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

Federica Cappelli, Gianni Guastella and Stefano Pareglio

No 2021.07, Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

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: Air Pollution; Urban Sprawl; European Cities; Additive Models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 Q53 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-eur and nep-ure
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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:fem:femwpa:2021.07

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