What is Net4Cities?
Net4Cities: Real-Time Monitoring Networks and Transport Emissions for Tailored Zero Pollution Action Plans in European Cities
The transport sector is a major contributor to environmental degradation, including air and noise pollution that have negative effects to ecosystems and human health. This is particularly critical in urban areas, where the confluence of transport emissions and high population density result in adverse health impacts and substantial economic burden. The upcoming changes in the transport sector will be critical to reach targets set by the EU Green Deal. The Zero Pollution Action plans are essential tools to reduce pollution at many different levels. Through co-creation with stakeholders Net4Cities will facilitate the realization of the zero-pollution vision by 2050. The backbone of Net4Cities is this transdisciplinary approach in which the consortium members will engage with the partner cities, including ports and airports, to jointly produce new knowledge, and ensure relevance, uptake, and maximize transferability and exploitation.
During the project, air and noise pollution monitoring infrastructure will be advanced and expanded in 11 European cities, including transportation hubs such airports and ports, to conform with upcoming directives and provide data for health impact assessments. The activities are designed to have long-lasting impact through both mid-, and long-term pathways, providing a roadmap for greater uptake in European cities by offering tailored, transferrable, evidence-based support for implementing effective management strategies for reducing transport-related emissions. The main project results will be consolidated in the Net4Cities Studio which will provide (1) a web-based interface with real-time maps and information to raise awareness, and (2) a support tool for policy decisions that will provide guidance for operationalization and recommendations of solutions that consider innovative technologies such as dynamic traffic management systems and inclusion of nature-based solutions in overarching policy designs.
What goals does Net4Cities have?
Objective 1.
Net4Cities will co-create evidence-based, tailored policy solutions for effective air and noise pollution reduction plans with the involvement of policy- and decision-makers, citizen associations, and interested organizations.
Objective 2.
Deliver the next generation of advanced monitoring networks for transport-related air (exhaust and non-exhaust) and noise pollution capable of providing information in real-time for decision-support, and for health studies and to inform policy.
Objective 3.
Generate data on (emerging) pollutants and noise in cities from contrasting geographical and climatic locations with differing fleet compositions to support source apportionment (SA) and modelling applications and the improvement of emissions inventories.
Objective 4.
Consolidate in urban and national level databases integrated information from the advanced monitoring networks and activity databases that allows for the assessment of transport-related emissions and identification of non-compliant sources, contributing to enforcement and the reduction of health impacts.
Objective 5.
Create the Net4Cities Studio, including a guidance for updated and expanded monitoring network design for emerging pollutants to address future challenges adequately.
Transdisciplinarity in Net4Cities
Emissions of air pollutants come from every aspect of modern civilization, and their impacts on society range from economic to epidemiological. Due to complex transboundary impacts, no single nation can mitigate air pollution alone. Noise pollution, too, presents a unique challenge as both its sources and effects are localised in nature but require macro-level policies to be properly addressed.
Transdisciplinary (TD) research can be a valuable tool for tackling these ‘wicked’ problems. Three phases generally describe the process by which transdisciplinary research proceeds. During Phase 1, a societal problem is transformed into a boundary object by a collaborative research team, which often results in an overarching idea or concept linking the societal and scientific aspects of the problem, thereby collectively identifying knowledge gaps relevant to all actors. Once this framework is established, in Phase 2, integrative methods are developed and applied to co-create the knowledge needed, with research typically proceeding in a disciplinary fashion and then becoming harmonized with interdisciplinary methods. In other words, Phase 2 is the actual ‚doing‘ of the research identified as necessary during Phase 1. In Phase 3, the different types of knowledge generated are re-integrated into scientific and societal discussions through typical forms such as journal articles and presentations in the former and in workshops, and science-policy events, via social media and news outlets in the latter.
