Socioeconomic Aspects in an Extended Contemporary City

Abstract

Contemporary cities face significant traffic problems that tend to degrade the quality of life. Moreover, traffic habits of the residents in each city district are directly related to their socioeconomic status. In order to study the traffic patterns in a city and its suburbs, a huge amount of traffic data (number of automobiles, composition of the fleet, etc.) is required. Since these data are not available in many cases, carbon monoxide (CO), a pollutant routinely recorded in almost all cities since early 1970s, is proposed to be used as an indicator of the traffic volume and characteristics of a city. In an urban environment, CO is almost exclusively emitted from automobiles, while rarely presenting chemical activity. This method was applied to the city of Athens and its suburbs to characterize the traffic habits (patterns) in relation to the socioeconomic status of the residents.

Disaggregating the contribution of local dispersion and long-range transport to the high PM10 values measured in a Mediterranean urban environment

“…This could be due to the termination of the construction works employed for the 2004 Olympic Games. The seasonal variation of PM 10 in ARI reflected the traffic patterns in the center of the city and the reduction of the population during the summer months (Kassomenos, 2005). Similarly, the seasonal variation in the background stations reflected the local traffic patterns.…”

“…In addition to that, the remaining 28% could be characterized as "transported" PM 10 , produced from sources located far from the measuring site and possibly outside of the Basin. Specifically, it is known that various PM 10 sources are located inside the urban complex of Athens, from light industries and main traffic arteries to central heating systems and other human activities such as construction works, and depending on the wind direction, high loads of PM 10 can be transported over the city center (Kassomenos, 2005;Grivas et al, 2008).…”