Estimating exposure and health impacts of trafficrelated air pollution during daily travel

HUYEN LE Assistant Professor

Traffic pollutants, such as particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), are harmful to human health and represent a major cause of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, mental illness, and premature deaths [1]. PM2.5 from the transportation sector was responsible for nearly 29,960 premature deaths, accounting for 28% of all premature deaths from exposure to anthropogenic PM2.5 in the US in 2011 [2]. The exposure level is higher for vulnerable road users (e.g., non-auto users) and those who live or travel on heavy traffic roads, often overrepresented by low-income individuals and racial minorities.

To date, most studies have investigated the impacts of PM2.5 on human health based on exposure at home locations, overlooking non-home and traffic-related exposure. This tendency might over- or underestimate the health impact of PM2.5 as it ignores the fact that humans are highly mobile. Research is needed to quantify on-/near-road exposure accounting for spatio-temporal patterns and different travel modes (e.g., driving, walking, biking). Here, we propose generating and integrating more refined measures of spatiotemporal air pollution [8, 9] and mobility data to quantify PM2.5 exposure during daily travel and its physical and mental health outcomes, in combination with socioeconomic and racial disparities in the Columbus metropolitan area. It requires a convergence of expert knowledge, data, and methods from different fields, including environmental, geographical, behavioral, health, and data sciences.

The overarching goal of this project is to estimate the exposure to on-/near-road PM2.5 and its potential short- and long-term health impacts. The project is led by Dr. Huyen Le and is conducted in close collaboration with experts from environmental engineering (Dr. Andy May) for sensor testing and communication (Dr. Joseph Bayer) for survey construction, as well as students from Geography (Armita Kar, PhD student) and Biomedical Engineering (Dema Alkashkish). We deployed 35 PurpleAir mobile sensors to measure PM2.5 concentrations at various locations near heavy-traffic roads across the Columbus metropolitan area. These data were used as inputs for machine learning and statistical models to predict PM2.5 concentrations at locations where sensor measurements are unavailable. We also used GPS and survey data from a smartphone app, as well as a follow-up health survey after 2 years to understand the daily travel patterns and health behavior of 300 participants in Columbus.

The air quality data, coupled with mobility and survey data, will allow us to understand how exposure to traffic-related PM2.5 during everyday travel affects residents’ health outcomes. This study’s results will answer the question “Is the on-/near-road air healthy?” This information will subsequently enable evidence-based decisio- making at city and regional levels regarding transportation planning and land use, with the ultimate goal to promote public health and equity.

Acknowledgements: This project is funded by the Sustainability Institute and Translational Data Analytics Institute at Ohio State.

References:

[1]A. J. Cohen et al., “Estimates and 25-year trends of the global burden of disease attributable to ambient air pollution: an analysis of data from the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2015,” The Lancet, vol. 389, no. 10082, pp. 1907–1918, May 2017, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30505-6.

[2]A. L. Goodkind, C. W. Tessum, J. S. Coggins, J. D. Hill, and J. D. Marshall, “Fine-scale damage estimates of particulate matter air pollution reveal opportunities for location-specific mitigation of emissions,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., vol. 116, no. 18, pp. 8775–8780, Apr. 2019, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1816102116.

GEOG/EARTHSC 4911

Earth’s Climate: Past and Future

Professor Matthew Saltzman, Earth Sciences, and Professor Bryan Mark, Geography, are co-teaching a new course in the spring: GEOG/EARTHSC 4911: Earth’s Climate: Past and Future. This class will examine Earth’s climate and its natural development as understood from the geologic record spanning the full history of the planet, as well as how the future climate is likely to evolve. Only by understanding the mechanisms controlling Earth’s climate over millions of years — plate tectonic cycles, solar cycles, biogeochemical cycles — can we fully grasp the ways in which human activity now dominates the changes to climate.

