European Commission funded program on the impact of air pollution on population health: the example of HEalth Risk from Environmental Pollution Levels in Urban Systems (HEREPLUS Project)

Abstract

HEalth Risk from Environmental Pollution Levels in Urban Systems (HEREPLUS) project has been thought and carried out to fill some of the identified gaps in the evidence base and develop and apply an integrated methodology for assessing and quantifying the health risk associated to outdoor pollution exposure and for investigating the potential mitigating role of urban green. Results of HEREPLUS have demonstrated that these are no watertight compartments and that some issues should be tackled in an integrated approach. For instance, benefits from a proper selection of vegetation species in a city could be assessed in terms of load of pollutants removed from the atmosphere, and furthermore this data translated into health benefits. Additionally, health outcomes could be better interpreted in terms of a spatial analysis that previously had defined the high risk areas associated to a specific pollutant and, in consequence, action plans can be defined taking into account this geo-referenced information.

Keywords

• air pollution
• population health
• urban green
• mitigation
• risk mapls