Risk Assessment for the Population of Kyiv, Ukraine as a Result of Atmospheric Air Pollution

Abstract

Background. According to the World Health Organization, 92% of the world's population lives in places where air quality levels exceed recommended limits. Recently, Ukraine had the most deaths per every 100,000 people (out of 120 countries) attributed to atmospheric air pollution. High levels of atmospheric air pollution have been observed not only in typically industrial regions, but in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, as well. Objectives. The aim of the present study was to establish the state of air pollution in Kyiv and perform a risk assessment of associated human health effects. Methods. Using official statistics and state monitoring data, the study aimed to identify and analyze risks to the health of Kyiv's population associated with air pollution. The following methods were used: systematic, functional and comparative analysis, risk theory, mathematical modeling, probability theory and mathematical statistics, as well as geographic information system technologies for digital map design and objective-oriented methodology for software design systems. Results. The risk values across different areas of the city varied significantly, indicating that atmospheric air quality remains unstable. Areas with the highest and lowest risk values were identified. Conclusions. The environmental state of atmospheric air in Kyiv requires greater attention and additional research to identify the causes of air pollution, along with implementation of measures to improve air quality. Competing Interests. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Software tools for tasks of sustainable development of environmental problems: peculiarities of programming and implementation in the specialists’ preparation

“…This monitoring system provides possibility to analyse complex processes and phenomena that reflect monitoring data of individual cities, regions or territorial systems. This software consists of several blocks, namely: block of statistical analysis and preliminary estimation of technogenic atmospheric loads; mathematical modeling and forecasting unit of atmospheric pollution and risks for the population; block of visualization and construction of ecological maps [26].…”

“…Therefore, we consider two aspects important for the research: improvement of monitoring system to forecast and managerial tasks to ensure environmental safety based on information technologies; professional development of specialists in the energy, environmental and related fields who are responsible for decisionmaking to reduce negative impact on environment. Was made systematization of scientific publications in the following areas directly related to this research based on analysis of the works of foreign and domestic scientists: -approaches to sustainable development [4,6,8,[10][11][12][13]; -development of indicators, indices to measure sustainable development [2,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]; -construction of mathematical, software and hardware tools to assess impact of potentially dangerous enterprises on environment, taking into account economic indicators [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]; -training of specialists in the field of environmental safety and related industries [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46].…”

Modeling the influence of factors on the level of environmental safety

“…There are proposed a modern information and analytical system for monitoring atmospheric air pollution and considered the features of the air quality index in [7,8,9,10]. A schematic diagram of the structural organization and relationships between the subjects of environmental monitoring has been developed in [11].…”

“…The risks to public health associated with air pollution have been analyzed and evaluated in [8,17,18]. Mathematical models have been developed to reduce the spread of pollutants in the atmosphere [19,20].…”

Modeling of the Process of Optimization of Decision-Making at Control of Parameters of Energy and Technical Systems on the Example of Remote Earth’s Sensing Tools

“…All this leads to the need to use environmental monitoring tools [2,3]. For this purpose, various technical means, equipped with the equipment of registration and analysis of environmental factors are used.…”