The poor air quality in our cities is currently at the centre of public debates on health living conditions and at the pinnacle of innovative urban planning and mobility policies. Especially, so-called 'street canyons' represent the most problematic arteries of our cities: these are narrow inner-city roads that are flanked on both sides by a continuous row of (high) buildings. In these street canyons, the air quality is often below the European standards and those of the World Health Organisation. Both urban design and technological solutions, such as photocatalyst, have proven to be powerful tools for improving the air quality and overall health. Still, in terms of air quality on the level of street canyons, there exists a fundamental disciplinary schism between environmental and urban design sciences. Dealing with the spatial distribution of air pollution and high threshold to bridge technological innovation with urban planning, this research project aims to combine environmental and design sciences. Therefore, the Research group for Urban Development (Design Sciences), DuEL and BioGEM (Engineering Sciences) decided to team up to tackle together this urgent challenge.
Researcher(s): Dimitri Voordeckers, Maarten Van Acker
Period: oktober 2018 - today
Partner(s): Pieter Billen (BioGEM), Tom Tytgat (DuEL)
