Health Seminar: Estimating Near-Road Pollution and Health Exposure

Armour College of Engineering’s Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering (CAEE) is honored to bring Dr. Jane Lin to speak as part of the CAEE Spring 2014 Seminar Series. Dr. Lin will present her lecture Estimating Near-Road Pollution and Health Exposure.

Abstract:

This talk presents a methodology to develop finely resolved pollution concentrations and health exposure metrics near roadways as part of an integrated transportation policy analysis framework. On-road vehicle activities are estimated by an agent based travel demand model; Vehicular particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions and near-road pollutant concentrations are estimated using the MOVES and AERMOD models respectively. Health exposure is assessed using an exposure metric of intake fraction (iF) that measures the fraction of the pollutant inhaled by an exposed population over a defined period of time. The methodology is carried out on a real world case study of the Gold Coast region in City of Chicago. Average PM2.5 concentration ranged from 0.31 to 4.53 ug/m3 and is found to be higher near the roadway links. The iF ranged from 0.0015 to 3.65 per million with seniors, adults and children accounting for 28%, 68% and 3% respectively of the total intake. Results show a significant portion of concentration and health exposure levels to occur within a distance of 300m from the roadway links. 75% of concentrations occur within 300m which translates to 78% of health exposure. Policy implications and future work will also be discussed.

This event will earn you Engineering Themes credit in Health.