Effects of Income and Urban Form on Urban NO2: Global Evidence from Satellites

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• 作者：Matthew J. Bechle ; Dylan B. Millet ; Julian D. Marshall
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2011
• 出版时间：June 1, 2011
• 年：2011
• 卷：45
• 期：11
• 页码：4914-4919
• 全文大小：852K
• 年卷期：v.45,no.11(June 1, 2011)
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

Urban air pollution is among the top 15 causes of death and disease worldwide, and a problem of growing importance with a majority of the global population living in cities. A important question for sustainable development is to what extent urban design can improve or degrade the environment and public health. We investigate relationships between satellite-derived estimates of nitrogen dioxide concentration (NOb>2b>, a key component of urban air pollution) and urban form for 83 cities globally. We find a parsimonious yet powerful relationship (model R² = 0.63), using as predictors population, income, urban contiguity, and meteorology. Cities with highly contiguous built-up areas have, on average, lower urban NOb>2b> concentrations (a one standard deviation increase in contiguity is associated with a 24% decrease in average NOb>2b> concentration). More-populous cities tend to have worse air quality, but the increase in NOb>2b> associated with a population increase of 10% may be offset by a moderate increase (4%) in urban contiguity. Urban circularity (鈥渃ompactness鈥? is not a statistically significant predictor of NOb>2b> concentration. Although many factors contribute to urban air pollution, our findings suggest that antileapfrogging policies may improve air quality. We find that urban NOb>2b> levels vary nonlinearly with income (Gross Domestic Product), following an 鈥渆nvironmental Kuznets curve鈥? we estimate that if high-income countries followed urban pollution-per-income trends observed for low-income countries, NOb>2b> concentrations in high-income cities would be 10脳 larger than observed levels.