Air pollution, environmental justice and urban form

1236800 (Marshall)。室外空气污染是美国十大死亡原因之一（也是最大的环境原因），每年造成的死亡约占总死亡人数的1%。这些健康风险在人口中分布不均。可持续发展的一个重要方面是了解城市设计和城市环境如何有助于实现社会和公平？目标，包括避免亚人群中环境风险的巨大不平衡？尤其是在种族或收入方面。该项目将揭示空气污染、与环境正义相关的人口属性和城市地区空间布局之间的新关系；并将制定一项教育和推广计划，以吸引弱势青年。目标是(1)表征美国各地空气污染浓度的空间格局，并随时间变化；(2)表征空气污染与环境正义（EJ）相关的人口属性之间的空间关系，涵盖多个空间尺度（国家、州、县和城市）；(3)确定城市空间布局的变化与EJ相关的空气污染指标之间的关系；(4)将研究成果整合到教育和推广中。研究方法使用了一个空气污染模型，该模型结合了现有的人口统计数据（美国人口普查）和美国环保署的污染测量数据、基于卫星的空气污染测量数据以及有关土地使用的信息（如道路、建成区、公园）。该模型提供了空间精度，因此为预测群落之间的浓度变化提供了良好的基础。所产生的新知识将被纳入教育和推广活动，包括一个让贫困社区的高中生参与的项目，鼓励他们调查和解决当地的EJ状况。有针对性的结果将产生与EJ条件相关的新知识，它们是如何变化的，以及它们与城市形态的关系。研究和外联活动将确定和测试可能的解决办法。该项目将提供有关空气污染与种族和收入等人口特征的观测证据；并且，将探讨这些关系如何(i)随着分析的空间尺度（从城市内部到国家尺度）和时间的推移而变化，以及（ii）与城市地区的空间布局相关。将现有数据（包括新的卫星测量数据）与尖端的高分辨率污染模型相结合，将为理解这些问题提供一种新的方法。预期研究结果将通过探索影响空气污染的长期因素（城市形式）和揭示环境影响的公平方面，推动环境可持续性的理论和实践。待开发的高精度空气污染模型有可能对环境流行病学和环境经济学等外部领域的研究人员有用。调查结果将整合到现有的课程和项目中，旨在增加代表性不足学生的科学和工程入学人数。一个新的项目将挑战学生探索社区规模的解决方案。研究结果量化了美国各城市和地区与环境污染相关的条件，将直接与地方、州和国家环境政策制定者分享。一个互动网站将允许公众探索其附近长期空气污染的空间精确估计。

1236800 (Marshall). Outdoor air pollution is among the top 10 causes of mortality in the U.S. (and is the largest environmental cause), annually responsible for ~1% of total deaths. Those health risks are not evenly distributed among the population. An important aspect of sustainable development is to understand how urban design and urban environments can help meet social and ?fairness? goals, including avoiding large imbalances in environmental risks among subpopulations?especially along lines of race or income. This project will uncover new relationships among air pollution, demographic attributes relevant to environmental justice, and the spatial layout of urban areas; and will develop an education and outreach program to engage disadvantaged youths. Objectives are to (1) characterize spatial patterns in air pollution concentrations throughout the U.S., and over time, (2) characterize spatial relationships between air pollution and demographic attributes relevant to environmental justice (EJ), covering multiple spatial scales (national, state, county, and urban); (3) identify how shifts in the spatial layout of cities relate to air pollution metrics relevant for EJ; and (4) integrate research findings into education and outreach. The research approach uses an air pollution model that incorporates available demographic data (US Census) and pollution measurements by the U.S. EPA, satellite-based measures of air pollution, and information about land uses (e.g., roads, built-up areas, parks). The model offers spatial precision and therefore provides a good basis for predicting how concentrations vary among communities. New knowledge generated will be integrated into education and outreach activities, including a program to engage high school students in disadvantaged communities and challenge them to investigate and address EJ conditions locally. Targeted results will generate new knowledge relevant to EJ conditions, how they are changing, and how they relate to urban form. Research and outreach activities will identify and test potential solutions. The project will provide observational evidence relating air pollution and demographic attributes such as race and income; and, will explore how those relationships (i) vary with spatial scale of analysis (from within-urban to national-scale) and over time, and (ii) correlate with the spatial layout of urban areas. The combination of available data, including new satellite measurements, with cutting-edge, high-resolution pollution models will provide a novel approach for understanding these issues. It is anticipated that findings will advance theory and practice in environmental sustainability by exploring a long-term factor influencing air pollution (urban form) and by uncovering equity aspects of environmental impacts. The high-precision air pollution models to be developed have the potential to be useful to researchers in outside fields such as environmental epidemiology and environmental economics. Findings will be integrated into existing curricula and programs aimed at increasing science and engineering enrollment of underrepresented students. A new program will challenge students to explore community-scale solutions. Research findings, quantifying conditions relevant to EJ for cities and regions throughout U.S., will be shared directly with local, state, and national environmental policy makers. An interactive website will allow the public to explore spatially precise estimates of long-term air pollution in their neighborhood.