In urban areas, human exposure to environmental pollution is a major concern for health and well-being. It is yet unclear which existing pollution is actually perceived by the residents. This study ...contributes to a combined analysis of measured and perceived environmental pressures. Based on a high-resolution land cover mapping using the object-based image approach, urban structural information is obtained. Then, a heterogeneous urban district is selected for in-depth investigation to find out if there is a correlation between building structures and exposition. The environmental pressures on urban dwellers are investigated here on a refined scale with mobile measurements and accompanied by walking interviews. Measurements on noise, PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and high air temperatures are taken twice a day to monitor potential differences between the early morning and the afternoon situations and how big these might be. The results give a multifaceted picture of the measured and perceived influences. Noise is simply accepted by most interlocutors, as traffic is seen as a fact of life. The perception of measured air temperature varies greatly between pleasant and burdensome, where more stressful situations seem to occur in linear housing and some family homes with either little green infrastructure or a monotonous pattern of large meadows. Most strikingly are the measured PM ranges, where PM 2.5 can reach very high values, twice that of PM 10 . Although PM 2.5 severely affects the respiratory system, there is little awareness of these effects. Raising environmental awareness is crucial for environmental health and connects researchers and planners.
The present paper gives an overview of the GeomInt project “Geomechanical integrity of host and barrier rocks—experiment, modelling and analysis of discontinuities” which has been conducted from ...2017–2020 within the framework of the “Geo:N Geosciences for Sustainability” program. The research concept of the collaborative project is briefly introduced followed by a summary of the most important outcomes. The research concept puts geological discontinuities into the centre of investigations—as these belong to the most interesting and critical elements for any subsurface utilisation. Thus, while research questions are specific, they bear relevance to a wide range of applications. The specific research is thus integrated into a generic concept in order to make the results more generally applicable and transferable. The generic part includes a variety of conceptual approaches and their numerical realisations for describing the evolution of discontinuities in the most important types of barrier rocks. An explicit validation concept for the generic framework was developed and realised by specific “model-experiment-exercises” (MEX) which combined experiments and models in a systematic way from the very beginning. 16 MEX have been developed which cover a wide range of fundamental fracturing mechanisms, i.e. swelling/shrinkage, fluid percolation, and stress redistribution processes. The progress in model development is also demonstrated by field-scale applications, e.g. in the analysis and design of experiments in underground research laboratories in Opalinus Clay (URL Mont Terri, Switzerland) and salt rock (research mine Springen, Germany).
To achieve more realistic simulations, meteorologists develop and use models with increasing spatial and temporal resolution. The analyzing, comparing, and visualizing of resulting simulations ...becomes more and more challenging due to the growing amounts and multifaceted character of the data. Various data sources, numerous variables and multiple simulations lead to a complex database. Although a variety of software exists suited for the visualization of meteorological data, none of them fulfills all of the typical domain-specific requirements: support for quasi-standard data formats and different grid types, standard visualization techniques for scalar and vector data, visualization of the context (e.g., topography) and other static data, support for multiple presentation devices used in modern sciences (e.g., virtual reality), a user-friendly interface, and suitability for cooperative work.
Instead of attempting to develop yet another new visualization system to fulfill all possible needs in this application domain, our approach is to provide a flexible workflow that combines different existing state-of-the-art visualization software components in order to hide the complexity of 3D data visualization tools from the end user. To complete the workflow and to enable the domain scientists to interactively visualize their data without advanced skills in 3D visualization systems, we developed a lightweight custom visualization application (MEVA - multifaceted environmental data visualization application) that supports the most relevant visualization and interaction techniques and can be easily deployed. Specifically, our workflow combines a variety of different data abstraction methods provided by a state-of-the-art 3D visualization application with the interaction and presentation features of a computer-games engine. Our customized application includes solutions for the analysis of multirun data, specifically with respect to data uncertainty and differences between simulation runs. In an iterative development process, our easy-to-use application was developed in close cooperation with meteorologists and visualization experts. The usability of the application has been validated with user tests. We report on how this application supports the users to prove and disprove existing hypotheses and discover new insights. In addition, the application has been used at public events to communicate research results.
Climate change and the high proportion of private motorised transport leads to a high exposure of the urban population to environmental stressors such as particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, noise, ...and heat. The few fixed measuring stations for these stressors do not provide information on how they are distributed throughout the urban area and what influence the local urban structure has on hot and cold spots of pollution. In the measurement campaign “UmweltTracker” with 95 participants (cyclists, pedestrians), data on the stressors were collected
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mobile sensors. The aim was to design and implement an application to analyse the heterogeneous data sets. In this paper we present a prototype of a visualisation and analysis application based on the Unity Game Engine, which allowed us to explore and analyse the collected data sets and to present them on a PC as well as in a VR environment. With the application we were able to show the influence of local urban structures as well as the impact of the time of day on the measured values. With the help of the application, outliers could be identified and the underlying causes could be investigated. The application was used in analysis sessions as well as a workshop with stakeholders.
In this opinion paper, we, a group of scientists from environmental-, geo-, ocean- and information science, argue visual data exploration should become a common analytics approach in Earth system ...science due to its potential for analysis and interpretation of large and complex spatio-temporal data. We discuss the challenges that appear such as synthesis of heterogeneous data from various sources, reducing the amount of information and facilitating multidisciplinary, collaborative research. We argue that to fully exploit the potential of visual data exploration, several bottlenecks and challenges have to be addressed: providing an efficient data management and an integrated modular workflow, developing and applying suitable visual exploration concepts and methods with the help of effective and tailored tools as well as generating and raising the awareness of visual data exploration and education. We are convinced visual data exploration is worth the effort since it significantly facilitates insight into environmental data and derivation of knowledge from it.