Net4Cities will be carried out according to the above-outlined 3 phases following a TD approach (see Figure below) and divided into 7 work packages (WPs). Phase 1 (ca. year 1) will focus on the detailed planning of actions and the logistics of measurement campaigns. After a co-creative planning stage, the project field work starts in Phase 2 (ca. years 2 and 3) of the process, with the monitoring of air and noise pollution done along with the collection and analysis of transport pollution-related data. Phase 3 (ca. year 4) will focus on closing the cycle and providing the information and tools for policy design to stakeholders that were designed based on their input as compiled in the Net4Cities Studio (Figure 1.4) and transferring the monitoring network advancements to the managing authorities.
Net4Cities Project Management
Given the nature and size of the project, Net4Cities is broken down into seven different Work Packages (WP) to manage its planned actions. Below are a diagram of the project structure and brief descriptions of each WP and their respective objectives.
WP 1
The principles of co-creation and transdisciplinary engagement will be used to: (a) ensure that all plans and results from Net4Cities are tailored to address the needs of European cities, (b) are implemented in ways that will foster continuity beyond the end of the project, (c) maximize transferability and uptake of non-partner cities in the mid- to longerterm, and (d) provide a solid foundation for all other WPs, including more effective communication, dissemination and exploitation.
WP 2
This work package will: (a) close existing gaps in air quality monitoring data using a harmonised approach across different cities to support air quality plans and health impact assessment studies, (b) facilitate deployment and evaluate new measurement instruments for emerging pollutants and greenhouse gases for the purpose of an EU-wide network, and (c) implement technologies for fleet monitoring of road traffic emissions on a wider scale.
WP 3
This work package will: (a) establish collocated noise and traffic monitoring networks across the partner cities where this infrastructure largely does not exist, (b) leverage existing (citizen science) sensor networks for greater coverage of AQ, noise, and traffic measurements, (c) implement a combination of noise emissions modelling and measurements to check the validity of the CNOSSOS-EU method and to give a better understanding of some specific factors that could improve its acoustic emission formulae, (d) quantify potential benefits of noise abatement measures being considered in the action plans, and (e) assess the effectiveness of nature-based solutions for air and noise pollution mitigation.
WP 4
Work package 4 will provide a modern, data-centric storage architecture to implement the concept of the Net4Cities information system with all its functionalities and requirements tailored to the needs of data collection (WP2/3) and source apportionment modelling (WP5) to facilitate the functionality of the Net4Cities Studio (WP6).
WP 5
Work package 5 will: (a) advance source apportionment (SA) methodologies by learning from the strengths of the different approaches, (b) lower the barrier to operationalized, real-time source apportionment implementation for dynamic policy support, and (c) improve and quantify the reliability of the updated emission inventories and the implications for improvements in the operationalized, online models. A focus will be the distinction between different transport sources and non-transport based emissions, including the contribution of exhaust and non-exhaust emissions.
WP 6
This work package will synthesize the outcomes from previous WPs in the Net4Cities Studio, a digital platform solution containing different tools, results, and recommendations. The Net4Cities Studio will target supporting local, regional, and national Zero Pollution strategies based on static and dynamic data, including real-time information on air and noise pollution, sources contribution, and relationship with nature-based solutions. WP6 will demonstrate how evidence-based information supports future needs concerning air and noise pollution monitoring, emission inventories and modelling for population-based health studies, and Zero Pollution action plans targeting transport sources and transportation hubs.
WP 7
Work package 7 will:
- Ensure effective implementation of the project. Specifically, the coordination will (a) guarantee a smooth communication flow within the consortium and with the EC and advisory boards, (b) support the consortium, monitor, and manage progress to ensure execution and reporting are done in a timely, cost-efficient manner (d) minimize risk, and (e) provide a data management strategy that will guarantee open science standards and address any ethical issues and IPR.
- Drive the Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication (D/E/C) activities that complement the engagement activities in WP1 and WP6. The objectives of the D/E/C tasks are to successfully create awareness, understanding, engagement, uptake, and impact of the project results towards the relevant target audiences identified, with the broader goal of supporting the achievement of the targets in the European (and local) Zero Pollution strategy.