Structural inequalities provide an important context for understanding and responding to the impact of high traffic densities on disadvantaged neighborhoods. Emerging atmospheric science and epidemiological research indicates hazardous vehicle-related pollutants (e.g., diesel exhaust) are highly concentrated near major roadways, and the prevalence of respiratory ailments and mortality are heigh...

Health impact assessment has become important in the development of air quality policies and in finding the relationships between pollutants concentration and health effects. In our work we presented a novel index able to evaluate the effects on the human exposure caused by ambient air pollution in urban areas. The index is able to link both health risk factors and pollutants levels. The indexe...

Urban forests are integral components of urban ecosystems, which could generate significant ecosystem services, such as offsetting carbon emission, removing air pollutants, regulating the microclimate, and recreation. These ecosystem services contribute to improving environmental quality, quality of life, and sustainable urban development. Despite a long history of inserting vegetation in human...

Urban air pollution is associated with significant adverse health effects. Model-based abatement strategies are required and developed for the growing urban populations. In the initial development stage, these are focussed on exceedances of air quality standards caused by high short-term pollutant concentrations. Prediction of health effects and implementation of urban air quality information a...

Soil quality is critical to the management of urban green space, in particular, along traffic corridors where traffic-related air pollution is significant. Soil quality can be evaluated by soil enzyme activities, which show quick responses to both natural and anthropogenic disturbances. In this study, we investigated three soil enzyme activities (i.e., dehydrogenase, catalase and urease) along ...

Nowadays urban pollution exposure from road transport has become a great concern in major cities throughout the world. A modelling framework has been developed to simulate Personal Exposure Frequency Distributions (PEFDs) as a function of urban background and roadside pollutant concentrations, under different traffic conditions. In this paper, we present a technique for classifying roads, accor...

The impacts of diffuse urban sources of pollution on watercourses are quantified. A survey of nine urban streams in Scotland for persistent pollutants in stream sediments is described, together with sediments from SUDS ponds. Determinands reported are: PAHs, total hydrocarbons, and toxic metals (As, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cu, Cr, Cd). Results highlight hydrocarbons as a major urban pollutant, and show sig...

BACKGROUND Land use regression (LUR) modelling is proposed as a promising approach to meet some of the challenges of assessing the intra-urban spatial variability of ambient air pollutants in urban and industrial settings. However, most of the LUR models to date have focused on nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. This study aimed at developing LUR models to predict BTEX (benzene, toluene, e...