Air Quality & Health

The Challenge

Concentrated industrial and transportation activities contribute to conventional air pollution and other threats to public health, but with the increasing scale of human activity and transport of pollutants through air and water, both urban and rural areas are affected.

With an ever‑greater share of the population residing in urban areas, cities are becoming more of a focus in global change discussions. Urbanization is a major force in developing regions—where megacities have emerged and will continue to rise—and city development paths may be the key to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, conventional air pollutants and vulnerability to environmental change. Thus, cities find themselves on the front line of developing strategies that jointly mitigate GHG and pollutant emissions while adapting to unavoidable climate change.

Our Response

Our Integrated Global System Monitoring (IGSM) framework allows us to simulate the effects of population growth on the demand for natural resources, energy and GHG emissions, and includes models of urban and regional air pollutants and their impacts on human health.

To learn how your organization can benefit from funding our research, please visit the Joint Program Sponsorship page. 

Publications

Journal Article
Feinberg, A., M. Jiskra, P. Borrelli, J. Biswakarma and N.E. Selin (2024). Environmental Science and Technology, 58(7), 3246–3257 (doi: 10.1021/acs.est.3c07851)
Journal Article
Maji, P. and N.E. Selin (2024). Earth's Future, 12(1) (doi: 10.1029/2023EF003667)
Conference Proceedings Paper
Chen, Y., S.D. Eastham and N.E. Selin (2023). American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, GC21C-04

News + Media

Research Projects

People

Administration, Faculty
Joint Program; CGCS
Faculty
Aero-Astro; Joint Program
Collaborators, Alumni
Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment; Imperial College London, UK
Faculty
Center for Global Change Science; Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
Collaborators, Alumni
CGCS; Joint Program
Faculty
Sloan; Joint Program
Faculty
IDSS; Joint Program
Faculty
CGCS; Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences
Collaborators
Joint Program; Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences