Online survey analysis

Input received from all (so far) 248 stakeholders and all means utilized (online survey, interviews, workshops) comes from 18 countries and 37 cities. Almost all cities/countries have provided input to the online survey (red color in the map), given by 86 stakeholders.

The pressures on these 3 topics, which are the focus of SMURBS activities, are found important by all participants, with most replies deeming these pressures as ‘very important’. Other environmental pressures rated as important are climate change, noise pollution, waste management, water quality and management, energy consumption, land use change etc.

CHART-from th 86

From the 86 registrations in the online survey, the 75% is coming from Academia (36 people) and the public administration (28 people).

Their expertise is mostly on air quality, followed by urban growth and disasters.

The current status, assets and user needs representative of each city represented in the survey are registered and available upon request. Below, the main user needs per topic are highlighted.

The necessary to extremely necessary AQ parameters, which are of immediate need for estimation and dissemination are the: AQ-relevant exposure risk, AQ limit exceedances, concentrations of air pollutants, real-time information, the spatial resolution of model applications and the effectiveness of mitigation strategies.

DSS (incl. those for the assessment of the health impacts of air pollution) and early warning systems should be built and communicated further.

New pollutants, not (regularly) monitored should receive more attention: PM1, PM2.5, Black Carbon (BC), heavy metals, (non-regulated) PAHs, VOCs, aerosol size distribution, noise, environmental toxins and metal concentrations.

AQ surveillance should include: regular and automated monitoring, near real-time information and online aerosol chemistry.

Source discrimination was highlighted, i.e. stationary vs. mobile pollution sources, the fraction of diesel and biomass burning, the quantification of the particles emitted from olive core processing and the amount of air pollution produced from industrial activities.

Methods and parameters to assess the AQ health effects are proposed: limit exceedances, combinations of air pollutants, size distribution of particle number, ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species) measurements, the adverse health effects of human heat stress (human thermal comfort-discomfort) in combination with air pollution.

GIS databases for the existing health data in cities.

The necessary to extremely necessary urban growth parameters, which are of immediate need for estimation and dissemination are the: air quality, climate adaptation, suitable use of land and ecosystem protection.

Given that the planning decisions in most cities are based on land use data, two main land use data needs are mostly highlighted: better data quality and enrichment of geo-information layers with more data/information.

The use of EO for migration (combined with geospatial information) can cover the following needs: the provision of city services to the migrants (e.g. proximity to schools, transportation, sanitary aspects), to uphold the relevant policies and/or criteria, to assist decision makers.

The necessary to extremely necessary disaster parameters, which are of immediate need for estimation and dissemination are the: better data quality, high spatio-temporal resolution, enrichment of geo-information layers with more data/information, high quality and complete metadata.

DSS need to be employed not only in more cities, but also for more types of disasters. The same is valid for the city conformation to the existing disaster initiatives, such as UNISDR’s and the SENDAI framework.

Public awareness activities on the: AQ-relevant health issues, city participation in urban networks, citizen science and/or citizen observatories, city resilience to urban pressures, large European and global initiatives (e.g. GEO/GEOSS, Copernicus, SDGs, INSPIRE, FAIR) should be intensified.