Mexican cities

In cities, traffic is one of the major determinants for air quality. Studies have shown that proximity to roadways with heavy traffic has been linked with increased incidence and prevalence of a range of health effects such as adverse birth outcomes, dementia, asthma, and increased risk of bronchitis, wheezing, deficits in lung function growth and airway inflammation, especially among children. In Mexico, 103 urban areas have air quality monitoring, whilst more than 2,000 cities lack any information and only 29 have monitoring systems that are robust enough to estimate exposure. This poses serious limitations for environmental and health authorities when aiming at assessing current exposure levels to Traffic-Related Air Pollution (TRAP) with the purpose of designing and implementing policies to reduce the impacts of poor air quality in the population. This study proposes an approach to estimate the population potentially exposed to TRAP using Space Syntax's accessibility index as the urban form variable. We selected the ten most accessible roads of the five Mexican cities to estimate the proportion of vulnerable population (residents, employees, schoolchildren, hospital patients) with the highest potential exposure to TRAP at a distance of 500 m. Our findings show a similar proportion of the population continually exposed to TRAP due to the proximity to roads with heavy traffic than studies using more complex models. Finally, this study presents alternatives to reduce current population exposure to traffic emissions in Mexican cities.

¿Cuándo y por qué cambian las ciudades? Entre una diversidad de razones que ayudan a responder estas preguntas, el libro explora las ideas, los valores, las aspiraciones y los proyectos de la élite, una de las vertientes más originales y explicativas para entender un fenómeno con el que nos enfrentamos todos los días en nuestras urbes. A lo largo de las páginas se exploran facetas de la ciudad que comprenden desde la urbe tangible hasta la que imaginan sus habitantes. Procurando una perspectiva latinoamericana, y aprovechando fuentes como la prensa, las fotografías y el análisis y reconstrucción de planos, el texto indaga sobre los actores y las razones del cambio para el caso de la ciudad de Aguascalientes de finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX: sigue los anhelos, necesidades, caprichos y posibilidades que impulsaron o detuvieron proyectos; profundiza en los servicios públicos y la infraestructura material -los emblemas del proyecto porfiriano de modernización urbana-; reflexiona, finalmente, sobre la ciudad que existía en 1880, la que se construyó en las siguientes décadas, la que se quiso construir, y la que se legó como base de la ciudad actual.

In cities, traffic is one of the major determinants for air quality. Studies have shown that proximity to roadways with heavy traffic has been linked with increased incidence and prevalence of a range of health effects such as adverse birth outcomes, dementia, asthma, and increased risk of bronchitis, wheezing, deficits in lung function growth and airway inflammation, especially among children. In Mexico, 103 urban areas have air quality monitoring, whilst more than 2,000 cities lack any information and only 29 have monitoring systems that are robust enough to estimate exposure. This poses serious limitations for environmental and health authorities when aiming at assessing current exposure levels to Traffic-Related Air Pollution (TRAP) with the purpose of designing and implementing policies to reduce the impacts of poor air quality in the population. This study proposes an approach to estimate the population potentially exposed to TRAP using Space Syntax’s accessibility index as th...

In cities, traffic is one of the major determinants for air quality. Studies have shown that proximity to roadways with heavy traffic has been linked with increased incidence and prevalence of a range of health effects such as adverse birth outcomes, dementia, asthma, and increased risk of bronchitis, wheezing, deficits in lung function growth and airway inflammation, especially among children. In Mexico, 103 urban areas have air quality monitoring, whilst more than 2,000 cities lack any information and only 29 have monitoring systems that are robust enough to estimate exposure. This poses serious limitations for environmental and health authorities when aiming at assessing current exposure levels to Traffic-Related Air Pollution (TRAP) with the purpose of designing and implementing policies to reduce the impacts of poor air quality in the population. This study proposes an approach to estimate the population potentially exposed to TRAP using Space Syntax’s accessibility index as th...

In cities, traffic is one of the major determinants for air quality. Studies have shown that proximity to roadways with heavy traffic has been linked with increased incidence and prevalence of a range of health effects such as adverse birth outcomes, dementia, asthma, and increased risk of bronchitis, wheezing, deficits in lung function growth and airway inflammation, especially among children. In Mexico, 103 urban areas have air quality monitoring, whilst more than 2,000 cities lack any information and only 29 have monitoring systems that are robust enough to estimate exposure. This poses serious limitations for environmental and health authorities when aiming at assessing current exposure levels to Traffic-Related Air Pollution (TRAP) with the purpose of designing and implementing policies to reduce the impacts of poor air quality in the population. This study proposes an approach to estimate the population potentially exposed to TRAP using Space Syntax’s accessibility index as th...