Study objective

Research Infrastructures Services Reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & Industrial AreaS (RI-URBANS) will develop Service Tools (STs) that will provide novel insights into spatio-temporal variability of air quality parameters, population exposure and air quality health interactions. This will enable the reduction of air pollution in European cities and industrial, harbour, airport and road traffic hotspots. The project takes on board advanced research-driven Air Quality (AQ) observations at selected European pilot cities. By combining Air Quality Monitoring Networks (AQMNs) and Research Infrastructures (RIs) advanced science knowledge and innovative technologies, RI-URBANS deploys tools and information systems in the hands of citizens and communities to support decision-making by AQ managers and regulators. These will enhance the AQMNs capacity to evaluate, predict and mitigate the impact of air quality AQ on human health. RI-URBANS focuses on human exposure to outdoor ambient ultrafine particles (UFP, particle number concentrations and particle size distribution, PSD), atmospheric particulate matter (PM, in mass concentration) in terms of their sizes and constituents, as well as their gaseous precursors (including VOCs and NH3).

Our research group will contribute to the work packages of the RI-Urbans project aiming at developing and piloting a concept for an environmental epidemiological cohort study in an urban area to identify the effects of UFP on health. We will provide UFP and mortality data from German cities for the evaluation of short-term effects of UFPs on daily cause-specific mortality rates.