Smog Alert

Smog Alert
Author: Derek Elsom
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2014-04-04
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1134164947

The world's cities are choking on pollution from traffic and industry. With the health of over 1.6 billion people under threat, poor urban air quality is fast becoming one of them most pressing environmental problems of our times. Smog Alert examines the causes and scale of urban air pollution, identifying who is most at risk, and what particular health risks various pollutants pose. It then considers an effective framework for air quality management, so that national and city authorities can consider what pollution control polices and measures are needed to deliver healthy urban air quality, and to sustain it in the future. Having established the background and framework, the book examines the existing and alternative measures to monitor and combat the declining air quality. It assesses smog alert systems; the potential for cleaner car and fuel technology; sustainable traffic management and public transport policies; and methods of controlling both industrial and residential emissions. Detailed case studies illustrate the severity and breadth of the problem - from the first serious photochemical smogs in Los Angeles to the dire warning offered by Mexico City; and from London (the city which coined the word 'smog') to Athens' pollution phenomenon, the 'nefos'. Drawing on the lessons learned from past experience, Smog Alert provides a comprehensive analysis of how health air quality may yet be achieved in the world's cities.

Climate Change and Its Impact on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in Arid and Semi-Arid Zones

Climate Change and Its Impact on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in Arid and Semi-Arid Zones
Author: Karmaoui, Ahmed
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2019-02-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1522573887

Ecosystems provide services that are crucial and beneficial to the human population. The management and conservation of these services can assure the wellbeing of the local population. Climate Change and Its Impact on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in Arid and Semi-Arid Zones is an essential reference source that studies the effects of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services in dry regions and examines various strategic local, national, and international policy developments to help overcome these impacts. Featuring research on topics such as poverty reduction, climate change, and adaption policies, this book is ideally designed for environmentalists, policymakers, government officials, academicians, researchers, and technology developers who want to improve their understanding of climate change impact, vulnerability, and sustainability, and the strategic role of adaptation and mitigation.

Urbanization, Energy, and Air Pollution in China

Urbanization, Energy, and Air Pollution in China
Author: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2005-01-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309182123

In October 2003, a group of experts met in Beijing under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Engineering (NAE)/National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies to continue a dialogue and eventually chart a rational course of energy use in China. This collection of papers is intended to introduce the reader to the complicated problems of urban air pollution and energy choices in China.

Urban Air Pollution

Urban Air Pollution
Author: H. Power
Publisher: WIT Press (UK)
Total Pages: 336
Release: 1994
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9781562522551

The first in a series of publications on air pollution, this book contains a selection of invited review articles by leading authorities covering urban air pollution topics.

Urban Transportation and Air Pollution

Urban Transportation and Air Pollution
Author: Akula Venkatram
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0128115076

Urban Transportation and Air Pollution synthesizes state-of-the-art methods on estimating near-road concentrations of roadway emissions. The book provides the information needed to make estimates using methods based on a minimal set of model inputs that can be applied by a wide range of users in many situations. Discussions include methods to estimate traffic emission under numerous urban driving conditions, the uncertainty of emission models, and the effects of road configurations, such as near-road solid barriers. Final sections present dispersion models that link traffic emissions with near road concentrations in urban environments. Addressing transportation-related environmental issues is extremely important as urban areas are constantly searching for ways to mitigate impacts from transportation sources. This book helps to explain dispersion models, a critical tool for estimating the impact of roadway emissions in cities. - Compiles and synthesizes the state-of-the-science methods for estimating roadway emissions - Demonstrates, with clear examples, how modeling methods reduce uncertainties in real-world problems - Emphasizes how local-scale, semi-empirical, steady-state modeling can be applied using only a small set of inputs - Offers an overview of the meteorology that governs air pollution dispersion in cities

Urban Air Pollution and Avenue Trees

Urban Air Pollution and Avenue Trees
Author: Abhijit Sarkar
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2022
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9781685074746

