The impact of landfills on the air quality of towns: a simple heuristic model for the city of Palermo

The object of research is the processes of transformation of the ecological equilibrity of the structural and functional state of atmospheric air by the example of the city of Uzhhorod (Ukraine), as the border area, and the impact on the health of the population. One of the most problematic issues is the imperfection of methods for assessing the quality of air and its impact on the health of the population. During the study, data from the Transcarpathian Regional Center of Hydrometeorology were used, the materials of statistical reporting of enterprises, the urban sanitary and epidemiological station, etc. Data is obtained relating to the influence of automobile transport in Uzhhorod, Transcarpathian region, on the quality of atmospheric air, as well as the negative consequences of the impact of excessive concentrations of pollutants in the air on the health of inhabitants of urbanized territories. The authors analyze the data on the concentrations of certain air quality parameters in 2019 and 2020. The ways to improve the ecological situation in Uzhhorod have been suggested, and the necessity of developing public control of air quality to preserve the health of Uzhhorod residents has been substantiated. Due to the introduction of the proposed ways to improve the environmental situation in Uzhhorod, an increase in the living conditions of the population of border areas, in particular, Uzhhorod, improving the quality of atmospheric air of the investigated territories will be achieved. It is indicated to develop proposals for improving the methods of quality control of atmospheric air of border areas that will correspond to the standards of the European Union. This study is global due to the shapes of modern anthropogenic pressure, spontaneity, impulsivity and comprehensive validity of numerous factors implemented against the background of climate change. And it is requires new approaches in the scientific principles of organization of nature management, which will be based on an ecosystem approach in identifying and establishing biosafety of existing and latest pollutants

Download Full-text

Measurements of Local Sources of Particulates with a Portable Monitor along the Coast of an Insular City

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13010261 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 261

Author(s):

Christos Petsas ◽

Marinos Stylianou ◽

Antonis Zorpas ◽

Agapios Agapiou

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Significant Contribution ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Portable Monitor ◽

Traffic Jam ◽

Modern Cities ◽

Anthropogenic Processes ◽

The City ◽

Coastal Front

The air quality of modern cities is considered an important factor for the quality of life of humans and therefore is being safeguarded by various international organizations, concentrating on the mass concentration of particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10, 2.5 and 1 μm. However, the different physical and anthropogenic processes and activities within the city contribute to the rise of fine (<1 μm) and coarse (>1 μm) particles, directly impacting human health and the environment. In order to monitor certain natural and anthropogenic events, suspecting their significant contribution to PM concentrations, seven different events taking place on the coastal front of the city of Limassol (Cyprus) were on-site monitored using a portable PM instrument; these included both natural (e.g., dust event) and anthropogenic (e.g., cement factory, meat festival, tall building construction, tire factory, traffic jam, dust road) emissions taking place in spring and summer periods. The violations of the limits that were noticed were attributed mainly to the various anthropogenic activities taking place on-site, revealing once more the need for further research and continuous monitoring of air quality.

Download Full-text

Social Perception and Urbanscape Identity of Flagship Cultural Developments in Szczecin (in the Re-Urbanization Context)

Land ◽

10.3390/land10040398 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 398

Author(s):

Eliza Sochacka ◽

Magdalena Rzeszotarska-Pałka

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Social Perception ◽

Local Identity ◽

Functional Complexity ◽

Questionnaire Surveys ◽

Urban Strategy ◽

The Impact ◽

The City ◽

Cultural Developments

A growing number of urban interventions, such as culture-led regeneration strategies, has emerged alongside growing awareness of the concept of re-urbanization. These interventions evolve to create a holistic urban vision, with aims to promote social cohesion and strengthen local identity as opposed to traditional goals of measuring the economic impact of new cultural developments. Szczecin’s, Poland urban strategy is focused on the expansion of culture—a condition for improving the quality of life and increasing the city’s attractiveness. This article assesses the potential for re-urbanization of Szczecin’s flagship cultural developments. Questionnaire surveys and qualitative research methods were used to assess the characteristics that distinguish cultural projects in the formal, location-related, functional, and symbolic layers, as well as examining their social perception. The results show that the strength of these indicators of urbanscape identity affects how the cultural developments are assessed by the society. Semiotic coherence and functional complexity of the structures have a significant impact on the sense of identification, while their monumentality and exposure contribute to the assessment of the impact on their surroundings. A development with a firm identity, embedded in the city’s tradition not only preserves the cultural heritage of the city but also makes inhabitants feel association with the new project.

