Increasing cities\u27 capacity to manage noise and air quality using urban morphology

According to the World Health Organization, the top two in disease burden are air pollution and environmental noise. In cities, road traffic is the largest contributor to both noise and air pollution and the corresponding Swedish Environmental objectives are to date estimated to not be reached by 2020. Future reductions concerning both air quality and noise are considered insufficient whereby additional measures are needed.Air quality is linked to urban form such that compact cities were shown to result in increasing concentrations of air pollution. Further, urban form influences the meteorology due to changed surface roughness on the larger scale (urban scale), and even more in a local- and microscale at ground level in street canyons. This will affect wind patterns influencing the dispersion possibility of air pollutants. For investigating local effects of urban morphology on noise and air distribution simultaneously, the Spacematrix method has been shown to be useful, as described in Berghauser Pont and Haupt (2010). Building types can be composed of a combination of density variables enabling to quantify a type and manipulate each variable separately. The aim of this paper is to identify critical spatial parameters influencing noise and air pollution and translate them into measures of spatial form including size of the urban block, and distribution, positioning and height of the buildings within that block

Effects of urban morphology on traffic noise: A parameter study including indirect noise exposure and estimated health impact

Noise exposure has been calculated and analysed for 31 different urban morphologies in an urban setting. For five of the urban morphologies also vegetation surfaces on facades and roofs were studied. Facade exposures were analysed for both smaller (single-sided) flats and larger (floor-through) flats, considering the direct exposure from the roads as well as the indirect exposure at noise-shielded positions like inner yards. Also, grid map area exposures at ground level were calculated and analysed for both sidewalk and yard areas. The facade exposure levels, using indicators Lden and Lnight, were used to estimate annoyance and sleep disturbance as well as disease burden in terms of DALY (Disability-Adjusted Life Years) per person. In all urban morphology cases, single-sided flats showed overall better performance (i.e. lower DALY) than larger, floor-through flats; however, the inclusion of a bonus for additional facade elements having a lower noise exposure gave the large flats a similar or better predicted overall performance compared with the small flats. Among the building types studied, for small flats and constant building density, the use of perimeter blocks with closed inner yards, slightly open yards and U-shaped buildings showed results of relatively better overall performance compared with I-shaped, L-shaped and point buildings. When the yards grow in size, the performance of closed inner yards dropped. As general trends, perimeter blocks were shown to perform better than morphologies with less enclosed yards and densification with constant traffic flow was shown to result in improved performance. However, building types with slightly open yards may provide an attractive compromise solution due to its relatively good noise shielding at the same time as enabling solutions to air pollution and corner-flat layouts. In addition, complementing the perimeter blocks with towers was shown to enable improvement. Furthermore, traffic concentration by locating all local traffic to a single road was shown to be beneficial, increasingly so by widening the road. Predicted effects of vegetation surfaces on facades and roofs showed significant overall improvement, where closed inner yards benefit from vegetated roofs. The area exposure results showed that when the building blocks are successively less enclosed the levels are reduced on the sidewalks and increased in the yards. Also, the benefit of facade vegetation is shown for the area exposures

The effect of secondary inorganic aerosols, soot and the geographical origin of air mass on acute myocardial infarction hospitalisations in Gothenburg, Sweden during 1985 - 2010 : a case-crossover study

BACKGROUND: The relative importance of different sources of air pollution for cardiovascular disease is unclear. The aims were to compare the associations between acute myocardial infarction (AMI) hospitalisations in Gothenburg, Sweden and 1) the long-range transported (LRT) particle fraction, 2) the remaining particle fraction, 3) geographical air mass origin, and 4) influence of local dispersion during 1985–2010. METHODS : A case-crossover design was applied using lag0 (the exposure the same day as hospitalisation), lag1 (exposure one day prior hospitalisation) and 2-day cumulative average exposure (CA2) (mean of lag0 and lag1). The LRT fractions included PMion (sum of sulphate, nitrate and ammonium) and soot measured at a rural site. The difference between urban PM10 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 μm) and rural PMion was a proxy for locally generated PM10 (PMrest). The daily geographical origin of air mass was estimated as well as days with limited or effective local dispersion. The entire year was considered, as well as warm and cold periods, and different time periods. RESULTS : In total 28 215 AMI hospitalisations occurred during 26 years. PM10, PMion, PMrest and soot did not influence AMI for the entire year. In the cold period, the association was somewhat stronger for PMrest than for urban PM10; the strongest associations were observed during 1990–2000 between AMI and CA2 of PMrest (6.6% per inter-quartile range (IQR), 95% confidence interval 2.1 to 11.4%) and PM10 (4.1%, 95% CI 0.2% − 8.2%). Regarding the geographical air mass origins there were few associations. Days with limited local dispersion showed an association with AMI in the cold period of 2001–2010 (6.7%, 95% CI 0.0% − 13.0%). CONCLUSIONS : In the cold period, locally generated PM and days with limited local dispersion affected AMI hospitalisations, indicating importance of local emissions from e.g. traffic.The Swedish Research Council Formas funded the study.http://www.ehjournal.netam201

