Urban Sprawl and Air Quality in European Cities: an Empirical Assessment

Federica Cappelli, Gianni Guastella and Stefano Pareglio

No 309920, FEEM Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)

Abstract: In this paper we estimate the relationship between urban sprawl and a measure of air quality, namely the number of days in which the PM10 concentration exceeds safeguard limits in European Union cities. Building on a multidimensional representation of sprawl, the paper employs several indicators to account for built-up area development, population density, and residential discontinuity. The paper employs generalised additive models to disentangle the non-linear effects in the variables and the interaction effects of the three sprawl dimensions. A significant and robust effect of urban morphology emerges after controlling for socio-economic, demographic, and climatic factors and the geographical location of the city. We find that urban sprawl impacts positively on pollutant concentration, but the effect is highly context-specific because of threshold effects and interactions.

Keywords: Community/Rural/Urban; Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21
Date: 2021-03-16
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https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/309920/files/ndl2021-007.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Urban Sprawl and Air Quality in European Cities: an Empirical Assessment (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:feemwp:309920

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.309920

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