The nexus of transportation, the built environment, air pollution and health

Abstract

Air pollution represents a ubiquitous threat to human health globally. The transportation sector is both a prominent source of air pollution and a central determinant in our exposure to it. Similarly, the built and natural environment can dictate how, when and where we travel, and what we are exposed to. In this paper, we explore the nexus between on-road transportation and the built environment, and their impacts on air pollution exposure, interaction with physical activity, and health. We conduct a review of the literature (since 2010), highlighting current knowledge, salient concepts, recent advances, remaning gaps, and future directions. We complement this with our expert knowledge spanning all areas of inquiry to provide a comprehensive, yet non-exhaustive, account that serves as an introduction to a breadth of multidisciplinary literature for a broad audience, spanning the full-chain of events from upstream determinants of health, to downstream health outcomes. While we focus on air pollution as one pathway between the built environment, transportation, and health, we stress that it is critical to simultaneously study and manage multiple environmental exposures and health and wellbeing outcomes.