Road-traffic pollution and asthma – using modelled exposure assessment for routine public health surveillance

Asthma is a common disease and appears to be increasing in prevalence. There is evidence linking air pollution, including that from road-traffic, with asthma. Road traffic is also on the increase. Routine surveillance of the impact of road-traffic pollution on asthma, and other diseases, would be useful in informing local and national government policy in terms of managing the environmental health risk. Several methods for exposure assessment have been used in studies examining the association between asthma and road traffic pollution. These include comparing asthma prevalence in areas designated as high and low pollution areas, using distance from main roads as a proxy for exposure to road traffic pollution, using traffic counts to estimate exposure, using vehicular miles travelled and using modelling techniques. Although there are limitations to all these methods, the modelling approach has the advantage of incorporating several variables and may be used for prospective health impact assessment. The modelling approach is already in routine use in the United Kingdom in support of the government's strategy for air quality management. Combining information from such models with routinely collected health data would form the basis of a routine public health surveillance system. Such a system would facilitate prospective health impact assessment, enabling policy decisions concerned with road-traffic to be made with knowledge of the potential implications. It would also allow systematic monitoring of the health impacts when the policy decisions and plans have been implemented

Mining Social Media and Structured Data in Urban Environmental Management to Develop Smart Cities

This research presented the deployment of data mining on social media and structured data in urban studies. We analyzed urban relocation, air quality and traffic parameters on multicity data as early work. We applied the data mining techniques of association rules, clustering and classification on urban legislative history. Results showed that data mining could produce meaningful knowledge to support urban management. We treated ordinances (local laws) and the tweets about them as indicators to assess urban policy and public opinion. Hence, we conducted ordinance and tweet mining including sentiment analysis of tweets. This part of the study focused on NYC with a goal of assessing how well it heads towards a smart city. We built domain-specific knowledge bases according to widely accepted smart city characteristics, incorporating commonsense knowledge sources for ordinance-tweet mapping. We developed decision support tools on multiple platforms using the knowledge discovered to guide urban management. Our research is a concrete step in harnessing the power of data mining in urban studies to enhance smart city development

“Green” Transportation Taxes and Fees: A Survey Of Californians, MTI Report 08-05

This report explores public opinion on a new and promising concept—green transportation taxes and fees. These are taxes and fees set at variable rates, with higher rates for more polluting vehicles and lower rates for those that pollute less. This approach to transportation taxes and fees adapts the traditional transportation finance system to achieve two critical public benefits at once: encouraging drivers to choose more environmentally-friendly transportation options and raising revenue for needed transportation programs. To test public support for green transportation taxes and fees, the authors conducted a random telephone survey of 1,500 Californians that asked respondents their views on five hypothetical tax and fee options: a flat-rate and a green vehicle registration fee, a flat-rate and a green mileage fee, and a “feebate” program for new vehicle purchases under which more-polluting vehicles would be charged a tax and less-polluting vehicles would receive a rebate. The survey results show that the concept of green transportation taxes and fees strongly appeals to Californians. The survey tested this in two ways: by testing support for the three hypothetical green transportation tax and fee policies, and also by comparing support levels for flat-rate versus green versions of two taxes. Majorities of the respondents supported all three green taxes and fees tested. Another striking finding from the survey is that support for the green taxes and fees did not vary greatly by population subgroups; a diverse range of Californians supported the green taxes and fees. An analysis comparing support for the green and flat-rate vehicle registration fee and feebate proposals confirmed that in every subgroup, more people within that subgroup supported the green than the flat version of the two taxes tested

Internal report cluster 1: Urban freight innovations and solutions for sustainable deliveries (2/4)

Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 2 of

Internal report cluster 1: Urban freight innovations and solutions for sustainable deliveries (1/4)

Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 1 of

Air Traffic Management Safety Challenges

The primary goal of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system is to control accident risk. ATM safety has improved over the decades for many reasons, from better equipment to additional safety defences. But ATM safety targets, improving on current performance, are now extremely demanding. Safety analysts and aviation decision-makers have to make safety assessments based on statistically incomplete evidence. If future risks cannot be estimated with precision, then how is safety to be assured with traffic growth and operational/technical changes? What are the design implications for the USA’s ‘Next Generation Air Transportation System’ (NextGen) and Europe’s Single European Sky ATM Research Programme (SESAR)? ATM accident precursors arise from (eg) pilot/controller workload, miscommunication, and lack of upto- date information. Can these accident precursors confidently be ‘designed out’ by (eg) better system knowledge across ATM participants, automatic safety checks, and machine rather than voice communication? Future potentially hazardous situations could be as ‘messy’ in system terms as the Überlingen mid-air collision. Are ATM safety regulation policies fit for purpose: is it more and more difficult to innovate, to introduce new technologies and novel operational concepts? Must regulators be more active, eg more inspections and monitoring of real operational and organisational practices

Urban air pollution and health inequities: a workshop report.

Over the past three decades, an array of legislation with attendant regulations has been implemented to enhance the quality of the environment and thereby improve the public's health. Despite the many beneficial changes that have followed, there remains a disproportionately higher prevalence of harmful environmental exposures, particularly air pollution, for certain populations. These populations most often reside in urban settings, have low socioeconomic status, and include a large proportion of ethnic minorities. The disparities between racial/ethnic minority and/or low-income populations in cities and the general population in terms of environmental exposures and related health risks have prompted the "environmental justice" or "environmental equity" movement, which strives to create cleaner environments for the most polluted communities. Achieving cleaner environments will require interventions based on scientific data specific to the populations at risk; however, research in this area has been relatively limited. To assess the current scientific information on urban air pollution and its health impacts and to help set the agenda for immediate intervention and future research, the American Lung Association organized an invited workshop on Urban Air Pollution and Health Inequities held 22-24 October 1999 in Washington, DC. This report builds on literature reviews and summarizes the discussions of working groups charged with addressing key areas relevant to air pollution and health effects in urban environments. An overview was provided of the state of the science for health impacts of air pollution and technologies available for air quality monitoring and exposure assessment. The working groups then prioritized research needs to address the knowledge gaps and developed recommendations for community interventions and public policy to begin to remedy the exposure and health inequities