Influence of Road Patterns on PM 2.5 Concentrations and the Available Solutions: The Case of Beijing City, China

Fang Wang, Yaoyao Peng and Chunyan Jiang
Additional contact information
Fang Wang: Sino-German Joint Laboratory on Urbanization and Locality Research (UAL), College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yaoyao Peng: Sino-German Joint Laboratory on Urbanization and Locality Research (UAL), College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Chunyan Jiang: Sino-German Joint Laboratory on Urbanization and Locality Research (UAL), College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: With the increase in urbanization and energy consumption, PM 2.5 has become a major pollutant. This paper investigates the impact of road patterns on PM 2.5 pollution in Beijing, focusing on two questions: Do road patterns significantly affect PM 2.5 concentrations? How do road patterns affect PM 2.5 concentrations? A land-use regression model (LUR model) is used to quantify the associations between PM 2.5 concentrations, and road patterns, land-use patterns, and population density. Then, in the condition of excluding other factors closely correlated to PM 2.5 concentrations, based on the results of the regression model, further research is conducted to explore the relationship between PM 2.5 concentrations and the types, densities, and layouts of road networks, through the controlling variables method. The results are as follows: (1) the regression coefficient of road patterns is significantly higher than the water area, population density, and transport facilities, indicating that road patterns have an obvious influence on PM 2.5 concentrations; (2) under the same traffic carrying capacity, the layout of “a tight network of streets and small blocks” is superior to that of “a sparse network of streets and big blocks”; (3) the grade proportion of urban roads impacts the road patterns’ rationality, and a high percentage of branch roads and secondary roads could decrease PM 2.5 concentrations. These findings could provide a reference for the improvement of the traffic structure and air quality of Beijing.

Keywords: road patterns; land-use; air pollution; sustainable city; LUR model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/2/217/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/2/217/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:2:p:217-:d:89504

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().