Innovate UK A new integrated decision-making tool for urban health and policy evaluation QCumber-envHealth

Decision-making and planning in rapidly growing urban centres require integrated assessment tools to determine impacts on environmental exposure, health and well being and inequalities. However, there is a lack of practical tools of sufficient spatial detail with which to determine current and future integrated exposure and health risks and to evaluate public policy options. In particular, despite the increasing availability of data, environmental datasets are limited to a few urban monitoring sites and information rich health microdata usually have restricted access (for confidentiality reasons). Moreover, spatio-temporal risk models are required to link exposure and health data to health outcomes and hence determine changes in risk from different policy and planning options. The overall aim of this project is create an interactive data platform, for Glasgow as an example urban environment that integrates geographically specific environmental exposure and health data and modelling: "QCumber-envHealth" to be used to quantify environmental exposure and health risks under different policy scenarios.

This project brings together researchers from Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants (CERC), and from the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde. CERC has extensive experience in software development, modelling and analysing city data, including environmental exposure modelling and the innovative "QCumber" data platform. The Universities have extensive research expertise in environmental exposure, human health and inequalities, including comprehensive high density measurement capabilities, the development of novel synthetic data estimation techniques for information rich health microdata and spatio-temporal health risk modelling. Close engagement with identified end-users at Glasgow City Council, Transport Scotland, Future cities Glasgow, Health Protection Scotland and NHS Glasgow, will commence at the onset of the project and be maintained throughout.

The new "QCumber-envHealth" data platform will be customized by CERC to create a spatio-temporal database and interactive mapping tool for Glasgow integrating a wide range of existing and accessible datasets including health behaviour data available from the research team and linking with environmental modelling of air quality and noise (key innovation). Comprehensive measurements of air quality will be carried out to evaluate and improve existing Q-cumber exposure modelling capabilities with a focus on determining exposure along transport routes (key innovation). Key health micro datasets will be identified in collaboration with end users and synthesised (key innovation) for integration into the QCumber-envHealth platform. Health risk models will be developed for small area and micro data and integrated into QCumber-envHealth (key innovation). Working with end users, several relevant public policy scenarios associated with changing environmental (e.g. air or noise pollution, green space) or social (e.g. smoking prevalence, transport route) factors will be selected and health outcomes within the complex urban environment quantified (new innovation). The platform tool will be developed for use in Glasgow, but its methods and models will be fully transferable to other cities in the UK and worldwide. A commercialisation plan and timeline to market QCumber-envhealth to identified wider users across the UK: small authorities and larger local authorities, public bodies and commercial companies will be rolled out commencing with a dissemination workshop in the later stage of the project and presentations at national conferences e.g. Environmental Protection UK.

In summary, this project will combine leading research, innovative technological developments and insights from end users to deliver the new QCumber-envHealth platform for integrated exposure and health assessment to enable decision-making and planning in urban centres, fulfilling a longstanding market need.

The SME CERC leading the proposal will benefit directly through development of a market lead in a sophisticated spatiotemporal mapping and modelling platform to assess environmental exposure and health-risks, and the associated
commercial income stream. CERC foresee two broad categories in the market: (i) larger local authorities, public bodies and commercial companies making intensive use of the system; (ii) smaller authorities. Further income benefit would derive
from exploitation to the users identified above across the forty major metropolitan areas in the UK and ultimately the EU and global market.

The end-users at Glasgow City Council, Transport Scotland, Future cities Glasgow, Health Protection Scotland and NHS Glasgow will benefit from a product aimed at addressing their needs in terms of determining changes in environmental exposure and forecasting health risks and outcomes under public policy options such as the creation of a low emissions zone, local air quality management, incident reporting and management, and various pertinent health outcomes.

A wider range of UK policy makers and regulatory agencies with responsibilities in the areas of air quality, exposure to air pollutants and noise, human health and inequalities will directly benefit from a platform tool that enables decision making and planning in relation to health outcomes of policy measures. This includes Environmental Protection UK (EPUK), UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Communities and Local Government (CLG), the UK Department of Health (DH), Public Health England (PHE), and the Environment Agency (EA).

The general public will benefit through a tool that can be used for policy and planning assessment by regulatory and local authorities and decisions makers and greater awareness of the health risks associated with varied exposures. They will also benefit from a tool they can use as an individual for incident reporting or assessing exposure along alternate transport routes. Community groups would benefit from an interactive tool that provides information on exposure and health risk in their areas of interest/parts of the city where they reside, enabling informed conversations and aiding negotiations and decision making as a community body.