Bart Degraeuwe

European Commission | ec · Joint Research Centre (JRC)

This paper presents SHERPA-City, a web application to assess the potential of traffic measures to abate NO2 air pollution in cities. The application is developed by the Joint Research Centre. It is freely available (https://integrated-assessment.jrc.ec.europa.eu) and allows the user to perform a fast screening of possible NO2 abatement measures add...

To take decisions on how to improve air quality, it is useful to perform a source allocation study that identifies the main sources of pollution for the area of interest. Often source allocation is performed with a chemical transport model (CTM) but unfortunately, even if accurate, this technique is time consuming and complex. Comparing the results...

Abstract. To take decisions on how to improve air quality, it is useful to perform a source allocation study that identifies the main sources of pollution for the area of interest. Often source allocation is implemented with a Chemical Transport Model (CTM) but unfortunately, even if accurate, this technique is time consuming and complex. Comparing...

The seasonal changes of a large set of atmospheric pollutants (i.e., gases, water-soluble aerosols, metallic/elemental components and black carbon (BC) content) have been studied over the southern bight of the North Sea (the Belgian Continental Shelf) and the English Channel, in several marine sampling campaigns, carried out in 2010–2011. A coastal...

During the last 15 years, the official assessment maps in Flanders have improved from a map consisting of only measured data points to a high resolution assessment which covers the complete area and takes into account several types of sources and street canyons. In order to improve this level of detail, multiple steps were taken. First of all, a la...

The Atlas shows, for selected cities, the likely effects of the implementation of “Traffic Policies” intended to reduce urban NO2 concentrations. As NO2 pollution in urban areas is mainly caused by traffic, the analysis focuses on assessing the relative contribution to the NO2 concentration in ambient air from different types of vehicles. The resul...

The SHERPA tool was used to assess the major pollution sources and the geographical areas impacting on the PM 2.5 of the main cities in the Danube and Western Balkans regions. The activity sectors influencing most the PM 2.5 levels in the study area are energy production (22%), agriculture (19%), residential combustion (16%) and road transport (7%)...

Residents of large European cities are exposed to NO2 concentrations that often exceed the established air quality standards. Diesel cars have been identified as a major contributor to this situation; yet, it remains unclear to which levels the NOX emissions of diesel cars have to decrease to effectively mitigate urban NO2 pollution across Europe....

To cope with computing power limitations, air quality models that are used in integrated assessment applications are generally approximated by simpler expressions referred to as ?source-receptor relationships (SRR)?. In addition to speed, it is desirable for the SRR also to be spatially flexible (application over a wide range of situations) and to...

Regional and local authorities have the obligation to design air quality plans and assess their impacts when concentration levels exceed the limit values. Because these limit values cover both short- (day) and long-term (year) effects, air quality plans also follow these two formats. In this work, we propose a methodology to analyze modeled air qua...

Tests with Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS) have demonstrated that diesel cars emit several times more NOX on the road than during certification on the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). Policy makers and scientists have attributed the discrepancy to the unrealistically low dynamics and the narrow temperature range of NEDC testing. Alt...

Although significant progress has been made in Europe regarding air quality, problems still remain acute for some pollutants, notably NO2 and Particulate Matter (fine and coarse fractions) in specific regions/cities. One issue regarding air quality management is governance, i.e. the selection of appropriate and cost effective strategies over the ar...

A methodology is proposed to support the evaluation and comparison of different types of emission inventories. The strengths and weaknesses of the methodology are presented and discussed based on an example. The approach results in a “diamond” diagram useful to flag out anomalous behaviors in the emission inventories and to get insight in possible...

The annual NO2 concentrations in many European cities exceed the established air quality standard. This situation is mainly caused by Diesel cars whose NOx emissions are higher on the road than during type approval in the laboratory. Moreover, the fraction of NO2 in the NOx emissions of modern diesel cars appears to have increased as compared to pr...

