Using Satellite Remote Sensing to Estimate Intra-urban PM2.5 Health-related Inequalities and Environmental Injustices in Washington DC

Abstract:

Ambient air pollution in cities is of growing concern as urbanization continues, yet many cities worldwide lack information on local exposure levels and health impacts, both of which are needed to make evidence-based mitigation decisions to protect the public. Remote sensing and Earth system models, though widely used for assessing air pollution health impacts globally, could be of particular value for assessment of air pollution exposures and health impacts in cities where there is high population density but sparse ground-based monitoring stations.

We used high resolution data inputs to assess intra-urban heterogeneity in PM2.5-attributable health impacts between 2000 and 2015 in Washington DC. Data inputs included ~1kmx1km satellite-derived population and PM2.5 estimates; ward-scale, age-standardized baseline disease rates from the DC Department of Health, and PM2.5 concentration-response functions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, stroke and asthma ED visits from epidemiological meta-analyses.

Results suggest that although PM2.5 concentrations have been decreasing in DC over time, the associated health burden continues to be unevenly distributed across the city, affecting mostly the neighborhoods with high proportions of vulnerable populations. These results reinforce the potential remote sensing has in addressing environmental injustice and health inequality within the city, and in further identifying the co-benefits of local climate change mitigation strategies and sustainability initiatives.