Mobile phone tracking: in support of modelling traffic-related air pollution contribution to individual exposure and its implications for public health impact assessment

Abstract

We propose a new approach to assess the impact of traffic-related air pollution on public health by mapping personal trajectories using mobile phone tracking technology in an urban environment. Although this approach is not based on any empirical studies, we believe that this method has great potential and deserves serious attention. Mobile phone tracking technology makes it feasible to generate millions of personal trajectories and thereby cover a large fraction of an urban population. Through analysis, personal trajectories are not only associated to persons, but it can also be associated with vehicles, vehicle type, vehicle speed, vehicle emission rates, and sources of vehicle emissions. Pollution levels can be estimated by dispersion models from calculated traffic emissions. Traffic pollution exposure to individuals can be estimated based on the exposure along the individual human trajectories in the estimated pollution concentration fields by utilizing modelling tools. By data integration, one may identify trajectory patterns of particularly exposed human groups. The approach of personal trajectories may open a new paradigm in understanding urban dynamics and new perspectives in population-wide empirical public health research. This new approach can be further applied to individual commuter route planning, land use planning, urban traffic network planning, and used by authorities to formulate air pollution mitigation policies and regulations.

Using wavelet–feedforward neural networks to improve air pollution forecasting in urban environments

“…New air quality policies aim at healthier and longer life for citizens. The envisaged outcomes are fewer children suffering from asthma or other respiratory problems, fewer people affected by chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and finally, less morbidity and mortality levels following an out of course health from air pollution (Liu et al 2013).…”

Fine Particulate Matter in Urban Environments: A Trigger of Respiratory Symptoms in Sensitive Children

“…Early warning systems have improved the protection of citizens by reducing personal exposure to health risks during critical episodes of heat waves or air pollution [36,37]. Personal monitors have been increasingly used to quantify individual exposure or evaluate the PM traffic loading of various heavy-traffic streets or districts [38,39,40]. Consequently, personal exposure assessment is evolving quickly and the latest advances in Information and Communications Technology have enabled the tracking of individuals while monitoring pollutant concentrations.…”

Traffic Maps and Smartphone Trajectories to Model Air Pollution, Exposure and Health Impact

“…Figure 6 and Figure 7 shows the inverse of vertical . Equation (20) shows that the vertical standard deviation ap- (10) and (15), respectively). pears as an inverse in the concentration, so the inverse standard deviation is representative of the decaying amplitude of concentration away from the street.…”

“…It is infeasible to scale up to population level due to the large cumulative cost. A study in 2013 [20] presented an alternative approach of using individual mobile phone trajectories accumulating exposure from a pollution map without personal sensors.…”