Geog 1900

Extreme Weather and Climate

This course surveys characteristics and processes of Earth’s atmosphere and how it interacts with the planet’s surface, oceans, and human activity. The course focuses on how these interactions work to produce extreme weather events and climate extremes and how they affect people. As part of this course, students get to participate in the blimp lab which takes them out onto The Oval to study the weather.

STATE CLIMATE OFFICE OF OHIO (SCOO)

2021-22 activities

The State Climate Office of Ohio (SCOO) has forged onward with its mission to serve as stewards of climate information and related services, research, education and outreach activities for the people of Ohio.

This year we have continued collaborating with regional partners to deliver climate services in Ohio and beyond. These activities include coordinating the state’s weekly contributions to the US Drought Monitor, participating in USDA Midwest Climate Hub Midwest (MCH) Agricultural Climate Team, North Central Climate Collaborative, ECOP Climate Program Action Team, and serving as a Board Member on the Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s Sustaining Scioto Project. Aaron Wilson serves as Extension Liaison to the MCH and provides a yearly delivery of the North Central Region Climate Services Climate and Drought webinar. Since July 2021, Aaron has led the Midwest Chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment (2023 release) as Chapter Lead Author.

Research Projects

Our areas of active research include integrated modeling (climate, ecosystem services, economy) to farmer adaptations to climate change, hydrological extremes (droughts/floods), and the development of the National Soil Moisture Network.

This year, SCOO researchers (Wilson, Cervenec, Mark) continued work on a USDA NIFA project – “Regional Integrated Modeling of Farmer Adaptations to Guide Agroecosystem Management in a Changing Climate.” This cycle, we completed videos and outreach infographics for use in communicating with the wider community. These assets may be viewed at u.osu.edu/agroecosystemresilience/. We are currently developing a tabletop exercise for farmer adaptation, to collect evaluation data next season.

We also completed work with private industries including Honda and Owens Corning. With Honda, we examined the impacts of climate change on flooding resilience on the Marysville Campus (Wilson and Quiring). With Owens Corning, we analyzed the impacts of climate change-related risks to their global facilities and the climate changerelated risks and opportunities for one of their product lines (Quiring).

We have two ongoing projects that are funded by NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). The first focuses on developing an objective, impacts-based framework for drought mitigation in Ohio (Quiring (PI), Wilson (Co-PI)). We recently launched an Ohio drought monitoring portal and will be finalizing the other components of this project later this year. The second project supports the continued development of nationalsoilmoisture.com. Over the last year, we have added new in situ networks, modernized the cyberinfrastructure and developed additional products that quantify uncertainty in the national soil moisture maps. We have new awards with USDA (developing farm-scale soil moisture and ET data for CONUS) and NSF (surface-atmosphere interactions on convection initiation in the central US) (PI: Trent Ford (IL State Climatologist) and Quiring (Co-PI)), and submitted a proposal to the USDA AFRI- Sustainable Agricultural Systems call with collaborations with the State Climate Offices of Minnesota and Missouri, along with the USDA Midwest Climate Hub and the National Institute of Applied Climate Science.

Climate Atlas: We advanced our interactive web-based climate data atlas for the state by continuing our collaboration with a faculty member, Dr. Thomas Bihari, in the Computer Science and Engineering Department. Throughout the summer and autumn of 2021, MS candidate Ashwin Nair continued on the prototype based on mesonet data mined from the OARDC Ag Weather Net (https://www. oardc.ohio-state.edu/weather1/). A cohort of students implemented python climate packages to create potential display graphics. As a team, SCOO guided development, iterating between climate service goals and code implementation.

Outreach and Education

Members of SCOO engage in a wide range of outreach and education activities. These include courses taught in the Geography Department at Ohio State University by SCOO members DeGrand, Mark, Quiring, and Wilson. Public talks at various meetings around the state were given by SCOO members Wilson, Quiring, Mark, DeGrand, and

Cervenec. These are too numerous to identify individually. Engagements include the following groups: Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Ag Lenders and Commodity Groups, various Universities, non-profits, and state and municipal agencies.

