Methodology for individual air pollution exposure estimation based on data from air pollution concentration maps, daily routes and activities

Abstract

Air pollution epidemiological studies typically only estimate individual exposure at residence locations. However, people spend a large amount of time away from their homes during the day. Integrating mobility and time-activity data may reduce errors and improve individual air pollution exposure estimation. Using air pollution concentration maps (PM10 and NO2) data and with collecting individual data from each person using surveys (origin/destination location, travel mode used and the reasons for daily movements) it is possible to estimate individual daily exposure to air pollution , integrating all this data in a GIS platform. The methodology described in this work includes all these items and it was adopted in a Portuguese medium-sized city called Guimarães. The results of this methodology showed that there are significant variations in the values of individual exposure to air pollution, compared to the methodology that only considers residence information of the person to calculate individual exposure to air pollution. Moreover, the sociodemographic data of each individual also play an important role in estimating exposure to individual air pollution.