ASTRID - Accessibility, Social justice and TRansport emission Impacts of transit-oriented Development strategies
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Surrey
Department Name: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Abstract
The growth and prosperity of cities and urban areas is propelled by advantages of agglomeration. These advantages however are not equally experienced by all members of the population, moreover the distribution is often not socially justified, as the groups that benefit from the higher density and better connections are not the same who experience the burdens such as congestion and poor air quality. This is a globally recurring issue, despite considerable differences between urban areas worldwide in terms of economic context, spatial planning and infrastructure provision. This research, within the call's theme of social justice and the policy domain of infrastructure and built environment, will investigate physical and socio-economic processes that underlie the uneven distribution of urban outcomes. An international comparison of metropolitan areas in the UK, Netherlands and Brazil will take place to both identify universal drivers towards unjust outcomes and specific circumstances that can reduce or enhance existing social differences. In particular, the project will investigate the specific urban planning strategy of transit-oriented development (TOD) and its potential for delivering more equitable outcomes. This will be achieved through an international survey into job accessibility, population preferences and affordability in relation to transport and housing options; a dedicated measuring campaign targeting in-vehicle exposure to transport pollutants and advanced statistical and geographical information analysis. There are currently ambitious plans for TOD in São Paulo and the project will engage with stakeholders to target actual issues and allow the research to have a direct impact on social justice in São Paulo.
Planned Impact
The scientific dissemination of results is primarily through national and international conferences and journal publications. The journals that we target are Q1 journals, i.e. journals within the first quartile within their discipline when ranked according to impact factor by the ISI Web of Knowledge. We are planning two multi-authored papers associated with each of work package 2, 3 and 4. Further to this we plan one integrative paper covering all aspects of the international comparison and one integrative paper focusing on the analysis of TOD policies in São Paulo.
Each partner is expected to present result and gain feedback in at least one national and one international conference within the appropriate discipline per year.
Our main target group for valorisation is the Municipality of Sao Paulo. Stakeholder workshop are specifically designed and planned to address this stakeholder. We will present and discuss ideas and progress in a workshop format. Most importantly we allow this collaboration to co-define planning and policy scenarios to analyse, and details of the study design that optimize impact and relevance for stakeholders. Besides our designated liaison at municipality we will also target a wider audience of planners, city-managers and further stakeholders in São Paulo.
We consider the project to be of considerable interest to our networks in Europe as well, however we decided to focus the stakeholder engagement on São Paulo because it was felt that extending this effort to the UK and Netherlands would diffuse our efforts and put ambitions of integration at risk. Nevertheless, we do see great value in the international comparison of the mechanisms that underlie social justice of in urban areas, and recognize the São Paulo application as a demonstrator. We will communicate this through our existing channels - such as seminars, workshops and outreach events - and support these exchanges through the development of presentation materials, "Lessons Learned" fact-sheet and posters. Through these, the ASTRID project can be a stepping stone for more locally targeted initiatives in the UK and Netherlands, and beyond. The development of such initiatives will be supported by the specialized valorisation/business development teams at our universities.
We will raise awareness and garner intellectual support for this project within our universities through seminars, student projects and integration in the curriculum.
Each partner is expected to present result and gain feedback in at least one national and one international conference within the appropriate discipline per year.
Our main target group for valorisation is the Municipality of Sao Paulo. Stakeholder workshop are specifically designed and planned to address this stakeholder. We will present and discuss ideas and progress in a workshop format. Most importantly we allow this collaboration to co-define planning and policy scenarios to analyse, and details of the study design that optimize impact and relevance for stakeholders. Besides our designated liaison at municipality we will also target a wider audience of planners, city-managers and further stakeholders in São Paulo.
We consider the project to be of considerable interest to our networks in Europe as well, however we decided to focus the stakeholder engagement on São Paulo because it was felt that extending this effort to the UK and Netherlands would diffuse our efforts and put ambitions of integration at risk. Nevertheless, we do see great value in the international comparison of the mechanisms that underlie social justice of in urban areas, and recognize the São Paulo application as a demonstrator. We will communicate this through our existing channels - such as seminars, workshops and outreach events - and support these exchanges through the development of presentation materials, "Lessons Learned" fact-sheet and posters. Through these, the ASTRID project can be a stepping stone for more locally targeted initiatives in the UK and Netherlands, and beyond. The development of such initiatives will be supported by the specialized valorisation/business development teams at our universities.
We will raise awareness and garner intellectual support for this project within our universities through seminars, student projects and integration in the curriculum.
Organisations
Publications
Andrade M
(2017)
Air quality in the megacity of São Paulo: Evolution over the last 30 years and future perspectives
in Atmospheric Environment
Brand V
(2019)
Impact of route choice and period of the day on cyclists' exposure to black carbon in London, Rotterdam and São Paulo
in Journal of Transport Geography
Jiang L
(2021)
Equity in job accessibility and environmental quality in a segmented housing market: The case of Greater London
in Journal of Transport Geography
Kumar P
(2016)
New directions: From biofuels to wood stoves: The modern and ancient air quality challenges in the megacity of São Paulo
in Atmospheric Environment
Pritchard J
(2021)
Satisfaction with travel, ideal commuting, and accessibility to employment
in Journal of Transport and Land Use
Rivas I
(2017)
Exposure to air pollutants during commuting in London: Are there inequalities among different socio-economic groups?
