Improving the Protection of Children Against Air Pollution Threats in Romania � The RokidAIR Project Approach and Future Perspectives

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 841-846
Author(s):  
Hai-Ying Liu ◽  
Daniel Dunea ◽  
Mihaela Oprea ◽  
Tom Savu ◽  
Stefania Iordache
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Health Assessment ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Quality Maps

This paper presents the approach used to develop the information chain required to reach the objectives of the EEA Grants� RokidAIR project in two Romanian cities i.e., Targoviste and Ploiesti. It describes the PM2.5 monitoring infrastructure and architecture to the web-based GIS platform, the early warning system and the decision support system, and finally, the linking of air pollution to health effects in children. In addition, it shows the analysis performance of the designed system to process the collected time series from various data sources using the benzene concentrations monitored in Ploiesti. Moreover, this paper suggests that biomarkers, mobile technologies, and Citizens� Observatories are potential perspectives to improve data coverage by the provision of near-real-time air quality maps, and provide personal exposure and health assessment results, enabling the citizens� engagement and behavioural change. This paper also addresses new fields in nature-based solutions to improve air quality, and studies on air pollution and its mental health effects in the urban areas of Romania.

An Urban Air Pollution Early Warning System Based on PM2.5 Prediction Applied in Ploiesti City

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 858-863
Author(s):  
Mihaela Oprea ◽  
Marius Olteanu ◽  
Radu Teodor Ianache
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Urban Air Pollution ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Pollution Level ◽  
Urban Air ◽  
Prediction Approach

Fine particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 �m (i.e. PM2.5) is an air pollutant of special concern for urban areas due to its potential significant negative effects on human health, especially on children and elderly people. In order to reduce these effects, new tools based on PM2.5 monitoring infrastructures tailored to specific urban regions are needed by the local and regional environmental management systems for the provision of an expert support to decision makers in air quality planning for cities and also, to inform in real time the vulnerable population when PM2.5 related air pollution episodes occur. The paper focuses on urban air pollution early warning based on PM2.5 prediction. It describes the methodology used, the prediction approach, and the experimental system developed under the ROKIDAIR project for the analysis of PM2.5 air pollution level, health impact assessment and early warning of sensitive people in the Ploiesti city. The PM2.5 concentration evolution prediction is correlated with PM2.5 air pollution and health effects analysis, and the final result is processed by the ROKIDAIR Early Warning System (EWS) and sent as a message to the affected population via email or SMS. ROKIDAIR EWS is included in the ROKIDAIR decision support system.

scholarly journals Morpho-Physio-Biochemical Attributes of Roadside Trees as Potential Tools for Biomonitoring of Air Quality and Environmental Health in Urban Areas

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 236
Author(s):  
Ha Na You ◽  
Myeong Ja Kwak ◽  
Sun Mi Je ◽  
Jong Kyu Lee ◽  
Yea Ji Lim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Biochemical Parameters ◽  
Lipid Peroxide ◽  
Platanus Occidentalis ◽  
Physiological Variables ◽  
Sources Of Pollution ◽  
Species Specific

Environmental pollution is an important issue in metropolitan areas, and roadside trees are directly affected by various sources of pollution to which they exhibit numerous responses. The aim of the present study was to identify morpho-physio-biochemical attributes of maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba L.) and American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis L.) growing under two different air quality conditions (roadside with high air pollution, RH and roadside with low air pollution, RL) and to assess the possibility of using their physiological and biochemical parameters as biomonitoring tools in urban areas. The results showed that the photosynthetic rate, photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiencies, and photochromic contents were generally low in RH in both G. biloba and P. occidentalis. However, water-use efficiency and leaf temperature showed high values in RH trees. Among biochemical parameters, in G. biloba, the lipid peroxide content was higher in RH than in RL trees, but in P. occidentalis, this content was lower in RH than in RL trees. In both species, physiological activities were low in trees planted in areas with high levels of air pollution, whereas their biochemical and morphological variables showed different responses to air pollution. Thus, we concluded that it is possible to determine species-specific physiological variables affected by regional differences of air pollution in urban areas, and these findings may be helpful for monitoring air quality and environmental health using trees.

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

Atmosphere ◽  
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.