Download Full-text

Contribution of Local and Transboundary Air Pollution to the Urban Air Quality of Fukuoka, Japan

Atmosphere ◽

10.3390/atmos12040431 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 431

Author(s):

Ayako Yoshino ◽

Akinori Takami ◽

Keiichiro Hara ◽

Chiharu Nishita-Hara ◽

Masahiko Hayashi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Air Pollutants ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Gaseous Species ◽

Transboundary Air Pollution ◽

Local Air Pollution ◽

The City

Transboundary air pollution (TAP) and local air pollution (LAP) influence the air quality of urban areas. Fukuoka, located on the west side of Japan and affected by TAP from the Asian continent, is a unique example for understanding the contribution of LAP and TAP. Gaseous species and particulate matter (PM) were measured for approximately three weeks in Fukuoka in the winter of 2018. We classified two distinctive periods, LAP and TAP, based on wind speed. The classification was supported by variations in the concentration of gaseous species and by backward trajectories. Most air pollutants, including NOx and PM, were high in the LAP period and low in the TAP period. However, ozone was the exception. Therefore, our findings suggest that reducing local emissions is necessary. Ozone was higher in the TAP period, and the variation in ozone concentration was relatively small, indicating that ozone was produced outside of the city and transported to Fukuoka. Thus, air pollutants must also be reduced at a regional scale, including in China.

Download Full-text

Avoided Mortality Associated with Improved Air Quality from an Increase in Renewable Energy in the Spanish Transport Sector: Use of Biofuels and the Adoption of the Electric Car

Atmosphere ◽

10.3390/atmos12121603 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (12) ◽

pp. 1603

Author(s):

Ana R. Gamarra ◽

Yolanda Lechón ◽

Marta G. Vivanco ◽

Mark Richard Theobald ◽

Carmen Lago ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Health Impact ◽

Air Pollutant ◽

Transport Sector ◽

Population Exposure ◽

Baseline Scenario ◽

Premature Deaths ◽

Electric Car ◽

The Impact

This paper assesses the health impact, in terms of the reduction of premature deaths associated with changes in air pollutant exposure, resulting from double-aim strategies for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from the transport sector for the year 2030 in Spain. The impact on air quality of selected measures for reducing emissions from the transport sector (increased penetration of biofuel and electric car use) was assessed by air quality modeling. The estimation of population exposure to NO2, particulate matter (PM) and O3 allows for estimation of associated mortality and external costs in comparison with the baseline scenario with no measures. The results show that the penetration of the electric vehicle provided the largest benefits, even when the emissions due to the additional electricity demand were considered.

Download Full-text

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR MONITORING AIR POLLUTION FROM VEHICLES (CASE STUDY OF ST. PETERSBURG)

Water and Ecology ◽

10.23968/2305-3488.2021.26.2.65-74 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 65-74

Author(s):

V. N. Lozhkin ◽

◽

O. V. Lozhkina ◽

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Information Support ◽

Information Process ◽

Limit Values ◽

Standard Limit ◽

The City ◽

Original Information

Introduction. St. Petersburg is the cultural and sea capital of Russia. The city is characterized by environmental problems typical for the largest cities in the world. It has a technical system for instrumental online monitoring and computational forecasting of air quality. Methods. The system maintains the information process by means of computational monitoring of its current and future state. Results. The paper describes methodological approaches to the generation of instrumental information about the structure and intensity of traffic flows in the urban road network and its digital transformation into GIS maps of air pollution in terms of pollutants standard limit values excess. Conclusion. The original information technology for air quality control was introduced at the regional level in the form of an official methodology and is used in environmental management activities.

Download Full-text

The impact of service quality on the viability of start-up businesses

Corporate Ownership and Control ◽

10.22495/cocv13i3c3p10 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 518-522 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Zeleke Worku

