Flexible Workflow for Determining Critical Hazard and Exposure Scenarios for Assessing SLODs Risk in Urban Built Environments

Juan Diego Blanco Cadena, Graziano Salvalai, Michele Lucesoli, Enrico Quagliarini and Marco D’Orazio
Additional contact information
Juan Diego Blanco Cadena: ABC Department, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
Graziano Salvalai: ABC Department, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
Michele Lucesoli: DICEA Department, Università Politecnica Delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Enrico Quagliarini: DICEA Department, Università Politecnica Delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Marco D’Orazio: DICEA Department, Università Politecnica Delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-20

Abstract: Urban Built Environments (UBE) are increasingly prone to SLow-Onset Disasters (SLODs) such as air pollution and heatwaves. The effectiveness of sustainable risk-mitigation solutions for the exposed individuals’ health should be defined by considering the effective scenarios in which emergency conditions can appear. Combining environmental (including climatic) conditions and exposed users’ presence and behaviors is a paramount task to support decision-makers in risk assessment. A clear definition of input scenarios and related critical conditions to be analyzed is needed, especially while applying simulation-based approaches. This work provides a methodology to fill this gap, based on hazard and exposure peaks identification. Quick and remote data-collection is adopted to speed up the process and promote the method application by low-trained specialists. Results firstly trace critical conditions by overlapping air pollution and heatwaves occurrence in the UBE. Exposure peaks (identified by remote analyses on the intended use of UBEs) are then merged to retrieve critical conditions due to the presence of the individuals over time and UBE spaces. The application to a significant case study (UBE in Milan, Italy) demonstrates the approach capabilities to identify key input scenarios for future human behavior simulation activities from a user-centered approach.

Keywords: air pollution; increasing temperature; heatwaves; pedestrians’ health; human exposure; urban built environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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