Abstract Background: Int Panis et al. (2009) concluded that cyclists are much more exposed to air pollution compared to car passengers, due to higher ventilation. The VE for cyclists was found to be 4.3 times higher than for car passengers. We dig further into this high ratio, wondering if the high exposure is due to the speed at which the cyclist...

Abstract Accident rates are usually compiled from hospital and police reports. These data are fairly accurate for major and fatal accidents or accidents that include motorized vehicles. However, statistics on minor cycling accidents are incomplete and inaccurate. When it comes to assessing accident risk, an exposure metric (time or distance cycled)...

Chemistry-transport models are increasingly used in Europe for estimating air quality or forecasting changes in pollution levels. But with this increased use of modeling arises the need of harmonizing the methodologies to determine the quality of air quality model applications. This is complex for planning applications, i.e. when models are used to...

Air quality models which are nowadays used for a wide range of scopes (i.e. assessment, forecast, planning) see their intrinsic complexity progressively increasing as better knowledge of the atmospheric chemistry processes is gained. As a result of this increased complexity potential non-linearities are implicitly and/or explicitly incorporated in...

Background: For an accurate estimation of health benefits and hazards of utilitarian cycling, a prospective collection of bicycle usage data (exposure) is fundamental. Individual and environmental correlates are necessary to guide health promotion and traffic safety issues. Firstly, this study aims to report on utilitarian bicycle usage in Belgium...

Shipping emissions are currently increasing and will most likely continue to do so in the future due to the increase of global-scale trade. Ship emissions have the potential to contribute to air quality degradation in coastal areas, in addition to contributing to global air pollution. With the aim to quantify the impacts of shipping emissions on ur...

In this paper, we investigate the influence of the changing NOx-split in traffic emissions on the ambient NO2-concentrations. First of all, we show that the NOx-split is indeed changing, by looking at measurements in tunnels and at urban locations. Secondly, we analyze on a local scale the effect of this changing split. It is shown that the a large...

This paper quantifies the effect of a number of input parameters on the emission levels of road transport emissions calculated by means of a bottom-up methodology. The input parameters considered cover small diesel cars, calculation of additional fuel consumption due to the use of mobile air conditioning in passenger cars and light commercial vehic...

One of the measures that is promoted in order to improve the air quality is the decrease of vehicle mileage. However, there are different reasons to assume that not every kilometer driven by car yields the same impact on air pollution nor on the exposure of people. For instance, some trips are driven at high speeds on highways, while others are dri...

This paper describes a multi-scale modelling approach designed to assess the impact of policy plans at various decision making levels (European, regional and local). The modelling framework is applied for a case study in Antwerp, Belgium. Various tunnel options and traffic management plans for the Antwerp ring road are evaluated with respect to the...

Emissions from the marine transport sector contribute significantly to air pollution globally (Corbett & Fischbeck, 1997). Around 15% of global NOx and 5- 8% of global SOx emissions are attributable to oceangoing ships (Eyring et al., 2005). Because nearly 70% of ship emissions are estimated to occur within 400 km of land, ships have the potential...

This paper discusses the potential for energy savings in heating and ventilation of light rail vehicles. We present the results of a detailed monitoring campaign on one articulated tram in Ghent, Belgium. The results give insight in the energy use for heating and ventilation in light rail as a function of ambient weather conditions. After several m...

Objective: To investigate the long-term dosage evolution and complication rate of intrathecal baclofen use in multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury patients, based on a large population with a long follow-up. Design: Retrospective data analysis. Setting: Academic hospital. Subjects: Patients with multiple sclerosis (n = 81) or spinal cor...

This paper examines trip related factors that affect the potential of active transport modes. The paper reports on the results of a long-term travel survey where daily activity-car travel patterns were automatically monitored for a cohort of people. Analysis of the results demonstrates that 64% of all monitored car trips were shorter than 8 km and...

