Environmental impact assessment of Pinaceae airborne pollen and green infrastructure using BIM

Urban air quality is a parameter that plays a major role in human health at the local scale. Consequently, in urban planning, the behavior and potential risk of allergenicity for some pollen grains coming from ornamental trees and green spaces surrounding newly built buildings, should be considered. This paper aims to study how pollen exposure, influenced by weather parameters, can be assessed and integrated in the designing and building of constructions as other component of air quality assessment beforehand, by using BIM. Based on a comparative aerobiological study at the height over a building (sampled by two traps at ground and at 16 m), a 3D local dynamic parametric scenario was modelled using BIM, and hourly average Pinaceae pollen concentrations (due to the closeness of pine trees to the samplers). From continuous recording (2009–2011) influenced by height and the influence of wind direction and speed was analysed. Additionally, a map of pine trees geolocated around the studied building was produced and the hourly average Pinaceae pollen concentrations were represented by Revit. BIM together with aerobiology can be a novel and useful tool for the construction of buildings considering airborne biological particles. This represents a first step towards the integration of some unusual environmental parameters in urban planning. Pollen grains modelling as an environmental health criterion for the construction of new buildings will allow technicians to avoid possible future isolation points in the design of building envelopes, and high pollen exposure rates could be avoided, creating ‘allergy-free’ buildings

Urban aerobiological risk mapping of ornamental trees using a new index based on LiDAR and Kriging: A case study of plane trees

Ornamental trees bring benefits for human health, including reducing urban pollution. However, some species, such as plane trees (Platanus sp.), produce allergenic pollen. Consequently, urban maps are a valuable tool for allergic patients and allergists, but they often fail to include variables that contribute to the “building downwash effect”, such as the width and shape of streets and the height of buildings. Other factors that directly influence pollen dispersion (slopes and other geographical features) also have not traditionally been discussed. The LiDAR (Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging) technique enables one to consider these variables with high accuracy. This work proposes an Aerobiological Index to create Risk maps for Ornamental Trees (AIROT) and the establishment of potential areas of risk of exposure to Platanus pollen. LiDAR data from five urban areas were used to create the DEM and DSM (Digital Elevation and Surface Models) needed to perform further analysis. GIS software was used to map the points for each city and to create risk maps by Kriging, with stable (3 cases) and exponential function (2 cases) as the optimal models. In short, the AIROT index was a useful tool to map possible biological risks in cities. Since AIROT allows each city to consider its own characteristics, including geographical specifications, by using remote sensing and geostatistics techniques, the establishment of risk maps and healthy itineraries is valuable for allergic patients, allergists, architects and urban planners. This new aerobiological index provides a new decision-making tool related to urban planning and allergenicity assessment

Relationship of NDVI and oak (Quercus)pollen including a predictive model in the SW Mediterranean region

Techniques of remote sensing are being used to develop phenological studies. Our goal is to study the correlation among the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) related with oak trees included in three set data polygons (15, 25 and 50 km to aerobiological sampling point as NDVI-15, 25 and 50), and oak (Quercus) daily average pollen counts from 1994 to 2013. The study was developed in the SW Mediterranean region with continuous pollen recording within the mean pollen season of each studied year. These pollen concentrations were compared with NDVI values in the locations containing the vegetation under a study based on two cartographic sources: the Extremadura Forest Map (MFEx) of Spain and the Fifth National Forest Inventory (IFN5) from Portugal. The importance of this work is to propose the relationship among data related in space and time by Spearman and Granger causality tests. 9 out of 20 studied years have shown significant results with the Granger causality test between NDVI and pollen concentration, and in 12 years, significant values were obtained by Spearman test. The distances of influence on the contribution of Quercus pollen to the sampler showed statistically significant results depending on the year. Moreover, a predictive model by using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was applied with better results in NDVI25 than for NDVI15 or NDVI50. The addition of NDVI25 with the lag of 5 days and some weather parameters in the model was applied with a RMSE of 4.26 (Spearman coefficient r = 0.77) between observed and predicted values. Based on these results, NDVI seems to be a useful parameter to predict airborne pollen

Influence of meteorological variables and air pollutants on measurements from automatic pollen sampling devices

This study examines the influence of meteorological factors and air pollutants on the performance of automatic pollen monitoring devices, as part of the EUMETNET Autopollen COST ADOPT-intercomparison campaign held in Munich, Germany, during the 2021 pollen season. The campaign offered a unique opportunity to compare all automatic monitors available at the time, a Plair Rapid-E, a Hund-Wetzlar BAA500, an OPC Alphasense, a KH-3000 Yamatronics, three Swisens Polenos, a PollenSense APS, a FLIR IBAC2, a DMT WIBS-5, an Aerotape Sextant, to the average of four manual Hirst traps, under the same environmental conditions. The investigation aimed to elucidate how meteorological factors and air pollution impact particle capture and identification efficiency. The analysis showed coherent results for most devices regarding the correlation between environmental conditions and pollen concentrations. This reflects on one hand, a significant correlation between weather and airborne pollen concentration, and on the other hand the capability of devices to provide meaningful data under the conditions under which measurements were taken. However, correlation strength varied among devices, reflecting differences in design, algorithms, or sensors used. Additionally, it was observed that different algorithms applied to the same dataset resulted in different concentration outputs, highlighting the role of algorithm design in these systems (monitor + algorithm). Notably, no significant influence from air pollutants on the pollen concentrations was observed, suggesting that any potential difference in effect on the systems might require higher air pollution concentrations or more complex interactions. However, results from some monitors were affected to a minor degree by specific weather variables. Our findings suggest that the application of real-time devices in urban environments should focus on the associated algorithm that classifies pollen taxa. The impact of air pollution, although not to be excluded, is of secondary concern as long as the pollution levels are similar to a large European city like Munich.</p

