Environment

Ambient Nitrogen Dioxide in 47 187 Neighbourhoods Across 326 cities in Eight Latin American Countries: Population Exposures and Associations with Urban Features

Kephart, JL
Gouveia, N
Daniel Rodriguez
Indvik, K
Alfaro, T
Texcalac-Sangrador, JL
Miranda, J
Usama, B
Roux, AV Diez
2023

Health research on ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is sparse in Latin America, despite the high prevalence of NO2-associated respiratory diseases in the region. This study describes within-city distributions of ambient NO2 concentrations at high spatial resolution and urban characteristics associated with neighbourhood ambient NO2 in 326 Latin American cities. We aggregated estimates of annual surface NO2 at 1 km2 spatial...

Associations Between Urban Greenspace and Depressive Symptoms in Mexico's Cities Using Different Greenspace Metrics

Bakhtsiyarava, M
Ju, Y
Moran, M
Daniel Rodriguez
Dronova, I
Delclòs-Alió, X
Moore, K
Castillo-Riquelme, M
Anza-Ramirez, C
2024

Greenspace has been shown to be positively associated with mental wellbeing, but studies from the global South have been scarce. We advance the understanding of the relationship between greenspace and depressive symptoms by using multiple clearly defined metrics describing neighborhood greenness and urban parks in an understudied region with rapid urban growth.

Can Electric Vehicle Carsharing Bridge the Green Divide? A Study of BlueLA’s Environmental Impacts among Underserved Communities and the Broader Population

Yassine, Ziad
Martin, Elliot W.
Susan Shaheen
2024

This study aims to evaluate the potential of electric vehicle (EV) carsharing services to address social and environmental disparities in urban transportation through an evaluation of BlueLA, a one-way station-based carsharing service in Los Angeles, California. BlueLA provides a clean and affordable mobility option in underserved communities that face significant air quality burdens and have historically been excluded from environmental benefits. By incorporating BlueLA trip activity data from January 2021 to December 2022 (n = 59,112 trips) and an online user survey implemented in early...

Short-term Associations Between Fine Particulate Air Pollution and Cardiovascular and Respiratory Mortality in 337 Cities in Latin America

Gouveia, N
Rodriguez-Hernandez, JL
Kephart, JL
Ortigoza, A
Daniel Rodriguez
Betancourt , RM
Sangrador, JL
Roux, AV Diez
Sánchez, BN
Yamada, G
The SALURBAL Group
2024
Ambient air pollution is a health concern in Latin America given its large urban population exposed to levels above recommended guidelines. Yet no studies have examined the mortality impact of...

Temperature-Related Mortality in Nine Latin American Countries Under Climate Change and Population Scenarios

Kephart, JL
Bakhtsiyarava, M
Sanchez,BN
Arunachalam, S
Mandavilli, R
Gouveia, N
Dronova, I
Schinasi, L
Bilal, U
Caiaffa, W
Jaffe, A
Daniel Rodriguez
Roux, AV Diez
2024

Climate change and an aging population are converging challenges rapidly accelerating the risk of extreme temperatures for older adults in Latin America. Older adults are especially vulnerable to health impacts from extreme temperatures and in Latin America the proportion of adults aged 65+ years is expected to double by 2050. However, existing projections of temperature-related mortality in Latin America do not incorporate expected population aging, likely severely underestimating future deaths. We estimated temperature-related deaths from 2045-2054 in all cities in nine Latin...

A Comparison of Heat Effects on Road Injury Frequency Between Active Travelers and Motorized Transportation Users in Six Tropical and Subtropical Cities in Taiwan

Hsu, CK
Daniel Rodriguez
2024
Road traffic injuries (RTIs) pose significant public health threats, particularly for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. While recent studies have revealed adverse impacts of heat exposure on RTI frequency among motorized road users, a research gap persists in understanding these impacts on non-motorized road users, especially in tropical regions where their vulnerability can be heightened due to differential thermal exposure, adaptive capacity, and biological sensitivity. In this study, we compared associations between high temperatures and RTIs across four different...

Behavioral and Sociodemographic Impacts of Carsharing

Susan Shaheen
Pan, Alexandra
2024

The growth of carsharing in North America since the service was first introduced in 1994 has had notable impacts on travel behaviour, including vehicle ownership and modal shift. Existing forms of carsharing (e.g., roundtrip, one-way, and peer-to-peer) alter the conventional cost structure of driving from one of fixed cost to variable cost. Multiple studies have shown that overall, carsharing users increase public transit and non-motorized modal use, with some users also selling their vehicle or postponing future vehicle purchases as a result of being a carsharing member. These modal...

Projected Changes in Heatwaves Over Central and South America Using High-Resolution Regional Climate Simulations

Ramarao, MVS
Arunachalam, S
Sánchez, BN
Schinasi, LH
Daniel Rodriguez
Dronova, I
O'Neill, MS
Avila-Palencia, I
Gouveia, N
Ju, Y
Kephart, J
2024

Heatwaves (HWs) pose a severe threat to human and ecological systems. Here we assess the projected changes in heatwaves over Latin America using bias corrected high-resolution regional climate simulations under two Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios (RCPs). Heatwaves are projected to be more frequent, long-lasting, and intense in the mid-century under both RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios, with severe increases under the RCP8.5 scenario. Even under the low emissions scenario of RCP2.6, the frequency of heatwaves doubles over most of the region. A three- to tenfold rise in population...

Potential Drivers of Urban Green Space Availability in Latin American Cities

Bakhtsiyarava, M
Moran, M
Ju, Y
Zhou, Y
Daniel Rodriguez
Dronova, I
de Pina, M
de Matos, V
Skaba, D
2024

Urban green spaces play a critical role in regulating air temperature, reducing air pollution and enhancing people’s well being. Yet, existing data and research on potential drivers of urban green space availability in Latin America are limited. Here, focusing on 371 large cities in 11 countries in Latin America, we described the total and per capita variability of urban green space, its spatial configuration and green urban parks across the categories of cities’ natural, built and socioeconomic environments. We tested the relative importance of geographic (climate) versus city-level...

The Dynamics of the California Electric Grid Mix and Electric Vehicle Emission Factors

Zhang, Xingrui
Martin, Elliot
Susan Shaheen
2025

Electric vehicle (EV) emissions occur when a vehicle is charged and are based on the mix of power sources used during that period. The rapid growth of solar and wind energy has introduced a high degree of variability in the emissions of the grid for both diurnal and annual periodicities. Growth in solar energy has been particularly prominent in California. Using grid mix data spanning April 2018 to April 2023 from the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and power source emission factors, we evaluate the grid mix at 5 min intervals and estimate the emission factors based on the...