Air Quality Profile in an Enclosed Car Park

2014 ◽  
Vol 567 ◽  
pp. 3-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul Izma Mohammed ◽  
Nurfadhilah Othman ◽  
Khairul Bariyah Baharuddin
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Sulphur Dioxide ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Kuala Lumpur ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Car Park

Complaints on poor air quality in an enclosed car park have been raised up among the public, which might cause serious health effects to the drivers, passengers, and labours who are working at the premises. Improper design of mechanical ventilation systems in a car park would result in a poor indoor environment. The exhaust emission of motor vehicle contains a variety of potentially harmful substances encompassing carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, hydrocarbons, and fine particulates. In Kuala Lumpur, there is a great demand but a short supply of lands and building spaces. Thus, a large multi-storey underground car parks is a common solution for both, the government and developers. Although the health effects of the motor vehicle emissions and ambient air pollution are already known, but due to the nature of enclosed multi-storey car parks, these health risks are predicted to be intensified. Thus, it is crucial to investigate and evaluate the status of the air pollution in the enclosed car parks with emphasis on sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxides (NO2). Samples were collected in one of the famous shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur using a GrayWolf Advanced Sense Direct Sense; Toxic Gas Test Meters from 8 am until 5 pm on weekdays and weekends. The results demonstrate that the concentrations of SO2 and NO2 on weekends is higher than weekdays. Besides, the concentrations for both weekdays and weekends have exceeded the standard limit set by the Malaysian Ambient Air Quality Guideline (MAAQG).

scholarly journals Healthier breath for all and everywhere – Urban air quality monitoring experience

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Gajic ◽  
D Dimovski ◽  
B Vukajlovic ◽  
M Jevtic
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Urban Health ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Danube River ◽  
Quality Monitoring ◽  
Air Quality Monitoring ◽  
Residential Areas

Abstract Issue/problem Increasing attention is being paid to air pollution as one of the greatest threats to public and urban health. The WHO’s Urban Health Initiative points out the importance of collecting data and mapping the present state of air quality in urban areas. For citizens, such engagement is enabled by the appearance of personal air quality measurement devices that use crowd-sourcing to make measurement results publicly accessible in real time. Description of the problem As a way of contributing to air pollution monitoring in their town, three PhD Public health students conducted over 40 measurements between the start of June and end of August 2018 on various locations in the city of Novi Sad, Serbia. Measurements were performed using AirBeam personal air quality monitoring devices and their results presented as μg/m3 of Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) and automatically uploaded to the internet using the Air-casting app. Results Measurements conducted in public transportation vehicles returned the rather high average value of 40 μg/m3, where coffee shops and restaurants scored an even higher value of 48,67 μg/m3. The lowest average air pollution levels were registered near the Danube river bank (5.67) and in the parks (6), while the sites near crossroads or in the street showed average air pollution of 8.33 μg/m3. Residential areas where smoking is present during the day reported 2.5 times higher PM2.5 values than those without smokers (33.8 and 12.78 μg/m3). Lessons Bearing in mind that the air quality is considered as a serious health risk in urban areas, results of this pilot investigation suggest potential health risk for citizens living in urban areas. The negative effects of combustion and smoking on air quality are strongly highlighted, as well as the positive impact of green areas and parks near residential areas. Key messages Air pollution exposure as a serious health risk in urban areas. Crowdsourcing as a way of air quality monitoring has great potential for contributing to public health.

scholarly journals Spatial Mapping of a Highly Non-Uniform Distribution of Particle-Bound PAH in a Densely Populated Urban Area

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 496
Author(s):  
Kyung Hwan Kim ◽  
Kyung-Hwan Kwak ◽  
Jae Young Lee ◽  
Sung Ho Woo ◽  
Jong Bum Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Exposure Assessment ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Exposure Level ◽  
Traffic Emission ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Monitoring Procedure

In this work, a 2-D gridded air pollution map with a high resolution of 50 × 50 m2 was proposed to help the exposure assessment studies focusing on the association between air pollutants and their health effects. To establish a reliable air pollution map in a 2 × 2 km2 urban area, a mobile monitoring procedure and a data process were developed. Among the various vehicle-related air pollutants, the particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (pPAH) was chosen as a sensitive indicator. The average pPAH concentration on major roads (293.1 ng/m3) was found to be 35 times higher than that at a background location (8.4 ng/m3). Based on the cell-based pPAH concentrations, the 50 × 50 m2 cells in the air pollution map were categorized into five pollution levels. The higher air pollution levels were generally shown by the cells close to the major traffic emission points. The proposed map can be used to make various policies regarding land use and traffic flow control in urban areas. Estimation of the personal exposure level to air pollutants is possible at a reliable location using the highly resolved 2-D gridded air pollution map in exposure assessment studies.

scholarly journals Premature Adult Mortality and Years of Life Lost Attributed to Long-Term Exposure to Ambient Particulate Matter Pollution and Potential for Mitigating Adverse Health Effects in Tuzla and Lukavac, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1107
Author(s):  
Vlatka Matkovic ◽  
Maida Mulić ◽  
Selma Azabagić ◽  
Marija Jevtić
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
World Health ◽  
Years Of Life Lost ◽  
Adverse Health Effects ◽  
Adverse Health

