URBAN_AQ:Health
Concept of URBAN_AQ:HEALTH is built on comparison and modeling of potential health impacts on urban population exposed to urban air with the most important air pollutants. As such, this approach needs appropriated data inputs. Those inputs are relevant AQ data in as great as possible resolution and health data in similar resolution as AQ data. All mentioned data are related to Brno city which is second largest city in Czech Republic (CZ) with area around 230 square kilometers and roughly 380 000 inhabitants. The main sources of air pollution in Brno are transportation, construction activity and seasonal household heating emissions.
There are 12 monitoring sites (most automated) on premises of Brno city that provide real-time information about current air quality around the city. Sites are owned by Brno city, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) and National Institute of Public Health (NIPH). Sites measure common air pollutants such as PM10, PM2.5, NOx, SO2, carbon monoxide, CO, O3, PAHs, volatile organic compounds and heavy metals. Although owner of each station may vary, data are collectively processed by CHMI into concentration maps in grid of 1x1 km valid for entire area of CZ (with inclusion of data from other monitoring sites around country).
Source of health data is Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic (IHIS CR), which kindly provided anonymized data for Brno city. Each endpoint (health outcome) is represented as set of various number of international classification of diseases codes (ICD). Each code represents health issue (e.g. unspecified chronic bronchitis, acute severe asthma) and combination of selected related ICDs results in health outcomes/endpoints (e.g. hospitalization – cardiovascular diseases including stroke, incidence of chronic bronchitis in adults). Additional variables (factors) were taken into account to help explain relation of AQ and its potential impact on health. Considered variables were related to type of heating, land cover, housing and number of household members.