Abstract:
Beside over 364,200 premature mortalities in Europe each year, the effects of air pollution are responsible for a range of severe cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. This is a rising concern, as most people living in cities are exposed to exceedingly high concentrations of traffic-related pollutants, of which a large share is attributable to freight transport. Urban environments go hand in hand with urban development, and the construction sector intrinsically strongly relies on off-site logistics activities, i.e. transports to and from sites.
Although construction leads to more sustainable, attractive and economically viable cities in the long run, its transport flows during the works cause significant environmental nuisances, which have so far been under researched. This thesis focuses on the air quality impact of construction transport, and what its mitigation potential is with regards to the inflictedhealth damage costs.
With the growing concern on urban air quality, this raises the question of where, when and by whom the most air pollution exposure costs are inflicted. So far, the geo-temporal link between the emission source and its receptors was considered to be static. This dissertation therefore introduces a dynamic geo-temporal link, hence considering dynamic population movements. This study ultimately investigates the exposure effects when off-site construction transport flows are spatiotemporally redirected around urban air pollution hotspots.
Conclusively, this research suggests to decouple policies from absolute transport emissions and rather focus on the actual inflicted health impact, considering the spatiotemporal relationship of both emissions and receptors, and better integrated planning.