Development of a Quantitative Methodology to Assess the Impacts of Urban Transport Interventions and Related Noise on Well-Being

Matthias Braubach, Myriam Tobollik, Pierpaolo Mudu, Rosemary Hiscock, Dimitris Chapizanis, Denis A. Sarigiannis, Menno Keuken, Laura Perez and Marco Martuzzi
Additional contact information
Matthias Braubach: European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Myriam Tobollik: Federal Environment Agency, Section II 1.6 Exposure Assessment and Environmental Health Indicators, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Pierpaolo Mudu: European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Rosemary Hiscock: School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK
Dimitris Chapizanis: Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Environmental Engineering Laboratory, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Denis A. Sarigiannis: Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Environmental Engineering Laboratory, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Menno Keuken: Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands
Laura Perez: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstr. 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland
Marco Martuzzi: European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-23

Abstract: Well-being impact assessments of urban interventions are a difficult challenge, as there is no agreed methodology and scarce evidence on the relationship between environmental conditions and well-being. The European Union (EU) project “Urban Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in China and Europe” (URGENCHE) explored a methodological approach to assess traffic noise-related well-being impacts of transport interventions in three European cities (Basel, Rotterdam and Thessaloniki) linking modeled traffic noise reduction effects with survey data indicating noise-well-being associations. Local noise models showed a reduction of high traffic noise levels in all cities as a result of different urban interventions. Survey data indicated that perception of high noise levels was associated with lower probability of well-being. Connecting the local noise exposure profiles with the noise-well-being associations suggests that the urban transport interventions may have a marginal but positive effect on population well-being. This paper also provides insight into the methodological challenges of well-being assessments and highlights the range of limitations arising from the current lack of reliable evidence on environmental conditions and well-being. Due to these limitations, the results should be interpreted with caution.

Keywords: urban policies; climate change; mitigation; greenhouse gas; transport; noise; well-being; impact assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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