We examine how trips with diverse motivations vary in their spatio-temporal characteristics and result in different impacts on the environment. An integrated model chain is used includes an activity-based traffic demand model, an emission model and a pollutant concentration module. The model setup is applied to the northern region of Belgium and an...

This paper presents a re-analysis of the data used in a previously published paper ‘Using on-board data logging devices to study the longer-term impact of an eco-driving course’ by Beusen et al. In this paper the effect of an eco-driving course on fuel consumption was studied. The fuel consumption of 10 drivers was monitored during a year. After ha...

We examine how trips with diverse motivations vary in their spatio-temporal characteristics and result in different impacts on the environment. An integrated model chain is used includes an activity-based traffic demand model, an emission model and a pollutant concentration module. The model setup is applied to the northern region of Belgium and an...

Purpose: There are different reasons to assume that not every vehicle kilometre yields the same environmental impact. For instance, some vehicle kilometres are driven at high speeds on highways, while others are driven at low speeds in urban environments. This will have an impact on the resulting exhaust missions. Furthermore, the timing of a trip...

Transportation policy measures often aim to change travel behaviour towards more efficient transport. While these policy measures do not necessarily target health, these could have an indirect health effect. We evaluate the health impact of a policy resulting in an increase of car fuel prices by 20% on active travel, outdoor air pollution and risk...

By focussing on air pollutant concentration levels only, the variation in population mobility is not taken into account when assessing the exposure. Transportation policies have an impact on both concentration levels and mobility patterns. The impact of a fuel price increase policy on population exposure to elemental carbon (EC) was evaluated and c...

In both ambient air pollution epidemiology and health impact assessment an accurate assessment of the population exposure is crucial. Although considerable advances have been made in assessing human exposure outdoors, the assessments often do not consider the impact of individual travel behavior on such exposures. Population-based exposures to NO2...

Traffic management solutions are increasingly called for to address problems of transport and mobility. In particular, coordinated traffic lights that create green waves along major arterials are an increasingly used strategy to reduce travel times. Although it is usually assumed that an improved traffic flow will result in lower vehicle emissions,...

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into bicycle accidents. Bicycle accident data and weekly exposure data were prospectively collected for one year to calculate the incidence rate (IR) of bicycle accidents. An accident was included if it occurred during utilitarian cycling, resulting in an acute injury with corporal damage. If an accident...

The E313 motorway between Liege and Antwerp is one of the busiest links in the Belgian road network. In the direction of Antwerp, traffic jams and accidents are frequent. Many accidents occur at the tail of traffic jams. To warn drivers, variable speed limit gantries and detector loops were installed every 750 metres. When a traffic jam is detected...

The ability of a complex model chain to simulate elemental carbon (EC) concentrations was examined. The results of the model chain were compared to EC concentration measurements made at several locations, every sixth day. Two measurement campaigns were taken into account, one in 2006–2007 and one in 2008–2009. The model results compare very well fo...

This paper examines the effects of two traffic management measures, speed limit reduction and coordinated traffic lights, in an area of Antwerp, Belgium. An integrated model is deployed that combines the microscopic traffic simulation model Paramics with the CO(2) and NO emission model VERSIT+. On the one hand, reductions in CO(2) and NO emissions...

Commuting by bike has a clear health enhancing effect. Moreover, regular exercise is known to improve brain plasticity, which results in enhanced cognition and memory performance. Animal research has clearly shown that exercise upregulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF - a neurotrophine) enhancing brain plasticity. Studies in humans found...

Speed reduction measures rank among the most common schemes to improve traffic safety. Recently many urban streets or entire districts were converted into 30 kph zones and in many European countries the maximum permissible speed of trucks on motorways is under discussion. However, besides contributing to traffic safety, reducing the maximum speed i...

This is the final report of the Belgian SHAPES project. It provides an overview of the work that the partners have done from 2007-2011 in the framework of the science for sustainable development programme of the Belgian federal Science Policy. In 2008-2009 several additional experiments have been carried out in a “cluster” project PM²TEN. The resul...