Outreach events at the BPCRC are planned/coordinated by Cervenec. These are too numerous to identify individually, as they reach approximately 11,000 people in-person annually in normal year (~6,100 from April 2021 to April 2022 due to ongoing pandemic disruptions), but a review of BPCRC’s events page (byrd.osu.edu/events) provides a sample of the Center’s engagement with the academic community at Ohio State and with Columbus and central Ohio generally. During the pandemic, novel virtual events were developed and the team maintains many of those engagements. The team fields information requests from high school students writing reports for their school newspaper to local television weather forecasters covering a local event and provides presentations to groups that range from scouts completing merit badge programs to faith-based groups hosting environmental workshops. The pandemic has disrupted a lot of in-person programs but afforded the team some new ways to reach audiences virtually that will be maintained.

Climate Monitoring and Impact Assessment

SCOO continues to partner with the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Wooster Campus in the maintenance and expansion of its 13 Ag Weather stations located at research farms around the state have all upgraded to cell modem transmission thanks in part to previous funding from the MCH.

In partnership with the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center and the Ohio State Sustainability Institute, SCOO has expanded a network of small climate stations around the Columbus campus for the purpose of monitoring the urban heat island effect in the campus area. Data from these stations is being displayed on our Mesonet web page (scoo. byrd.osu.edu/mesonet/dashboard) and partners are starting to co-locate instruments for measuring other variables.

Geddy Davis helped secure Columbus as a NOAA funded Urban Heat Island Campaign (noaa.gov/news-release/noaaand-communities-to-map-heat-inequities-in-14-us-cities-andcounties) for 2022. The team also partnered with a regional planning authority, agencies, and non-profit organizations to apply for an NSF CIVIC planning grant to better model flood risk in Central Ohio.

Communication & Web Services

A big part of the SCOO mission involves communication, and our webpage is our main portal to deliver content and services. The SCOO homepage (climate.osu.edu/) completed a college-wide site upgrade this year. From April 20, 2021 to April 19, 2022, the SCOO website has seen over 8,800 sessions (versus ~4,100 in prior year) by more than 6,501 users (versus ~3,600 in the prior year). SCOO continues its social media presence through Facebook with 295 likes/322 followers (facebook.com/ohioclimate) and Twitter with 166 followers (twitter.com/Ohio_Climate).

Energent Solutions has partnered with SCOO this year to provide financial assistance for an undergraduate student, Geddy Davis, to update monthly and seasonal climate summaries for Ohio. These and other products, such as video updates that review the current status of drought, precipitation receipts, soil moisture, and river levels as well as forecasts in the near, short and long term, are made available through the SCOO website and social media accounts.

SCOO continues to maintain its web-based decision tool, “FARM” (Field Application Resource Monitor) designed to help ag producers comply with State regulations regarding the timing of application of granular fertilizer or manure with respect to forecasts of precipitation. This app is free and may be used on any device at the FARM website (farm. bpcrc.osu.edu). FARM currently has 378 active user accounts monitoring 818 different fields, and 32 users subscribed to the daily field updates. We also have our first paid subscriber, which allows for access to additional fields and provides a financial mechanism for future enhancement of the tool as we increase subscriptions.

Media Appearances

SCOO responded to numerous media requests throughout the previous cycle. This includes participating in the program QED with Dr. B, which aired on Columbus PBS Affiliate WOSU. SCOO has contributed to podcasts including Sound of Ideas (NPR-Cleveland), All Sides with Ann Fisher (NPRColumbus), Cloudy with a Chance of Podcast (WHIOTVDayton), interviews with local tv news outlets including 10TV, NBC4i, the Columbus Dispatch, the Cincinnati Magazine.

