title: Development of a quantitative methodology to assess the impacts of urban transport interventions and related noise on well-being.
abstract: Well-being impact assessments of urban interventions are a difficult challenge, as there is no agreed methodology and scarce evidence on the relationship between environmental conditions and well-being. The European Union (EU) project "Urban Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in China and Europe" (URGENCHE) explored a methodological approach to assess traffic noise-related well-being impacts of transport interventions in three European cities (Basel, Rotterdam and Thessaloniki) linking modeled traffic noise reduction effects with survey data indicating noise-well-being associations. Local noise models showed a reduction of high traffic noise levels in all cities as a result of different urban interventions. Survey data indicated that perception of high noise levels was associated with lower probability of well-being. Connecting the local noise exposure profiles with the noise-well-being associations suggests that the urban transport interventions may have a marginal but positive effect on population well-being. This paper also provides insight into the methodological challenges of well-being assessments and highlights the range of limitations arising from the current lack of reliable evidence on environmental conditions and well-being. Due to these limitations, the results should be interpreted with caution.
authors.affiliation: European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany. mbr@ecehbonn.euro.who.int.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Braubach
authors.affiliation: Federal Environment Agency, Section II 1.6 Exposure Assessment and Environmental Health Indicators, 14195 Berlin, Germany. myriam.tobollik@uba.de.
authors.forename: Myriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tobollik
authors.affiliation: European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany. mudup@ecehbonn.euro.who.int.
authors.forename: Pierpaolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mudu
authors.affiliation: School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK. r.hiscock@bristol.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Rosemary
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hiscock
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Environmental Engineering Laboratory, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece. dimitris.chapizanis@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chapizanis
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Environmental Engineering Laboratory, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece. denis@eng.auth.gr.
authors.forename: Denis A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Sarigiannis
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands. dimitris.chapizanis@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Menno
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keuken
authors.affiliation: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstr. 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland. l.perez@unibas.ch.|University of Basel, Peterspl. 1, 4003 Basel, Switzerland. l.perez@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perez
authors.affiliation: European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany. martuzzim@ecehbonn.euro.who.int.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martuzzi
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004779:Environment Design; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000517:prevention & control*; D058735:Environmental Policy; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009624:Noise, Transportation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D014504:Urban Health
keywords: climate change; greenhouse gas; impact assessment; mitigation; noise; transport; urban policies; well-being