"Around the world, cities provide plenty of opportunities such as better education, advanced health treatment facilities, better employment, commerce, and trade as compared to rural areas. Therefore, more than half the world's people live and work together in urban communities, and it is projected that by the year 2030, three out of five people will stay in cities. The unrestrained and rapid growth of cities has also brought environmental degradation and causes many serious problems such as worsening of air quality, loss of natural habitat and species diversity, and increased human health risks associated with heat waves, noise and crowding. In most urban areas of developing countries, a variety of harmful air pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are emitted from a variety of sources, mainly the burning of wood, fossil fuels and vehicular emissions, which adversely affects the health of human beings, animals, and other living creatures. In the urban environment, trees provide many economic, social, and environmental benefits to people, such as aesthetic beauty, improvement of property values, erosion prevention, storm water management, noise reduction, mental health development and crime reduction. In addition, trees help cool the air by shading surfaces that otherwise would absorb the sun's energy and then reradiate it out as heat. Trees also cool the ambient air. Urban trees on average reduce air temperatures on summer days by 2-4 °F, although in some circumstances the cooling effect can be even larger. Trees also sequester carbon, helping to mitigate climate change. The efficiency of atmospheric cleansing by trees in congested cities could be improved by planting more trees other than shrubs or herbs. Generally, avenue trees act as living filters to decrease pollution through absorption, accumulation, and detoxification. Trees remove gaseous air pollutants such as ozone, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide mainly by uptake via leaf stomata, although some gases are removed by the plant surface. Once inside the leaf, gaseous air pollutants diffuse into intercellular spaces and may be absorbed by water films to form acids or react with inner leaf surfaces. Though some particles can be absorbed into the tree, most particles settle on the branches, leaves and twigs of plants and are washed out by the rain. Throughout the world, different advanced technologies such as smog-free towers in the Netherlands and adhesive roads for particulate matter in London have been applied. However, these technologies are extremely costly and unaffordable for countries like India and therefore the most eco-friendly and cost-effective way is plantation of tolerant tree species alongside highways, city streets, in parks, and in residential yards"--

Air Quality in Urban Environments

Air Quality in Urban Environments
Author: R M Harrison
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2009-08-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1847559654

Urban air quality is a topic which remains high on the scientific and political agenda. Concentrations of most air pollutants are higher in urban areas than in the surrounding rural regions, and given the high population densities, it is within urban areas that the majority of the population receive their air pollutant exposure. Despite the continued implementation of abatement measures, concentrations of air pollutants within urban areas frequently exceed health-based guidelines and stricter measures to restrict emissions are required. This comprehensive volume, written by authoritative authors, deals with the basic science of urban air pollution in relation to the sources and concentrations, and the atmospheric chemical and physical processes which determine those concentrations and lead to the formation of secondary pollutants by chemical reactions in the atmosphere. The health effects of urban air pollution are described as is the policy response designed to mitigate the problems. Some of the highest air pollutant exposures occur within underground railway systems and this topic is considered explicitly in its own chapter. With comprehensive coverage from sources through atmospheric processes, to human exposure and effects on health and the policy response, this topical work will be of interest to scientists and policy makers within this field as well advanced students.

Air Quality in Cities

Air Quality in Cities
Author: Nicolas Moussiopoulos
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2013-11-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3662052172

Urban areas are major sources of air pollution. Pollutant emissions affecting air quality in cities are considered to have adverse consequences for human health. Public and government concern about environmental issues arising from urban air pollution has increased over the last decades. The urban air pollution problem is widespread throughout the world and it is important to find ways of eliminating or at least reducing the risks for human health. The fundamentals of the physical and chemical processes occurring during air pollutant transport in the atmosphere are nowadays understood to a large extent. In particular, modelling of such processes has experienced a remarkable growth in the last decades. Monitoring capabilities have also improved markedly in the most urban areas around the world. However, neither modelling nor monitoring can solve urban air pollution problems, as they are only a first step in improving useful information for future regulations. The defining of efficient control strategies can not be achieved without a clear knowledge of the complete pollution process, i.e. emission, atmospheric transport and transformation, and deposition at the receptor. Improving our ability to establish valid urban scale source-receptor relation ships has been the objective of SA TURN, one of the 14 subprojects of EURO TRAC-2. Similar to the other subprojects of this co-ordinated environmental pro ject within the EUREKA initiative, SA TURN brought together international groups of scientists to work on problems directly related to atmospheric chemistry and physics. The present volume summarises the scientific results of SATURN.

The Invisible Killer

The Invisible Killer
Author: Gary Fuller
Publisher: Melville House
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2019-03-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1612197841

An urgent examination of one of the biggest global crises facing us today—the drastic worsening of air pollution—and what we can do about it The air pollution that we breathe every day is largely invisible—but it is killing us. How did it get this bad, and how can we stop it? Far from a modern-day problem, scientists were aware of the impact of air pollution as far back as the seventeenth century. Now, as more of us live in cities, we are closer than ever to pollution sources, and the detrimental impact on the environment and our health has reached crisis point. The Invisible Killer will introduce you to the incredible individuals whose groundbreaking research paved the way to today's understanding of air pollution, often at their own detriment. Gary Fuller's global story examines devastating incidents from London's Great Smog to Norway's acid rain; Los Angeles' traffic problem to wood-burning damage in New Zealand. Fuller argues that the only way to alter the future course of our planet and improve collective global health is for city and national governments to stop ignoring evidence and take action, persuading the public and making polluters bear the full cost of the harm that they do. The decisions that we make today will impact on our health for decades to come. The Invisible Killer is an essential book for our times and a cautionary tale we need to take heed of.