A study in the Summer 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA), "Neighborhood Air Quality, Respiratory Health, and Vulnerable Populations in Compact and Sprawled Regions," concludes that contrary to received wisdom, exposure to poor air quality is higher in compact U.S. regions than in sprawled.

Public health researchers have encouraged urban planners to reduce sprawl as part of addressing poor air quality  and the impacts of climate change. Smarter, more compact development can reduce driving and thus levels of particulates and pollution.

Author Lisa Schweitzer, associate professor in the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California, argues the amount of pollution or driving in a region is only part of the story. In Los Angeles, for example, compact developments have been built in order to ensure residents have environmentally smart transit access. But some of those apartment buildings have gone right next to freeways where pollutants can be at their peak. With multi-family housing and low-income residents, those developments earned the title "Black Lung Lofts" from LA Weekly.

Schweitzer's study shows that this problem can be worse in compact regions than in sprawl.  What's more, compact regions have higher exposures among impoverished seniors and children — two groups particularly vulnerable to air pollution. Context is critical to building healthy neighborhoods — human exposure should be the key metric, not just total pollution amounts.

Compact development or infill is still a good strategy, but the location matters. High population density isn't a problem if the air is, on average, as good as it is in Santa Monica, California. It only becomes a problem when the air quality is already poor — high population density in a place like Long Beach will simply increase the number of people exposed to high concentrations of particulate matter. These are complex human-environment interactions and should be considered by planners.

Schweitzer argues that policy and planning needs to take note of recent studies in the fields of engineering and climate science, in order to get a better understanding of how pollution affects neighborhoods. Planners cannot treat compact development as a way to solve the respiratory health problems associated with poor air quality — as concentration and emissions go down with compactness, residential exposures go up. It's critical to take human exposure into account when planning new developments, not simply emissions reductions

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About the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA)
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