ACCEPTED: Assessment of changing conditions, environmental policies, time-activities, exposure and disease

The aim of the project is to improve our understanding of future exposure situations in cities and their impact on health using an interdisciplinary approach. This will be achieved by using various state-of-the-art atmospheric models and measurements and epidemiological studies and reviews.

The project consists of four work packages (WPs). WP1 focuses on emissions of air pollutants, urban climate and air quality. WP2 deals with the relation between indoor and outdoor air quality, activity patterns and personal exposure modeling. In WP3 epidemiological studies of vulnerable groups will be conducted. The Health Impact Assessments will be performed in WP4, by using information collected in the other WPs. University of Augsburg is mainly involved in WP1 and WP4.

We will in particular address the issue of the mitigation strategies that can be used to reduce urbanization and climate change effects on the local urban meteorology and air quality. With applications on several European cities including Paris, Stockholm, Brussels and Augsburg the impact of several alternative adaptation scenarios on urban air-quality and human health to a mid-century horizon (2030-2060) will be studied. In particular the effects of enforced low emission zones (LEZ) in European cities will be evaluated. The main focus will be on three German cities (Augsburg, Berlin and Munich) and one Swedish city (Stockholm). For all cities ground-based observations of airborne particles (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) will be analyzed. Furthermore, for Augsburg and Stockholm the AIRVIRO modelling tool and high-resolution emission inventories for years before and after LEZ enforcements will also be used to evaluate for improvements to the air pollution situation in the cities.

In the final phase, scenario-based health impact assessments will combine exposure information with exposure-response functions from epidemiological studies conducted within this project and previously published functions for mortality and hospital admissions. We will discuss the effects of socioeconomic and demographic trends, describe the predicted health impacts and the benefits associated with different interventions and policies such as LEZ and other urban changes such as residential density, urban vegetation, energy saving buildings etc.

A project meeting combined with a workshop on Health Impact Assessments is being planned for September 11-12, 2014. The meeting will take place at the University Augsburg, Germany.

Project partners: 11 partners from four European countries:

Sweden: Umeå University (coordinator), Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), City of Stockholm

Belgium: Hasselt University, Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI)

Germany: University of Augsburg

France: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM), Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB), AIRPARIF, Institut scientifique de service public (ISSeP)

Main contact person at the University of Augsburg: Dr. Josef Cyrys ( cyrys@helmholtz-muenchen.de)

Study period: 2013 - 2015

Funding: EU (ERA-ENVHEALTH)