Is Compact Growth Good for Air Quality?

Stone, Brian; Mednick, Adam C.; Holloway, Tracey; Scott, N. A.

doi:10.1080/01944360708978521

Cited by 143 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Sprawling development has been linked to higher mobile emissions and to increased energy usage (Brownstone and Golob, 2009). One of the more detailed assessments of compact growth has shown reductions in the vehicle miles traveled by up to 10% in a region when compared to a "business-as-usual" strategy for growth projected to the year 2050 (Stone et al, 2007). A future landuse scenario assessment for Southern California found air quality improvements for ozone from more compact urban centers and higher emissions from a sprawl scenario (Kahyaoglu-Koracin et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of regional development policies and clean technology adoption on future air pollution exposure

Hixson

Mahmud

et al. 2010

Atmospheric Environment

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a b s t r a c tFuture air pollution emissions in the year 2030 were estimated for the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) in central California using a combined system of land use, mobile, off-road, stationary, area, and biogenic emissions models. Four scenarios were developed that use different assumptions about the density of development and level of investment in transportation infrastructure to accommodate the expected doubling of the SJV population in the next 20 years. Scenario 1 reflects current land-use patterns and infrastructure while scenario 2 encouraged compact urban footprints including redevelopment of existing urban centers and investments in transit. Scenario 3 allowed sprawling development in the SJV with reduced population density in existing urban centers and construction of all planned freeways. Scenario 4 followed currently adopted land use and transportation plans for the SJV. The air quality resulting from these urban development scenarios was evaluated using meteorology from a winter stagnation event that occurred on December 15th, 2000 to January 7th 2001. Predicted base-case PM2.5 mass concentrations within the region exceeded 35 mg m À3 over the 22-day episode. Compact growth reduced the PM2.5 concentrations by w1 mg m À3 relative to the base-case over most of the SJV with the exception of increases (w1 mg m À3 ) in urban centers driven by increased concentrations of elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC).Low-density development increased the PM2.5 concentrations by 1e4 mg m À3 over most of the region, with decreases (0.5e2 mg m À3 ) around urban areas. Population-weighted average PM2.5 concentrations were very similar for all development scenarios ranging between 16 and 17.4 mg m À3 . Exposure to primary PM components such as EC and OC increased 10e15% for high density development scenarios and decreased by 11e19% for low-density scenarios. Patterns for secondary PM components such as nitrate and ammonium ion were almost exactly reversed, with a 10% increase under low-density development and a 5% decrease under high density development. The increased human exposure to primary pollutants such as EC and OC could be predicted using a simplified analysis of population-weighted primary emissions. Regional planning agencies should develop thresholds of population-weighted primary emissions exposure to guide the development of growth plans. This metric will allow them to actively reduce the potential negative impacts of compact growth while preserving the benefits.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of regional development policies and clean technology adoption on future air pollution exposure

Hixson

Mahmud

et al. 2010

Atmospheric Environment

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“…Ewing and Cervero (17) reported typical elasticities with respect to local density, land use mix, and design, of -0.05, -0.05, and -0.03, respectively, versus typical elasticities with respect to regional accessibility of -0.20. However, Stone et al (22), employing an approach similar to that presented herein, estimated elasticities of -0.41 with respect to population density in "urban" tracts, versus -0.19 in "suburban" tracts. The variation in elasticities reported from different empirical studies points to the need for additional work in this field, including the development of improved data inputs, more consistent urban form measures, and improved model specifications (16,18).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Mobile Source CO₂ Mitigation through Smart Growth Development and Vehicle Fleet Hybridization

Stone

Mednick²,

Holloway³

2009

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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This paper presents the results of a study on the effectiveness of smart growth development patterns and vehicle fleet hybridization in reducing mobile source emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) across 11 major metropolitan regions of the Midwestern U.S. over a 50-year period. Through the integration of a vehicle travel activity modeling framework developed by researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory with small area population projections, we model mobile source emissions of CO 2 associated with alternative land development and technology change scenarios between 2000 and 2050. Our findings suggest that under an aggressive smart growth scenario, growth in emissions expected to occur under a business as usual scenario is reduced by 34%, while the full dissemination of hybrid-electric vehicles throughout the light vehicle fleet is found to offset the expected growth in emissions by 97%. Our results further suggest that high levels of urban densification could achieve reductions in 2050 CO 2 emissions equivalent to those attainable through the full dissemination of hybrid-electric vehicle technologies.

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“…Stone Jr. et al [60] discuss vulnerability to climate change impacts and the focus on extreme heat events provides a connection to health outcomes. This article is one of a relative few that use the term -resilience‖ (p. 1427) and is also broader than their previous work Stone Jr. et al [59] which focuses only on the air quality impacts. House-Peters and Chang [50] is another example of how recent sprawl research uses connections with global climate change to approach the resilience theme.…”

Section: Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vehicles have long been established as key contributors to air quality issues in urban areas [67], but notable advances have been made over the past decade in specifically linking urban sprawl to diminished air quality. Stone Jr. et al [59] couple vehicle activity forecasting with a mobile source emissions model to explore the relationship between sprawling development and four pollutants-carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds-in eleven metropolitan areas of the Midwestern United States. Their findings suggest that compact development can significantly reduce pollutant emissions at the regional scale, but only over the long-term and when complemented with growth controls, disincentives for vehicle use, and technological emissions controls.…”

Section: Airmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Environmental Impacts of Sprawl: Emergent Themes from the Past Decade of Planning Research

2013

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Abstract:This article reviews studies published in English language planning journals since 2001 that focus on the environmental impacts of sprawl. We organise our analysis of the reviewed literature around: (1) the conceptualisation or measurement of sprawl; (2) a comparison of research methods employed and findings with respect to four categories of environmental impacts-air, energy, land, and water; and (3) an exploration of emergent and cross-cutting themes. We hypothesise that the trend towards breaking down silos observable in other areas of planning scholarship is also reflected in the recent sprawl literature and structure our review to test this proposition. International in scope, our work demonstrates how focusing on outcomes can facilitate balanced comparisons across geographic contexts with varying rates of urbanisation and affluence. We find that the sprawl research published in planning journals over the past decade frequently engages with broader themes of resilience and justice, increasingly considers multiple environmental outcomes, and suggests a convergence in the way sprawl is studied that transcends national boundaries as well as the developing-developed country dichotomy.

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Is Compact Growth Good for Air Quality?

Cited by 143 publications

References 20 publications

Influence of regional development policies and clean technology adoption on future air pollution exposure

Influence of regional development policies and clean technology adoption on future air pollution exposure

Mobile Source CO₂ Mitigation through Smart Growth Development and Vehicle Fleet Hybridization

The Environmental Impacts of Sprawl: Emergent Themes from the Past Decade of Planning Research

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Is Compact Growth Good for Air Quality?

Cited by 143 publications

References 20 publications

Influence of regional development policies and clean technology adoption on future air pollution exposure

Influence of regional development policies and clean technology adoption on future air pollution exposure

Mobile Source CO2 Mitigation through Smart Growth Development and Vehicle Fleet Hybridization

The Environmental Impacts of Sprawl: Emergent Themes from the Past Decade of Planning Research

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Mobile Source CO₂ Mitigation through Smart Growth Development and Vehicle Fleet Hybridization