Quantifying population exposure to air pollution using individual mobility patterns inferred from mobile phone data.

A critical question in environmental epidemiology is whether air pollution exposures of large populations can be refined using individual mobile-device-based mobility patterns. Cellular network data has become an essential tool for understanding the movements of human populations. As such, through inferring the daily home and work locations of 407,435 mobile phone users whose positions are determined, we assess exposure to PM2.5. Spatiotemporal PM2.5 concentrations are predicted using an Aerosol Optical Depth- and Land Use Regression-combined model. Air pollution exposures of subjects are assigned considering modeled PM2.5 levels at both their home and work locations. These exposures are then compared to residence-only exposure metric, which does not consider daily mobility. In our study, we demonstrate that individual air pollution exposures can be quantified using mobile device data, for populations of unprecedented size. In examining mean annual PM2.5 exposures determined, bias for the residence-based exposures was 0.91, relative to the exposure metric considering the work location. Thus, we find that ignoring daily mobility potentially contributes to misclassification in health effect estimates. Our framework for understanding population exposure to environmental pollution could play a key role in prospective environmental epidemiological studies.

Sustainable development of urban transport systems and human exposure to air pollution.

DAPPLE (Dispersion of Air Pollution and Penetration into the Local Environment, http://www.dapple.org.uk) is a major research project that will provide the understanding necessary to assess the sustainability of urban road transport in terms of exposure to traffic-related air pollution as an alternative to current indicators based on emissions, roadside, or far-from-road air pollution levels. The methodology is described, which combines on-street and laboratory measurement with modelling of the movement of air, vehicles, and vehicle exhaust emissions. The relationship between this kind of assessment and more realistic indicators of sustainability is discussed. The value of large-scale interdisciplinary research in this area is thus demonstrated.

Introduction to the DAPPLE Air Pollution Project.

The Dispersion of Air Pollution and its Penetration into the Local Environment (DAPPLE) project brings together a multidisciplinary research group that is undertaking field measurements, wind tunnel modelling and computer simulations in order to provide better understanding of the physical processes affecting street and neighbourhood-scale flow of air, traffic and people, and their corresponding interactions with the dispersion of pollutants at street canyon intersections. The street canyon intersection is of interest as it provides the basic case study to demonstrate most of the factors that will apply in a wide range of urban situations. The aims of this paper are to introduce the background of the DAPPLE project, the study design and methodology for data collection, some preliminary results from the first field campaign in central London (28 April-24 May 2003) and the future for this work. Updated information and contact details are available on the web site at http://www.dapple.org.uk.

TWODEE: the Health and Safety Laboratory's shallow layer model for heavy gas dispersion. Part 1. Mathematical basis and physical assumptions.

The Major Hazard Assessment Unit of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides advice to local planning authorities on land use planning in the vicinity of major hazard sites. For sites with the potential for large scale releases of toxic heavy gases such as chlorine this advice is based on risk levels and is informed by use of the computerised risk assessment tool RISKAT [C. Nussey, M. Pantony, R. Smallwood, HSE's risk assessment tool RISKAT, Major Hazards: Onshore and Offshore, October, 1992]. At present RISKAT uses consequence models for heavy gas dispersion that assume flat terrain. This paper is the first part of a three part paper. Part 1 describes the mathematical basis of TWODEE, the Health and Safety Laboratory's shallow layer model for heavy gas dispersion. The shallow layer approach used by TWODEE is a compromise between the complexity of CFD models and the simpler integral models. Motivated by the low aspect ratio of typical heavy gas clouds, shallow layer models use depth-averaged variables to describe the flow behaviour. This approach is particularly well suited to assess the effect of complex terrain because the downslope buoyancy force is easily included. Entrainment may be incorporated into a shallow layer model by the use of empirical formulae. Part 2 of this paper presents the numerical scheme used to solve the TWODEE mathematical model, and validated against theoretical results. Part 3 compares the results of the TWODEE model with the experimental results taken at Thorney Island [J. McQuaid, B. Roebuck, The dispersion of heavier-than-air gas from a fenced enclosure. Final report to the US Coast Guard on contract with the Health and Safety Executive, Technical Report RPG 1185, Safety Engineering Laboratory, Research and Laboratory Services Division, Broad Lane, Sheffield S3 7HQ, UK, 1985].

TWODEE: the Health and Safety Laboratory's shallow layer model for heavy gas dispersion. Part 2: outline and validation of the computational scheme.

Part 1 of this three part paper described the mathematical and physical basis of TWODEE, the Health and Safety Laboratory's shallow layer model for heavy gas dispersion. In this part, the numerical solution method used to simulate the TWODEE mathematical model is developed. The boundary conditions for the leading edge, discussed in part 1, make demanding requirements on the computational scheme used. The flux correction scheme of Zalesak [S.T. Zalesak, Fully multidimensional flux-corrected transport algorithms for fluids, Journal of Computational Physics, 31 (1979) 335-362] is used in TWODEE as this has all the required properties. The TWODEE code is then tested against a number of theoretical and computational benchmark problems.

TWODEE: the Health and Safety Laboratory's shallow layer model for heavy gas dispersion. Part 3: experimental validation (Thorney Island).

Part 1 of this three-part paper described the mathematical and physical basis of TWODEE, the Health and Safety Laboratory's shallow layer model for heavy gas dispersion. In part 2, the numerical solution method used to simulate the TWODEE mathematical model was developed; the flux correction scheme of Zalesak [S.T. Zalesak, Fully multidimensional flux-corrected transport algorithms for fluids, Journal of Computational Physics, 31 (1979) 335-362.] was used in TWODEE. This paper compares results of the TWODEE model to the experimental results taken at Thorney Island [J. McQuaid, B. Roebuck, The dispersion of heavier-than-air gas from a fenced enclosure. Final report to the U.S. Coast Guard on contract with the Health and Safety Executive. Technical Report RPG 1185, Safety Engineering Laboratory, Research and Laboratory Services Division, Broad Lane, Sheffield S3 7HQ, UK, 1985.]. There is no evidence to suggest that TWODEE predictions could be improved by changing any of the entrainment parameters from generally accepted values [R.K.S. Hankin, Heavy gas dispersion over complex terrain, PhD thesis, Cambridge University, 1997.]. The TWODEE model was broadly insensitive to the exact values of the entrainment parameters.