Damning och buller vid byggarbetsplatser

I många av Sveriges tätorter pågår eller planeras det för en mängd stora frastrukturella byggprojekt (vägar, järnvägar, broar m.m.). Då många av byggprojekten är lokaliserade i städer där det redan idag förekommer höga halter av partiklar i luft och bullerbelastningen ofta är stor, ökar risken att ställda krav för buller och miljökvalitetsnormer (MKN) för utomhusluft kommer att överskridas under långa byggfaser. Vidare gör stora byggprojekt det svårare att uppfylla de hårdare satta miljökvalitetsmålen till år 2020. Vid byggarbetsplatser förekommer partikel- och bulleremissioner i olika omfattning beroende på arbetsplatsens storlek, vilka aktiviteter som pågår och de meteorologiska förutsättningarna. Grävarbeten eller förflyttningar av jordmassor i torr och blåsig väderlek gynnar damningen. Fordonstransporter på allmän väg drar med sig material ut på vägarna i anslutning till byggarbetsplatsen och ger ett tillskott till vägdammsförrådet på vägar och gator. Såväl partikelspridning som buller kan ge upphov till problem och olägenheter antingen i form av nedsmutsning eller överskridanden av MKN för partiklar (PM10 och PM2,5) och riktvärden eller villkor för buller. Tidigare har det varit svårt och att uppskatta bidrag till både luftkvaliteten och depositionen (dvs. nedsmutsningen) av partiklar från byggarbetsplatser då det inte funnits några så kallade emissionsfaktorer (EF). I detta projekt har en metodik för kvantifiering av damning utvecklats som kan användas på befintliga eller kommande byggen eller infrastrukturprojekt. Metodiken möjliggör att beräkna belastning från passiv damning för jämförelse mot MKN och miljökvalitetsmålen för utomhusluft, om behov av beräkningar bedöms föreligga. För buller görs motsvarande värdering ifråga om utredningsbehov med befintliga schabloner och riktlinjer, enligt NFS 2004:15, som utgångspunkt. Det övergripande målet är att ta fram underlag för när olika metoder för beräkningar av partikelspridning och buller från byggarbetsplatser är lämpliga att använda, samt en klassificering av dessa för olika miljöer och storlekar på byggen. Det övergripande syftet med projektet är att spridningsmodellera passiv damning, damning på allmän väg och buller ifrån byggarbetsplatser för att kvantifiera vilka artikelhalter och bullernivåer som uppstår vid byggarbetsplatser. Emissionsfaktorer för passiv damning från byggarbetsplatser och för damning från byggarbetsplatsrelaterad verksamhet, på allmän väg har tagits fram. Resultaten har nåtts genom att använda data från tidigare utförda studier kombinerat med ett flertal olika mätningar och spridningsberäkningar. De emissionsfaktorer som tagits fram för damning från byggarbetsplatser representerar torrt respektive regnigt väder och vardagar respektive helger. För de fall då sprängning sker har särskilda emissionsfaktorer tagits fram. Det material som följer med byggfordon ut på allmänna vägar bidrar till damning. I projektet har emissionsfaktorer för detta tagits fram, som tar hänsyn till hur många byggfordonen är och avståndet från byggarbetsplatsen.Luftkvalitetsberäkningar av diffus damning samt buller från byggarbetsplatse

Use of a 3-D Dispersion Model for Calculation of Distribution of Horse Allergen and Odor around Horse Facilities

The interest in equestrian sports has increased substantially during the last decades, resulting in increased number of horse facilities around urban areas. In Sweden, new guidelines for safe distance have been decided based on the size of the horse facility (e.g., number of horses) and local conditions, such as topography and meteorology. There is therefore an increasing need to estimate dispersion of horse allergens to be used, for example, in the planning processes for new residential areas in the vicinity of horse facilities. The aim of this study was to develop a method for calculating short- and long-term emissions and dispersion of horse allergen and odor around horse facilities. First, a method was developed to estimate horse allergen and odor emissions at hourly resolution based on field measurements. Secondly, these emission factors were used to calculate concentrations of horse allergen and odor by using 3-D dispersion modeling. Results from these calculations showed that horse allergens spread up to about 200 m, after which concentration levels were very low (<2 U/m3). Approximately 10% of a study-group detected the smell of manure at 60m, while the majority—80%–90%—detected smell at 60 m or shorter distance from the manure heap. Modeling enabled horse allergen exposure concentrations to be determined with good time resolution