This is the final scientific report of the PM²TEN cluster project, a collaboration between SHAPES and PARHEALTH with links to ANIMO and SCOPE. The PM²TEN cluster has three major objectives: 1. the organisation of a scientific workshop enabling a peer review of the intermediary results of SHAPES and PARHEALTH by international experts 2. the planning...

The health enhancing effects of regular bicycling (e.g. commuter cycling) are well known, however this health benefit has also a negative aspect especially when safety is neglected. Bicyclists have a higher risk of being injured than any other group of road users. They are “unprotected” in traffic, despite being capable of reaching high speeds. Thi...

Minor bicycle accidents are defined as "bicycle accidents not involving death or heavily injured persons, implying that possible hospital visits last less than 24 hours". Statistics about these accidents and related injuries are very poor, because they are mostly not reported to police, hospitals or insurance companies. Yet, they form a major share...

Numerous epidemiological studies have demonstrated adverse health effects of a sedentary life style, on the one hand, and of acute and chronic exposure to traffic-related air pollution, on the other. Because physical exercise augments the amount of inhaled pollutants, it is not clear whether cycling to work in a polluted urban environment should be...

Commuter cyclists experience short episodes of high exposure to traffic born air pollution that have potential adverse health effects. We have compared respiratory parameters and exposure to Ultrafine Particles, PM2.5 and PM10 for 55 persons who cycled and drove identical trajectories in three Belgian locations in a pair-wise design. Differences in...

Emerging evidence suggests that short episodes of high exposure to air pollution occur while commuting. These events can result in potentially adverse health effects. We present a quantification of the exposure of car passengers and cyclists to particulate matter (PM). We have simultaneously measured concentrations (PNC, PM2.5 and PM10) and ventila...

Falling within the framework of a larger project (SHAPES), this study aims at explaining the spatial variation of bicycle use and accident risks for cyclists when commuting. Explanatory variables are those suggested by transport and urban geography theory (socioeconomic characteristics, distances, environmental characteristics, safety, etc.). Regre...

Exposure methods that ignore people’s travel behavior do not take into account the exposure on locations other than the home address. Moreover, the exposure while traveling is also ignored whereas people being in-transport often experience high concentrations of air pollutants and therefore need to be examined even more. We present two sets of new...

In this paper the long-term impact of an eco-driving training course is evaluated by monitoring driving behavior and fuel consumption for several months before and after the course. Cars were equipped with an on-board logging device that records the position and speed of the vehicle using GPS tracking as well as real time as electronic engine data...

This paper explores the spatial patterns of bicycle use for commuting and the risk cyclists run being injured in a road accident when commuting to work in Belgium. Exploratory data analyses suggest that the observed differences in the use of the bicycle to get to work are strongly linked to the urban hierarchy: commuters are more inclined to cycle...

This paper attempts to explain the spatial variation of the use of a bicycle for commuting to work at the level of the 589 municipalities in Belgium. Regression techniques were used and special attention was paid to autocorrelation, heterogeneity and multicollinearity. Spatial lag models were used to correct for the presence of spatial dependence a...

A concise resistor model for wall temperature prediction in diesel engines with piston cooling is presented here. The model uses the instantaneous in-cylinder pressure and some usually measured operational parameters to predict the temperature of the structural elements of the engine. The resistor model was adjusted by means of temperature measurem...

The coolant and inlet charge temperature influence the emissions and performances of a DI Diesel engine. A unique test rig was constructed in which their influence could be studied controlling all the important operational parameters of the engine. The air, fuel and EGR circuit of one cylinder of a four cylinder engine were separated to permit a pr...

Despite the stringent air quality standards, urban traffic has been a major source of atmospheric pollution. It is therefore useful to investigate the potential effect of traffic management on emissions. Micro-simulation traffic models shall aid in developing traffic management systems and in urban planning practice. This study presents one such tr...