GAW Report No. 205 - IGAC Project

CHAPTER 7 – OVERVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH ACTIVITIESCities and climate are coevolving in a manner that could place more populations at risk fromexposure to extreme temperature and air pollution. Urban areas of Latin America are projected tobe increasingly affected by heat waves; yet, we do not know how vulnerable the urban population isto the health impacts that may result from this increase. ADAPTE gathered, validated, andanalyzed data on temperature, air pollution and vulnerability allowing measuring changes in theRelative Risk of health outcomes such as mortality due to changes in temperature and air pollutionand maps of differential patterns of vulnerability within the urban centres [Romero-Lankao et al.,2011]. Also, in São Paulo, advances were made to combine air quality models and health statistics[Martins et al., 2010].The project was very successful in connecting South American scientists and students andalso at establishing a two-way connection between scientists in South America and “First World”centres. Very importantly, we used the majority of our IAI resources in fellowships for students,some of which are now themselves starting to be leading scientists who can more easilyinterconnect between countries and between science and policy making. For all cities, we weresuccessful in producing relevant information and implementing tools for scientific understandingand policy making, Bogotá being an outstanding case [Behrentz et al., 2009]. We have shown thatsharing and using available resources is feasible and that the integrated sum of those is larger thanthe sum of the individual resources.Outlook and perspectives for SAEMC/ADAPTEContinued and future Developments:• The establishment of community model including shared computing and storage capabilities,which of course does not preclude the use of other tools but puts an emphasis on theestablishment and use of local know-how. For instance, which is the adequateaerosol/photochemical model for South American cities where bio-fuel is so prevalent? Howdo we handle extremely stable boundary layers along the Andes?• A permanent initiative on emission inventories as a dynamical tool that evolves according tosystematic, transparent, and recurrent evaluations.• Coordination for providing recurrent aerosol and gas phase chemistry characterization forunderstanding processes and impact assessments. This is especially needed in order toaddress aerosol-cloud-climate interactions as well as impacts on human health andecosystems.• Air quality monitoring is probably among the most resource intensive activities that isneeded. Therefore, it is crucial to have tools to facilitate decision making and to actuallyoptimize the design of monitoring networks. Variational and statistical methods have beenexplored to design and evaluate monitoring networks.• From the climate change aspects, South American countries need a feasible forecasting toolcustomized to the complex issues that face South America and relevant associatedprocesses to provide the forecasts to governmental and civil societies. Important questionsto be addressed, among others, are: how is global warming and land use/land coverchanges affecting the air quality of the densely urbanized areas? What is the impact ofaerosols and the urban heat effect on the hydrological cycles on local and regional scales?What is South America’s contribution to global changes?Other projects in South AmericaThere are at least two initiatives that deal with South American cities. One is a pilot projectfocusing on Santiago but that is expected to be replicated elsewhere in South America((http://www.risk-habitat-megacity.ufz.de/). Another one is the “Clean Air Initiative in Latin AmericanCities” (CAI-LAC) driven by the World Bank (http://www.cleanairnet.org). Risk Habitat Megacity(RHM) is a six year (2007-2013) joint initiative between Chilean and German researchers. It is an'Initiative and Networking Fund' of the Helmholtz-Association. RHM approaches several megacityissues, such as Land use management, Socio-spatial differentiation, Energy, Transportation, Airquality and health, Water resources and services, and Waste management. The programmecomprises ten topics: three “cross-cutting concepts” – Sustainable Development, Risk, and264