Integrated assessment of personal monitor applications for evaluating exposure to urban stressors: A scoping review.

Urban stressors pose a health risk, and individual-level assessments provide necessary and fine-grained insight into exposure. An ever-increasing amount of research literature on individual-level exposure to urban stressors using data collected with personal monitors, has called for an integrated assessment approach to identify trends, gaps and needs, and provide recommendations for future research. To this end, a scoping review of the respective literature was performed, as part of the H2020 URBANOME project. Moreover, three specific aims were identified: (i) determine current state of research, (ii) analyse literature according with a waterfall methodological framework and identify gaps and needs, and (iii) provide recommendations for more integrated, inclusive and robust approaches. Knowledge and gaps were extracted based on a systematic approach, e.g., data extraction questionnaires, as well as through the expertise of the researchers performing the review. The findings were assessed through a waterfall methodology of delineating projects into four phases. Studies described in the papers vary in their scope, with most assessing exposure in a single macro domain, though a trend of moving towards multi-domain assessment is evident. Simultaneous measurements of multiple stressors are not common, and papers predominantly assess exposure to air pollution. As urban environments become more diverse, stakeholders from different groups are included in the study designs. Most frequently (per the quadruple helix model), civil society/NGO groups are involved, followed by government and policymakers, while business or private sector stakeholders are less frequently represented. Participants in general function as data collectors and are rarely involved in other phases of the research. While more active involvement is not necessary, more collaborative approaches show higher engagement and motivation of participants to alter their lifestyles based on the research results. The identified trends, gaps and needs can aid future exposure research and provide recommendations on addressing different urban communities and stakeholders.

Practical Opportunities to Improve the Impact of Health Risk Assessment on Environmental and Public Health Decisions.

Following alerts about the diminishing role of health risk assessment (HRA) in informing public health decisions, this study examines specific HRA topics with the aim of identifying possible solutions for addressing this compelling situation. The study administered a survey among different groups of stakeholders involved in HRA or decision-making, or both. The responses show various understandings of HRA in the decision-making context-including confusion with the health impact assessment (HIA)-and confirm recurring foundational issues within the risk analysis field that contribute to the growth of inconsistency in the HRA praxis. This inconsistency lowers the effectiveness of HRA to perform its primary purpose of informing public health decisions. Opportunities for improving this situation come at the beginning of the assessment process, where greater attention should be given to defining the assessment and decision-making contexts. Both must reflect the concerns and expectations of the stakeholders regarding the needs and purpose of an HRA on one side, and the methodological and procedural topics relevant for the decision case at hand on the other. The HRA process should end with a decision follow-up step with targeted auditing and the participation of stakeholders to measure its success.

Introduction of threat analysis into the land-use planning process.

The subject of this paper is a method for introducing risk assessment into the land-use planning (LUP) process. Due to adaptations of the results of risk assessment, which are needed to make the risk assessment usable by land-use planners, we term the overall process threat analysis. The key features of the threat analysis can be summarised as follows. (i) It consists of three main steps. The first is determination of the threat intensity level of an accident, the second is analysis of the environmental vulnerability of the surroundings of an accident, and the third, integrating the previous two, is determination of a threat index in the accident impact zone. All three are presented in GIS based maps, since this is a common expression in LUP. (ii) It can and should be applied in the early stages of the LUP process. The methodology is illustrated by an example in the context of renewal of a land-use plan for the Municipality of Koper in Slovenia. The approach of threat analysis follows directions of the Article 12 of the Directive 96/82/EC of the European Commission (the Seveso II Directive).

How powerful is ARAMIS methodology in solving land-use issues associated with industry based environmental and health risks?

The first experience on how a part of the ARAMIS methodology has contributed to demonstration of safety in the licensing process in Slovenia for a new Seveso II plant is described. There are two foci of this description: first, trustworthy of the methodology for evaluating safety, and second, the role of a land-use plan in issuing a construction permit for the new plant. In the context of the first focus, we present why has been safety report first rejected by the regulator, and later-on accepted after applying components of the ARAMIS methodology in its revised version. In the context of the second focus, we discuss a relationship between the land-use plan and the licensing process for the new plant. The outcomes of this Seveso II plant licensing case are that the ARAMIS approach, in spite it was still under development when applied, is more transparent and credible comparing to the others, which have also been applied. This is related to the demonstration of how safety management system and general safety behaviour is integrated into the overall management policy. The conclusions take into account regulator's response in the licensing process.