An integrated, society-centered approach to reducing pollution in European cities

The Air and Noise Pollution Mitigation Through Integrated, Society-Centred Actions (ATMOPOLIS) project involves leading academics, local and knowledge actors, and citizens to understand air and noise pollution and their link with carbon emissions to develop an integrated tool to evaluate the health and climate impacts of mitigation policies. The project will count on citizen participation to collect environmental and community data from five European cities, bringing an innovative social perspective often missing in environmental and urban planning studies.

Air and noise pollution are environmental and health risk factors with multiple implications that vary across cities. The impacts of pollution are not equally distributed and vary across individuals depending on cultural and socioeconomic factors. Understanding the complexity of urban systems, and their barriers and opportunities to action, are key to addressing the negative effects of pollution through further mitigation measures.

The project’s approach differs from previous studies, as it seeks to take an integrated approach to simultaneously address the impacts of both air and noise pollution, with a focus on finding society-centered solutions acceptable to both citizens and cities. This innovative perspective will enable tailored solutions and cost-effective approaches for the studied cities.

“Air pollution is the single greatest environmental health threat in the EU, and noise pollution the third. ATMOPOLIS will identify the measures that can lead to the largest exposure reductions and negative health impacts, while also considering co-benefits for the climate. By working with cities and citizens, we will work to support action to implement these measures using both top-down policy and bottom-up behavioral change and awareness” states Jonathon Taylor, project coordinator and Associate Professor at Tampere University.

The project is a joint effort of 14 partners, including IIASA, who will conduct research across the European cities of Greater London Authority (UK), Łódź (Poland), Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Podgorica (Montenegro), and Tampere (Finland). With an approximate budget of €5 million, the project is funded under the Horizon Europe call “Zero-Pollution Cities”, contributing to the objectives of the EU Mission “Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities 2030”.

“ATMOPOLIS builds on IIASA’s work at the interface of air pollution, climate change, and human health. By translating the Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model into a city-focused decision support tool, in collaboration with our colleagues at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, we aim to give policymakers practical, science-based options that simultaneously reduce pollution exposure, improve public health, and deliver climate benefits,” says Zbigniew Klimont, Pollution Management Research Group Leader in the Energy, Climate, and Environment Program at IIASA.

By combining diverse expertise, novel methods, and community data, ATMOPOLIS will assess the different dimensions of emissions and exposure. At the city level, an integrated model will be developed and used as a tool for policymaking and testing the health and carbon emission impacts and cost-effectiveness of mitigation actions. This tool will be made publicly accessible online upon completion.

“Our work in ATMOPOLIS will adapt the established GAINS modeling framework to the urban scale, allowing cities to assess health, climate, and cost impacts of policy choices in an integrated and transparent way. We will develop both a dedicated version of the tool for the ATMOPOLIS partner cities as well as a generic version for a large set of European cities,” explains Gregor Kiesewetter, a senior research scholar in the Pollution Management Research Group at IIASA.

At community-level, exposure and individual perception data will be collected, their interaction with pollution messaging studied, and used to develop outreach materials to engage the public, encourage behavioral change, and empower citizens to demand action. In this way, change will flow in two directions: from academics and policymakers, and from the citizens themselves.

Empowering communities

ATMOPOLIS will have a social dimension, from the individual to the community levels, for a better understanding of the health and social impacts of pollution on people. In addition to environmental measurements for individuals, it will leverage vast amounts of community measured and reported noise pollution data to understand both levels, sources, and the causes of complaints. The study will examine impacts across different population groups, including groups that may be more exposed to pollution, and those more vulnerable to negative health impacts. Individuals' perceptions of air and noise pollution will be collected through personal narratives and methodologies such as photovoice, capturing the community voices and their visual experiences in photographs that reflect their personal perception of exposure and role in producing emissions.

The project will engage with citizens, increasing their awareness and empowerment towards policy acceptance and behavioral changes, translating evidence to society-centered actions and ultimately tackling air and noise pollution from a more integrative perspective.

Further information: 
https://www.tuni.fi/en/research/atmopolis