Nonstationary relationships among individuals' concurrent exposures to noise, air pollution and greenspace: A mobility-based study using GPS and mobile sensing data

Zihan Kan; Mei-Po Kwan; Jiannan Cai; Yang Liu; Dong Liu

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.103115

Nonstationary relationships among individuals' concurrent exposures to noise, air pollution and greenspace: A mobility-based study using GPS and mobile sensing data

Health Place. 2023 Sep:83:103115. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.103115. Epub 2023 Sep 14.

Authors

Zihan Kan¹, Mei-Po Kwan², Jiannan Cai³, Yang Liu⁴, Dong Liu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China; Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: zihankan@cuhk.edu.hk.
² Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China; Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China; Institute of Future Cities, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: mpkwan@cuhk.edu.hk.
³ Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: jncai@cuhk.edu.hk.
⁴ Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China; Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: loren-yangliu@link.cuhk.edu.hk.
⁵ Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China; Institute of Future Cities, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: dongliu@cuhk.edu.hk.

PMID: 37716213
DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.103115

Abstract

Individuals are often exposed to multiple environmental factors simultaneously. Understanding their joint effects is essential for developing effective public health policies. However, there has been a lack of research examining individuals' concurrent exposures to multiple environmental factors during people's daily mobility. To address this gap, this study investigated the relationships between and geographic patterns of individual exposures to air pollution (PM_2.5), noise and greenspace using individual-level real-time GPS and mobile sensing data collected in outdoor environments. The findings indicate that the relationships between individual exposures to air pollution, noise and greenspace vary across different value ranges of exposures. The study also reveals that people's concurrent exposures to multiple environmental factors exhibit spatial nonstationary and strong clustering patterns. These results highlight the importance of considering spatial nonstationary and spatial heterogeneity of environmental exposures in understanding the relationships between multiple exposures in environmental health research.

Keywords: Concurrent exposure; GPS tracking; Individual-level; Mobile sensing; Nonstationarity.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Air Pollution* / adverse effects
Cluster Analysis
Environmental Health
Humans
Noise*
Parks, Recreational