CENTER FOR URBAN AND REGIONAL ANALYSIS (CURA)

The Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA) is an interdisciplinary group of scholars in social, natural, and environmental sciences; applied economics; agriculture; engineering; health and medical professions; and the humanities. Our mission is to serve as a transdisciplinary research and outreach hub that leverages innovations in geographic information science and geospatial data analytics to better understand the issues and challenges facing cities and regions in Ohio and beyond. We serve as a bridge across academia, industry, the public sector and the community through basic and applied urban research, researchbased undergraduate and graduate training, and outreach. Our focus is on the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of cities and regions in an urbanized world. Ghost Neighborhoods of Columbus is an ongoing effort that highlights CURA’s mission and capabilities. The project reconstructs urban neighborhoods lost to highway construction and urban renewal during the 20th century.

Ghost Neighborhoods of Columbus

The 1956 National Interstate and Defense Highways Act impacted lives and cities across the U.S. by constructing what we now call the Interstate Highway System. Planners of the system routed some highways, often purposely, through neighborhoods occupied by people of color. Once thriving and full neighborhoods, these neighborhoods were split and, in some cases, even fully demolished for these urban highways. Within the span of a few years, these neighborhoods lost not only homes and people, but shops, jobs, and their vitality. One result was an economic downturn in many of these neighborhoods that lasts until the present day. The remaining residents still live with the negative consequences of these highways, including spatial disconnection, poor air quality, and noise and road trauma. Some of the most impacted neighborhoods in Columbus include Hanford Village and Bronzeville on the east side, and Flytown just north of downtown.

Hanford Village is a good example of a neighborhood heavily impacted by highway construction. This was a vibrant community for newly returning Black World War II veterans. Hanford Village’s George Washington Carver Addition was platted in 1945, and 146 homes were constructed during 1945-1947. Currently, the neighborhood is only a small fragment of what it once was. The construction of Interstate 70 and Alum Creek Drive demolished or moved 67 of the homes in this subdivision.

CURA has launched the Ghost Neighborhood of Columbus project to help people understand what was destroyed by urban highway construction during the 20th century, and to support research on reconstruction of the wealth, vitality, and activities that have vanished. The Ghost Neighborhoods team includes CURA Director Harvey Miller, Associate Director Ningchuan Xiao, Outreach Coordinator Gerika Logan, geography PhD candidate Yue Lin, undergraduate history majors Eva Heyer and Michael Smith, and faculty affiliates Jason Reece (Knowlton School) and Joshua Sadvari (Ohio State Libraries). The core data we are using to reconstruct these neighborhoods are Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: these are hand-constructed maps of US cities dating back to the 19th century, created for fire insurance purposes, containing a wealth of building-level data.

The Ghost Neighborhoods project will highlight these lost and damaged neighborhoods by using machine learning/ artificial intelligence techniques to extract data from the Sanborn maps to create and populate a GIS database, allowing the creation of 3D visualizations and supporting spatial analysis. The 3D visualizations will show existing and demolished structures. The figure below shows one of the first visualizations produced by the research team: buildings in Hanford Village in 1961. The blue double lines show what is now I-70, and the red buildings are those that were destroyed by its construction.

The team will also be doing archival research to gather and georeference historic photographs, narratives and other archival material that can bring these lost neighborhoods to life in a story map format. We will also be linking these building data to historic city directories that contain owner and business information organized by street address. The Ghost Neighborhoods team is starting with Hanford Village but will move on to Bronzeville (including the Mt. Vernon Ave corridor) and Flytown. We also plan to conduct a similar effort for the Franklinton neighborhood across the Scioto River from downtown, befoer the devastating flood of 1913. Eventually, we will scale this up to other cities in Ohio and elsewhere in the nation.

GIS map showing Hanford Village in 1961, just before I-70 was constructed through Columbus. Red buildings are those destroyed by highway construction. The George Washington Carver Addition is located at the curve of I-70 to the right of the map. The query window shows information about the highlighted building (outlined in light blue).

Follow our progress: cura.osu.edu/projects/existing/ghost-neighborhoods.

Contacts:

Harvey Miller, Director: miller.81@osu.edu

Gerika Logan, Outreach Coordinator: logan.433@osu.edu