•We evaluate potential tensions between the Ecosystem Service of regulating the micro climate and urban densification.•Our findings show that the regulation of the urban micro-climate and the ...creation of dense urban structures can co-exist.•Smart urban planning approaches can lead to cool and compact urban areas.•ENVI-met modeling and virtual reality display system visualization help to assess the complexity between cool and compact.
While research has demonstrated that brownfield sites and vacant lots in inner-city areas have a cooling effect on the micro climate, less is known about how this effect changes during the redevelopment of a brownfield. It is often argued that redevelopment will lead to a loss of cooling effects. The connection between cool and compact cities is especially of interest as brownfield redevelopment is an important element of sustainable urban development strategies such as the dense city. We evaluate potential tensions between the Ecosystem Service of regulating the micro climate and urban densification processes using an empirical example, the case of the brownfield redevelopment of Bayerischer Bahnhof in Leipzig, Germany. We apply ENVI-met modeling and a virtual reality display system visualization to assess the complex connections between cool and compact cities. Our findings demonstrate that a co-existence between regulating the urban micro-climate and dense urban structures is possible. Smart urban planning approaches can, if properly implemented, reduce the so called “paradox of the compact city” and lead to cool and compact urban areas. Through ENVI-met modeling and virtual reality display system visualization, the complex connections between cool and compact could be assessed.
In the future, climate change will strongly influence our environment and living conditions. Weather and Climate simulations that predict possible changes produce big data sets. The combination of ...various variables of climate models with spatial data from different sources helps to identify correlations and to study key processes. In this paper, the results of the Weather Research and Forecasting model are visualized for two regions. For this purpose, a continuous workflow that leads from the integration of heterogeneous raw data to 3D visualizations that can be displayed on a desktop computer or in an interactive virtual reality environment is developed. These easy-to-understand visualizations of complex data are the basis for scientific communication and for the evaluation and verification of models as well as for interdisciplinary discussions of the research results.
Environmental stressors such as particulate matter, noise, and heat can cause severe health issues. Cyclists and pedestrians in urban areas are exposed to environmental stressors on their everyday ...routes through the city. While these stressors have been monitored by measurement stations in the past, the use of wearable sensors is becoming more popular. Wearable sensors allow measurements with high spatiotemporal resolution and can be used to track individuals' exposure while they are moving.
In a field experiment (final N = 109), we applied Protection Motivation Theory (Rogers, 1975) to test the effects of wearable sensors and receiving feedback on exposure levels of particulate matter, noise, and heat in the city of Leipzig in Germany. Participants in the intervention group used the sensors on their everyday routes through the city for three days while the control group did not use the sensors.
Wearing the sensors and receiving feedback about exposure levels significantly increased participants' perception of particulate matter as a health threat. While there were no direct effects of the intervention on intentions to choose less polluted routes, participants with low routing habits were motivated to protect themselves from environmental stressors after using the sensor. Participants' motivation to take part in collective action for a less polluted city decreased, unless they were highly identified with the group of cyclists.
The experiment shows that wearable sensors and feedback on environmental stressors can lead to stronger threat perceptions. However, to motivate healthier route choices, this technology should offer alternative routing suggestions to elevate the user’s capacity to cope with the health threat.
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•Portable sensors were used to measure air pollution (PM), noise and heat in city traffic.•Feedback on environmental stressors increases threat perceptions for cyclists and pedestrians.•The wearables changed protection behavior intentions for participants with low routing habits.
Global population growth, urbanization, and climate change worsen the immediate environment of many individuals. Elevated concentrations of air pollutants, higher levels of acoustic noise, and more ...heat days, as well as increasingly complex mixtures of pollutants pose health risks for urban inhabitants. There is a growing awareness of the need to record personal environmental conditions (“the human exposome”) and to study options and implications of adaptive and protective behavior of individuals. The vast progress in smart technologies created wearable sensors that record environmental as well as spatio-temporal data while accompanying a person. Wearable sensing has two aspects: firstly, the exposure of an individual is recorded, and secondly, individuals act as explorers of the urban area. A literature review was undertaken using scientific literature databases with the objective to illustrate the state-of-the-art of person-based environmental sensing in urban settings. We give an overview of the study designs, highlight and compare limitations as well as results, and present the results of a keyword analysis. We identify current trends in the field, suggest possible future advancements, and lay out take-home messages for the readers. There is a trend towards studies that involve various environmental parameters and it is becoming increasingly important to identify and quantify the influence of various conditions (e.g., weather, urban structure, travel mode) on people’s exposure.
Feedback on personal exposure to air pollution, noise or extreme temperatures through wearable sensors or sensors installed at home or in the workplace can offer information that might motivate ...behaviours to mitigate exposure. As personal measurement devices are becoming increasingly accessible, it is important to evaluate the effects of such sensors on human perception and behaviour. We conducted a systematic literature research and identified 33 studies, analysing the effects of personal feedback on air pollution, noise and temperatures. Feedback was given through reports including different forms of visualization, in-person or over the telephone, or directly on the sensor or through a phone app. The exposure feedback led to behaviour changes particularly for noise and temperature feedback while findings on behaviour adaptation to avoid air pollution were mixed. Most studies reported increased awareness and knowledge from receiving exposure feedback. Many participants in studies on air pollution reported low levels of self-efficacy regarding exposure mitigation. For a better understanding of the effects of personal exposure feedback, more studies are required, particularly providing feedback from wearable sensors measuring outdoor air pollution, noise and temperature.
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