in Environment international
Rivas I
(2017)
Determinants of black carbon, particle mass and number concentrations in London transport microenvironments
in Atmospheric Environment
Rivas, I
Determinants of black carbon, particle mass and number concentrations in London transport microenvironments
in (under review)
| Description | The ASTRID project intended to investigate the causal mechanisms underlying disparity and social injustice in job accessibility and air quality in metropolitan areas, and the potential of transit-oriented development to promote social justice. This was an internationally funded collaboration in which ESRC funded the work of the UK partner (University of Surrey), other partners are in the Netherlands and São Paulo. Together we have important achievements in these areas. The other partners work at different timescales and their project, and our collaboration, continued after the UK component finished. Our first objective was to increase the understanding in inequalities in job accessibility, exposure to transport emissions and potential health effects, and housing and land markets. We have achieved this through a targeted personal exposure measuring campaign and analysis in London that was later mirrored in the Netherlands and São Paulo. The analysis of key pollutants in different transport microenvironments highlighted stark differences within and between transport modes. In the routes selected commuting routes that we sampled in London we found that the transport mode used had a more pronounced effect than the geographical location. Hence, the most fragrant concern of environmental justice encountered in the study were the elevated exposure levels in buses compared to cars, that are not commensurate with the pollution caused by individual travellers. We investigated the perceptions and experience of job accessibility, air quality, and housing through an extensive online social survey (N=1400), that had parallel counterparts in the Netherlands (the Randstad area) and São Paulo. The survey gives unprecedented insight in different dimensions of inequality in metropolitan areas. The papers analysing survey results are in progress with our international partners. The University of Surrey lead on the housing component of the questionnaire, which focused on the perception of residents of different qualities of their housing - accounting for aspects of the physical housing, as well as it social and natural environment. Differences in perceived quality are compared by socio-economic groups for each country separately. The further comparison of results by country gives insight in aspects of inequality and distribution. It is found that some aspects of housing quality reflect social differences in all three study areas, in particular job accessibility, where geographical differences are inherent to the functioning of cities. Other aspects of housing quality, are not uniformly correlated with social differences, e.g. access to parks and grocery shops is independent of income in the Randstad and London but has a strong correlation in São Paulo. Thus, the study not only gives insight in which housing qualities are equally or unequally enjoyed, but through international comparison also to what extent such inequality is inherent to metropolitan areas. The project's second objective was to examine systematic dependencies between social justice in metropolitan regions and aspects of their infrastructure and built environment. For this objective we developed a statistical model of the London housing market, with the express intent of understanding whether and how the market is stratified into submarkets by price-band and how different aspects of the infrastructure and built environment services differ in cost and availability over the submarket by price-band. This work has been submitted to a journal and is currently under review. The third objective is to exchange knowledge and create a learning process with São Paulo stakeholders targeted towards spatial planning and transport policy strategies that promote social justice. We have collaborated with the municipality of São Paulo to organize a series of three workshops, all in São Paulo. An opening workshop with strong contributions from transport planners and providers, as well as urban planners and city managers. A second international workshop focused on academic presentations at the intersection of accessibility, air quality and social justice. And a third workshop at São Paulo Town Hall presenting and discussing project findings. It became clear from the first workshop that the stakeholders were primarily interested in evidence and understanding of the existing urban system including aspects of social justice, and use this evidence to inform their own solutions. |
| Exploitation Route | The social survey based analysis can be taken forward by city and transport planners. It gives insight in multiple dimensions of residents satisfaction with their home and urban environment. The international comparison can help setting ambitions and standards in people and social justice centered urban planning. Practically planners can chose to repeat parts of the survey to evaluate trends over time and promote evidence based planning. The detailed analysis of personal exposure in different transport environments, as well as the identification of underlying determinants can be taken further by the wider, systematic and continuous measurement of personal exposure in public transport environments. |
| Sectors | Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Transport |
| URL | http://www.astridproject.com |
| Description | Findings from our study of exposure to pollution of commuters in London have been widely reported in the national media. We expect that these news publications have led to a greater awareness and understanding of issues of air quality in urban areas in general. More in particular, the news publications have clearly conveyed the dimension of social justice and clarified that the groups generating most of the emissions are not those who are most exposed to the emissions. One of the project objectives was to exchange knowledge and create a learning process with São Paulo stakeholders targeted towards spatial planning and transport policy strategies that promote social justice. We have collaborated with the municipality of São Paulo to organize a series of three workshops, all in São Paulo. The first workshop was at the beginning of the project with strong contributions from transport planners and providers, as well as urban planners and city managers. A second international workshop focused on academic presentations at the intersection of accessibility, air quality and social justice. And a third workshop at São Paulo Town Hall presenting and discussing project findings. It became clear from the first workshop that the stakeholders were primarily interested in evidence and understanding of the existing urban system including aspects of social justice, and use this evidence as well as the international comparison to inform their own solutions. |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Title | London survey results on housing, job accessibility and air quality |
| Description | This database consists of the questions and recorded answers of the online survey (N=1400) undertaken as part of the project. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This data is underlying our analysis and international comparison of inequality in housing qualities along multiple dimensions. |
| URL | http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/dvh3cdrmmh.1 |
| Description | Press release - First paper |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | We issued a press release following the publication of "Exposure to air pollutants during commuting in London: are there inequalities among different socio-economic groups?" in "Environment International". This release has been widely picked up and Dr Kumar has been interviewed by various media. Reporting media include: London Evening Standard, BBC News (online), the Times. Comment section on news sites indicate that there is, passionate, public interest in these finding. Besides these outlets aimed at the general public, we have also seen further discussion and reporting in a variety of expert and special interest blogs, ranging from cancer research to energy policy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38969190 |
| Description | Stakeholder meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We organized and held workshop with stakeholders in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The stakeholders were representatives of organisations involved in air quality, transport and spatial planning in the municipality of Sao Paulo. The most significant output of the meeting is that the research team now has a greater awareness of local/regional issues and priorities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.astridproject.com/astrid-stakeholder-meeting/ |