities, as it can significantly impact on the health and comfort of urban residents. Computational Fluid Dynamics is a cost-effective and flexible tool to predict microclimate conditions, although often not utilized in the urban planning process until the final stages of a project due to complex pre-processing. The current practice of urban planning also often involves simulating different physical phenomena in separate tools, making it difficult to understand the interaction. This thesis presents the potential of the numerical immersed boundary framework IBOFLow as a tool for urban planners to evaluate the urban microclimate at the early stages of the design processes. The complex and time-consuming pre-processing of urban regions is eliminated using automatically generated Cartesian octree grid meshes where the complex geometries are represented by the immersed boundary methodology. The framework is validated for wind using wind tunnel experiments and compared to a commercially used software to show the importance of including the complex local terrain to generate realistic results. Finally, initial results of the heat simulations are covered to visualize the idea of IBOFlow as a means to simulate the urban microclimate at large, including all necessary physics

Sustainable Integrated Clean Environment for Human & Nature

In this book, the articles published in the special issue of the journal Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050), entitled “Sustainable Integrated Clean Environment for Human & Nature” are re-printed. The objective of this book is to answer the following questions regarding technical, economic, and social approaches:1. What is the current state of the environment? Is it clean?2. How can we make our environment clean and suitable for humans as well as nature?3. How can we keep our environment clean through sustainable practices? The re-printed research articles and review papers aim to cover the subjects mentioned below: 1. COVID-19 and the sustainability of a clean environment for humans and nature: visions, challenges, and solutions2. Clean technologies and nature-based approaches, including environmental remediation and resource circulation3. Global sanitation, hygiene, and public health issues4. Economic approaches, including the development of economic models, life cycle assessment, and the circular economy5. Social awareness and effective education on human rights for procuring clean air and water Through including the latest studies in the above-mentioned fields, this book addresses the technicians, economists, social activists, and decision-makers who are concerned about clean environment concepts for sustainable development of the current and next-generation through respectful interactions between humans and nature