NO2 pollution trends and settlement growth in megacities: a satellite-based analysis

Thilo Erbertseder; Hannes Taubenböck; Thomas Esch; Lorenza Gilardi; Stefan W. Dech

doi:10.1117/12.3051883

4 November 2024 NO2 pollution trends and settlement growth in megacities: a satellite-based analysis

Thilo Erbertseder, Hannes Taubenböck, Thomas Esch, Lorenza Gilardi, Stefan W. Dech

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13198, Remote Sensing Technologies and Applications in Urban Environments IX; 131980J (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3051883
Event: Remote Sensing, 2024, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

Air pollution is considered the largest single environmental health risk by the World Health Organization. Despite several studies on NO2 changes in megacities, a systematic analysis in relation to settlement growth is still pending. In addition, previous studies do not refer to consistent spatial city concepts, which distorts statistics in the comparison. In this study, we examine the trends of NO2 air pollution in megacities in relation to urban settlement growth: Time series of tropospheric NO2 from GOME, SCIAMACHY, GOME-2A, and GOME-2B are evaluated regarding yearly settlement growth as derived from the World Settlement Footprint for the period from 1996 to 2015. Compared to previous studies, this work strictly uses remote sensing data and the spatial concept of Functional Urban Areas. Uncertainties due to incomparable administrative units, heterogeneously reported local data, and population counts are thus widely excluded to enable a reliable comparison of megacities across the globe. We find a wide spectrum of NO2 pollution trends and settlement growth rates. Despite this variety, the results exhibit a pronounced relation to the income group following the world’s economies classification by the World Bank.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Thilo Erbertseder, Hannes Taubenböck, Thomas Esch, Lorenza Gilardi, and Stefan W. Dech "NO2 pollution trends and settlement growth in megacities: a satellite-based analysis", Proc. SPIE 13198, Remote Sensing Technologies and Applications in Urban Environments IX, 131980J (4 November 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3051883

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