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Small Businesses ◽

Panel Data Analysis ◽

Hazard Ratio ◽

Predictor Variables ◽

Municipal Services ◽

Validated Questionnaire ◽

The Impact ◽

The City

A 3-year long survey was conducted in the Tshwane geographical region of Gauteng Province in South Africa in order to identify and quantify key predictors of adequate municipal services that are routinely provided to customers who operate newly established small businesses in the City of Tshwane, Pretoria, South Africa. Data was collected by using a structured, pre-tested and validated questionnaire of study from a stratified random sample of size 1, 058 small businesses. The key objective of study was to assess the relationship between viability in small businesses and the provision of quality municipal services by the City of Tshwane. The study was conducted against the background of a high failure rate among newly established small businesses in the City of Tshwane. The study was conducted over a 3-year period (2012 to 2014). Data was collected monthly during the three-year period of study on socioeconomic variables that are known to affect the perception of business operators on the quality of municipal services to business operators and the general public. Statistical procedures such as cross-tab analyses, panel data analysis, Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms and Bayesian methods were used for estimating parameters. The study showed that there was a significant association between positive perception of business operators on the quality of municipal services provided to them and viability of businesses. The results showed that 87% of viable businesses were satisfied with the quality of routine municipal services that were provided to them by the City of Tshwane. The corresponding figure for non-viable businesses was only 14%. The viability of businesses was significantly influenced by 3 predictor variables. These predictor variables were: lack of capacity for fulfilling the business and entrepreneurial needs of newly established businesses [Hazard Ratio = 3.58; P=0.000; 95% C. I. = (1.45, 5.46)], inappropriate policy [Hazard Ratio = 3.19; P=0.000; 95% C. I. = (1.39, 5.28)], and lack of tailor made training programmes directed at newly established small businesses [Hazard Ratio = 2.89; P=0.000; 95% C. I. = (1.24, 4.77)], in a decreasing order of strength. Similar findings were obtained from the analyses of in-depth interviews.

Download Full-text

NESTED HIGH-RESOLUTION NOx AND PM SIMULATIONS OVER ZÜRICH

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6202 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ivo Suter ◽

Lukas Emmenegger ◽

Dominik Brunner

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Boundary Conditions ◽

Meteorological Conditions ◽

Model Systems ◽

Multi Scale ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Impact ◽

The City ◽

Concentration Levels

Reducing air pollution, which is the world's largest single environmental health risk, demands better-informed air quality policies. Consequently, multi-scale air quality models are being developed with the goal to resolve cities. One of the major challenges in such model systems is to accurately represent all large- and regional-scale processes that may critically determine the background concentration levels over a given city. This is particularly true for longer-lived species such as aerosols, for which background levels often dominate the concentration levels, even within the city. Furthermore, the heterogeneous local emissions, and complex dispersion in the city have to be considered carefully.In this study, the impact of processes across a wide range of scales on background concentrations over Switzerland and the city of Zurich was modelled by performing one year of nested European and Swiss national COSMO-ART simulations to obtain adequate boundary conditions for gas-phase chemical, aerosol and meteorological conditions for city-resolving simulations. The regional climate chemistry model COSMO-ART (Vogel et al. 2009) was used in a 1-way coupled mode. The outer, European, domain, which was driven by chemical boundary conditions from the global MOZART model, had a 6.6 km horizontal resolution and the inner, Swiss, domain one of 2.2 km. For the city scale, a catalogue of more than 1000 mesoscale flow patterns with 100 m resolution was created with the model GRAMM, based on a discrete set of atmospheric stabilities, wind speeds and directions, accounting for the influence of land-use and topography. Finally, the flow around buildings was solved with the CFD model GRAL forced at the boundaries by GRAMM. Subsequently, Lagrangian dispersion simulations for a set of air pollutants and emission sectors (traffic, industry, ...) based on extremely detailed building and emission data was performed in GRAL. The result of this nested procedure is a library of 3-dimensional air pollution maps representative of hourly situations in Zurich (Berchet et al. 2017). From these pre-computed situations, time-series and concentration maps can be obtained by selecting situations according to observed or modelled meteorological conditions.The results were compared to measurements from air quality monitoring network stations. Modelled concentrations of NOx and PM compared well to measurements across multiple locations, provided background conditions were considered carefully. The nested multi-scale modelling system COSMO-ART/GRAMM/GRAL can adequately reproduce local air quality and help understanding the relative contributions of local versus distant emissions, as well as fill the space between precise point measurements from monitoring sites. This information is useful for research, policy-making, and epidemiological studies particularly under the assumption that exceedingly high concentrations become more and more localised phenomenon in the future.

Download Full-text

The war against the homeless: Frank Jordan, broken windows, and anti-homeless politics in San Francisco

Cooking up a revolution ◽

10.7228/manchester/9781526107350.003.0004 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 63-81

Author(s):

Sean Parson

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Public Space ◽

San Francisco ◽

Broken Windows ◽

The Public ◽

Matrix Quality ◽

Physical Spaces ◽

The Impact ◽

The City

Chapter 4 discusses Mayor Frank Jordan’s (1992–1995) revanchist Matrix Quality of Life Program, which sought to enforce a broken-windows policing system in San Francisco. The impact of the policy was felt largely by the visible homeless in downtown San Francisco, who were regularly harassed and arrested by the police and forced out of the city. Because quality-of-life policing desires to sanitize the public space of disruptive and asocial behaviour, the public meals of Food Not Bombs near City Hall resisted the city’s attempt to criminalize homelessness. This chapter argues that the city attempted to construct the homeless as anti-citizens and exclude them from the political and physical spaces of the city.

Download Full-text