Ambient air pollution is one of eight global risk factors for deaths and accounts for 38.44 all causes death rates attributable to ambient PM pollution, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is 58.37. We have estimated health endpoints and possible gains if two policy scenarios were implemented and air pollution reduction achieved. Real-world health and recorded PM pollution data for 2018 were used for assessing the health impacts and possible gains. Calculations were performed with WHO AirQ+ software against two scenarios with cut-off levels at country-legal values and WHO air quality recommendations. Ambient PM2.5 pollution is responsible for 16.20% and 22.77% of all-cause mortality among adults in Tuzla and Lukavac, respectively. Our data show that life expectancy could increase by 2.1 and 2.4 years for those cities. In the pollution hotspots, in reality, there is a wide gap in what is observed and the implementation of the legally binding air quality limit values and, thus, adverse health effects. Considerable health gains and life expectancy are possible if legal or health scenarios in polluted cities were achieved. This estimate might be useful in providing additional health burden evidence as a key component for a clean air policy and action plans.

A Hybrid ARIMA and Artificial Neural Networks Model to Forecast Air Quality in Urban Areas: Case of Tunisia

2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 2969-2979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayari Samia ◽  
Nouira Kaouther ◽  
Trabelsi Abdelwahed
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Artificial Neural Networks ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Moving Average ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Model Combining ◽  
Ann Models ◽  
Artificial Neural

Forecasting air quality time series represents a very difficult task since air quality contains autoregressive, linear and nonlinear patterns. Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models have been widely used in air quality time series forecasting. However, they fail to detect extreme events because of their presumed linear form of data. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) models have proved to be promising nonlinear tools for air quality forecasting. A hybrid model combining ARIMA and ANN improved forecasting more than either of the models used independently. Experimental results with meteorological and Particulate Matter data indicated that the combined model can be used as an efficient forecasting and early warning system for providing air quality information towards the citizen, not only in Sfax Southern Suburbs but in other Tunisian regions that suffer from poor air quality conditions.

scholarly journals A Novel Air Quality Early-Warning System Based on Artificial Intelligence

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (19) ◽  
pp. 3505
Author(s):  
Mo ◽  
Zhang ◽  
Li ◽  
Qu
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Prediction Model ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Concentration Data ◽  
Whale Optimization ◽  
The World

The problem of air pollution is a persistent issue for mankind and becoming increasingly serious in recent years, which has drawn worldwide attention. Establishing a scientific and effective air quality early-warning system is really significant and important. Regretfully, previous research didn’t thoroughly explore not only air pollutant prediction but also air quality evaluation, and relevant research work is still scarce, especially in China. Therefore, a novel air quality early-warning system composed of prediction and evaluation was developed in this study. Firstly, the advanced data preprocessing technology Improved Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (ICEEMDAN) combined with the powerful swarm intelligence algorithm Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) and the efficient artificial neural network Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) formed the prediction model. Then the predictive results were further analyzed by the method of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, which offered intuitive air quality information and corresponding measures. The proposed system was tested in the Jing-Jin-Ji region of China, a representative research area in the world, and the daily concentration data of six main air pollutants in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang for two years were used to validate the accuracy and efficiency. The results show that the prediction model is superior to other benchmark models in pollutant concentration prediction and the evaluation model is satisfactory in air quality level reporting compared with the actual status. Therefore, the proposed system is believed to play an important role in air pollution control and smart city construction all over the world in the future.

scholarly journals Ambient air quality in an urban area and its effects on plants and human beings: a case study of Tiruchirappalli, India

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirajuddin M Horaginamani ◽  
M Ravichandran
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ambient Air Quality

Though water and land pollution is very dangerous, air pollution has its own peculiarities, due to its transboundary dispersion of pollutants over the entire world. In any well planned urban set up, industrial pollution takes a back seat and vehicular emissions take precedence as the major cause of urban air pollution. Air pollution is one of the serious problems faced by the people globally, especially in urban areas of developing countries like India. All these in turn lead to an increase in the air pollution levels and have adverse effects on the health of people and plants. Western countries have conducted several studies in this area, but there are only a few studies in developing countries like India. A study on ambient air quality in Tiruchirappalli urban area and its possible effects selected plants and human health has been undertaken, which may be helpful to bring out possible control measures. Keywords: ambient air quality; respiratory disorders; APTI; human health DOI: 10.3126/kuset.v6i2.4007Kathmandu University Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Vol.6. No II, November, 2010, pp.13-19

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