Transportation emissions and environmental health: an evaluatory planning methodology

A planning methodology which relates pollution emissions from transportation networks to potentially exposed human populations is described. The location of total population and hypersusceptible populations with respect to emission sources are used to compare planning alternatives. Hypersusceptible groups are defined as those with an increased health sensitivity to specific pollutants caused by transportation. High-risk zones are those defined as having both a high proportion of their population hypersusceptible to a particular pollutant and a high emission level of the pollutant. Enumeration of hypersusceptible populations in high-risk zones and the number of these zones, together with the total hypersusceptible populations contained within network corridors, the net emissions of individual pollutants, and the population-weighted mean emission levels for each pollutant for the complete study area, serve as rating indices for comparing a set of alternative transportation plans.