Improving Air Quality in Scotland's Cities
Poor environmental air quality has profound negative impact on human health. The Statistics and Data Analytics group has an integrated thematic approach to the statistical modelling of air and water environmental data. The statistical emulator for the complex urban air quality model (ADMS) has enabled SEPA to quantify the compliance failure risk to national and international air quality regulations under different emission and transport scenarios. Scotland’s National Modelling Framework incorporated this emulator in the design, development and evaluation of low emission zones (LEZ) in Scottish cities, the first of which came into effect in Glasgow in December 2018. Statistical modelling by the Statistics and Data Analytics group is also changing governmental policy through its public health evaluability assessment of the LEZ’s.
Researchers
- Prof Duncan P Lee
- Prof E Marian Scott
- Dr Craig Anderson
- Dr Eilidh Jack
- Dr Gary Napier
Publications
- Quantifying the impact of the modifiable areal unit problem when estimating the health effects of air pollution. Envorinmetrics, 31 (8), (2020).
- A statistical emulator for multivariate model outputs with missing values. Atmospheric Environment, 199, (2019).
- Estimating the health impact of air pollution in Scotland, and the resulting benefits of reducing concentrations in city centres. Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Epidemiology, 29, (2019).
- Multivariate space-time modelling of multiple air pollutants and their health effects accounting for exposure uncertainty. Statistics in Medicine, 37 (7), (2018).
- A model based framework for air quality indices and population risk evaluation, with an application to the analysis of Scottish air quality data. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C, 62 (2), (2013).
- Cardiovascular disease and air pollution in Scotland: no association or insufficient data and study design? BMC Public Health, 12, (2012).
- Constructing representative air quality indicators with measures of uncertainty. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, (2011).
Grants
- EPSRC SECURE network grant EP/M008347/1
- Scottish Government - Development of a High Spatial Resolution Air Quality Indicator for Scotland (2018)