Assessing the Health Impact of Air Pollution, Noise, and Accidents as a Function of Transport Policies

Abstract

MS8-06 Abstract: Transport is an essential activity of modern society and brings about potential for development as well as adverse health implications. The HEARTS (Health Effects and Risks of Transport Systems) project had the main objective of developing tools for the integrated assessment of urban transport impacts on health. Air pollution, noise, and road accidents (including pedestrian accidents) were considered in an attempt to support the identification, development, and implementation of urban transport policies that minimize the health impacts. The project targeted several potential users such as administrations, policy-makers, departments of traffic, environment, health, land use planning, consultants companies, scientific and research institutions, environmental consultants, environmental impact assessment (EIA), and health impact assessment (HIA) practitioners. HEARTS brought together experts and modelers of traffic-related exposure, policy scenarios, and health with the main objectives of: Developing methodologies to assess the health impact of transport-related factors in the urban environment; Integrating different impacts (noise, accidents, air pollution); and Testing the proposed methodology based on policies and scenarios of 3 European cities: Leicester, Lille, and Florence. The project underlined the importance of considering the complexity of human exposure to air pollutants, noise, and traffic accidents in an integrated manner to predict the health impacts of transport policies. Dynamic geographic models were used for the assessment of transport-related exposures to air pollution and noise at the local scale, whereas population exposure models using a probabilistic simulation framework were used for broader-scale population-level exposure assessment. The dynamic geographic model was applied using a collection of specific models under a geographic information system (GIS) platform. Newly developed accident and pedestrian risk models were also included. Ad hoc survey campaigns and an additional collection of data were conducted. In the case study cities, transport policy options and different scenarios were identified and assessed in terms of their health implications.