Effects of climate change on Platanus flowering in Western Mediterranean cities: current trends and future projections

Ornamental trees can reduce some of the negative impacts of urbanization on citizens but some species, such as Platanus spp., produce pollen with high allergenic potential. This can exacerbate the symptomatology in allergic patients, being a public health problem. Therefore, it would be relevant to determine the environmental conditions regulating the flowering onset of the Platanus species. The aims of this study were to use aerobiological records for modelling the thermal requirements of Platanus flowering and to make future projections based on the effects that climate change could have on it under several possible future scenarios. This study was conducted in Badajoz and Malaga, two Western Mediterranean cities with different climate conditions. In the first step, several main pollen season definitions were applied to the aerobiological data and their onset dates were compared with in situ phenological observations. The main pollen season definition that best fitted the Platanus flowering onset was based on the 4th derivative of a logistic function. This definition was used as a proxy to model the thermal requirements of the Platanus flowering onset by applying the PhenoFlex statistical framework. The errors obtained by this model during the external validation were 3.2 days on average, so it was fed with future temperature estimations to determine possible future trends. According to the different models, the flowering onset of Platanus in Badajoz will show heterogeneous responses in the short and medium term due to different balances in the chilling-forcing compensation, while it will clearly delay in Malaga due to a significant delay in the chilling requirement fulfilment. This may increase the chances of cross-reactivity episodes with other pollen types in the future, increasing its impact on public health.Funding for open Access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA. This work was partially financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain and FEDER funding inside the Operational Plurirregional Program of Spain 2014-2020 and the Operational Program of Smart Growing (Project Environmental and Biodiversity Climate Change Lab, EnBiC2-Lab), by the Regional Government of Extremadura (IB20081 and GR21027), and by the University of Málaga under its program for projects led by young researchers (I Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia; B1-2021_24). A. Picornell was supported by a postdoctoral grant financed by the Ministry of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities of the Junta de Andalucía (POSTDOC_21_00056). We acknowledge the E-OBS dataset from the EU-FP6 project UERRA (http://www.uerra.eu) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service, and the data providers in the ECA&D project (https://www.ecad.eu)

Perceptions of change in the environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for environmental policy

COVID-19 lockdown measures have impacted the environment with both positive and negative effects. However, how human populations have perceived such changes in the natural environment and how they may have changed their daily habits have not been yet thoroughly evaluated. The objectives of this work were to investigate (1) the social perception of the environmental changes produced by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and the derived change in habits in relation to i) waste management, energy saving, and sustainable consumption, ii) mobility, iii) social inequalities, iv) generation of noise, v) utilization of natural spaces, and, vi) human population perception towards the future, and (2) the associations of these potential new habits with various socio-demographic variables

Perceptions of change in the environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic: implications for environmental policy

COVID-19 lockdown measures have impacted the environment with both positive and negative effects. However, how human populations have perceived such changes in the natural environment and how they may have changed their daily habits have not been yet thoroughly evaluated. The objectives of this work were to investigate (1) the social perception of the environmental changes produced by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and the derived change in habits in relation to i) waste management, energy saving, and sustainable consumption, ii) mobility, iii) social inequalities, iv) generation of noise, v) utilization of natural spaces, and, vi) human population perception towards the future, and (2) the associations of these potential new habits with various socio-demographic variables. First, a SWOT analysis identified strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T) generated by the pandemic lockdown measures. Second, a survey based on the aspects of the SWOT was administered among 2370 adults from 37 countries during the period from February to September 2021. We found that the short-term positive impacts on the natural environment were generally well recognized. In contrast, longer-term negative effects arise, but they were often not reported by the survey participants, such as greater production of plastic waste derived from health safety measures, and the increase in e-commerce use, which can displace small storefront businesses. We were able to capture a mismatch between perceptions and the reported data related to visits to natural areas, and generation of waste. We found that age and country of residence were major contributors in shaping the survey participants ´answers, which highlights the importance of government management strategies to address current and future environmental problems. Enhanced positive perceptions of the environment and ecosystems, combined with the understanding that livelihood sustainability, needs to be prioritized and would reinforce environmental protection policies to create greener cities. Moreover, new sustainable jobs in combination with more sustainable human habits represent an opportunity to reinforce environmental policy

Effects of Wind Speed and Direction on Monthly Fluctuations of Cladosporium Conidia Concentration in the Air

This study determined the relationship between airborne concentration of Cladosporium spp. spores and wind speed and direction using real data (local wind measured by weather station) and modelled data (air mass flow computed with the aid of HYbrid Single Particle Lagrangian Trajectory model). Air samples containing fungal conidia were taken at an urban site (Worcester, UK) for a period of five consecutive years using a spore trap of the Hirst design. A threshold of ≥6000 s m−3 (double the clinical value) was applied in order to select high spore concentration days, when airborne transport of conidia at a regional scale was more likely to occur. Collected data were then examined using geospatial and statistical tools, including circular statistics. Obtained results showed that the greatest numbers of spore concentrations were detected in July and August, when C. herbarum, C. cladosporioides and C. macrocarpum sporulate. The circular correlation test was found to be more sensitive than Spearman’s rank test. The dominance of either local wind or the air mass on Cladosporium spore distributions varied between examined months. Source areas of this pathogen had an origin within the UK territory. Very high daily mean concentrations of Cladosporium spores were observed when daily mean local wind speed was vs ≤ 2.5 m s−1 indicating warm days with a light breeze