Polluted air was responsible in 2015 for 6·4 million deaths worldwide. Can walking or cycling in polluted cities negate the health benefits of exercise by increasing exposure to airborne pollutants? This systematic review in The Lancet Public Health by Magda Cepeda and colleagues provides a clear answer to this question: it compares exposure to carbon monoxide, black carbon, nitrogen dioxide, and fine and coarse particles between commuters using active and motorised transport. The study provides important insights to support target SDG 3.9 to substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air.
Elsevier,
Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, Volume 72, November 2016, Pages 1-9.
Contributing to SDGs 9 (Industry, Innovation and infrastructure) and 10 (Reduced Inequalities), this Elsevier Atlas Award winning article explores automated vehicle technology and it's potential to increase mobility from the non-driving and senior populations and people with travel-restrictive medical conditions.
Winner of the Elsevier Atlas Award in November 2016, this paper critically examines the potential of mobile phone data for managing and responding to humanitarian disasters caused by communicable disease outbreaks, contributing to SDGs 3 and 9.
The energy performance of buildings draw on a large body of operational data. Applying analytical tools, such as data mining technologies, enables high volumes of data to be examined and applied to be able to make improvements in energy performance. This paper highlights recent advances in the two main data mining tasks in the building field and clearly shows interconnectedness between SDG 11 Sustainable cities and communities and SDG 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure.
Access to clean and stable energy is a major challenge for many developing African countries. This research aims to investigate ways in which financing renewable energy projects (REPs) can help to address this problem and therefore SDG7. The authors propose the promotion of the two-hand renewable energy service company (ESCO) model as an efficient financial vehicle for increasing sustainable economic development through the production of reliable and stable electricity in semi-urban and rural communities.
Constructing and maintaining transportation infrastructure is very resource intensive and can have negative impacts on the environment. Reviewing geotechnical engineering in transport infrastructure highlights the transformation in the past twenty years to using more sophisticated technologies integrating sustainability principles. SDG target 11.2 aims to provide sustainable transport systems, which this article focuses on, in particular activities relevant to sustainable earthwork construction aimed at minimising the use of energy and production of CO2.
‘Sustainability’ is strategically framed in the context of infrastructure governance in the Netherlands. The open-ended character of sustainability makes it a good discursive concept in governance of large-scale infrastructure projects. This paper discusses some of the implications of the dynamics of sustainability in today’s complex and multi-dimensional world of governance. Prioritising sustainability in infrastructure contributes to the advancement of SDG 9.1 to develop reliable and resilient infrastructure to support economic development and human well-being.
Target 11.6 aims to reduce the environmental impact of cities. Technological advances in electric power grid infrastructure, the smart grid, means a greener, more efficient and more adaptable grid. The relationship with the building and the community is explored in this paper to provide a contemporary look at the current state of the art in the potential of buildings and communities to be integrated in smart grids as well as to discuss the still-open research issues in this field.
Targets to reduce GHG emissions in cities require significant political willpower. Transportation and industrial activity have varying contributing factors to GHG in cities, while emissions from buildings is always a key contributor. Understanding building emissions is important in achieving SDG 11 and SDG 13. This article reviews both individual building energy models and regional and country-level building stock models as a way of analysing the energy performance of neighbourhoods.
The behaviour of a building's occupant has a significant impact on the energy consumption of that building. Behaviour patterns of building occupants are uncertain but social scientists have been studying behaviour patterns for decades. Drawing on this research, this paper explores advances and obstacles in modelling occupant behaviour and the impact this can have on measuring energy consumption. Target 11.6 is concerned with reducing the adverse impacts of cities, therefore understanding and being able to predict occupant behaviour will play an important role in achieving this target.
