Chapter 18
Geospatial Modelling of Air Pollution
and its Impact on Health of Urban Residents
Using Spatial Models: A Review
M. Prashanthi Devi, Janani Selvaraj, and Harathi Dayalan
Abstract Air quality is a very important factor in projecting or representing the
status of environment and health of any region particularly urban areas. Air pollution
studies analysing the quality of air deliver strategic information to the decisionmaking process and play a significant role in the implementation of the policies that
influence the air quality of a region. Majority of the air pollution models that
simulate the distribution of pollutants consider various physical and environmental
characteristics that include wind direction, speed, temperature, etc., which help in
determination of the air pollution trajectory. The integration of these models in GIS
gives a geophysical dimension to the air quality information by relating the actual
pollution concentrations to the health of plant and human life in that location. Over
the recent years, several efforts have been made to map traffic-related emission and
determine pollution patterns in urban areas using GIS. The use of GIS as a tool to
illustrate the spatial patterns of emission and to visualize the impact of congestion on
human health has long been attempted. To simulate the impact of air quality in terms
of transportation and land use policy changes, several integrated models can be
performed. GIS is a dynamic tool when combined with statistical analysis to map
traffic-related air pollution and to generate predictive models of pollution surfaces.
These models are useful to develop decisions based on monitored pollution data and
exogenous information. With this background, a review on GIS-based methods to
evaluate the impact of air pollution on human health has been presented. The
complexity of using GIS for integrated air quality mapping and its impact on
human health lies in many domains. Understanding the relationships between health,
environment, geology, hydrology, air pollution studies, agronomy and their dependencies in a spatial phenomenon is the major crux. Spatial explorative models that
can determine the relationships between the environment and high pollution
M. Prashanthi Devi (*) · J. Selvaraj
Department of Environmental Science and Management, Bharathidasan University,
Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India
H. Dayalan
Department of Zoology, PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu,
India
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Aravind et al. (eds.), Strategies and Tools for Pollutant Mitigation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63575-6_18
377
Geospatial Modelling of Air Pollution
and its Impact on Health of Urban Residents
Using Spatial Models: A Review
M. Prashanthi Devi, Janani Selvaraj, and Harathi Dayalan
Abstract Air quality is a very important factor in projecting or representing the
status of environment and health of any region particularly urban areas. Air pollution
studies analysing the quality of air deliver strategic information to the decisionmaking process and play a significant role in the implementation of the policies that
influence the air quality of a region. Majority of the air pollution models that
simulate the distribution of pollutants consider various physical and environmental
characteristics that include wind direction, speed, temperature, etc., which help in
determination of the air pollution trajectory. The integration of these models in GIS
gives a geophysical dimension to the air quality information by relating the actual
pollution concentrations to the health of plant and human life in that location. Over
the recent years, several efforts have been made to map traffic-related emission and
determine pollution patterns in urban areas using GIS. The use of GIS as a tool to
illustrate the spatial patterns of emission and to visualize the impact of congestion on
human health has long been attempted. To simulate the impact of air quality in terms
of transportation and land use policy changes, several integrated models can be
performed. GIS is a dynamic tool when combined with statistical analysis to map
traffic-related air pollution and to generate predictive models of pollution surfaces.
These models are useful to develop decisions based on monitored pollution data and
exogenous information. With this background, a review on GIS-based methods to
evaluate the impact of air pollution on human health has been presented. The
complexity of using GIS for integrated air quality mapping and its impact on
human health lies in many domains. Understanding the relationships between health,
environment, geology, hydrology, air pollution studies, agronomy and their dependencies in a spatial phenomenon is the major crux. Spatial explorative models that
can determine the relationships between the environment and high pollution
M. Prashanthi Devi (*) · J. Selvaraj
Department of Environmental Science and Management, Bharathidasan University,
Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India
H. Dayalan
Department of Zoology, PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu,
India
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Aravind et al. (eds.), Strategies and Tools for Pollutant Mitigation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63575-6_18
377