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A NETwork FOR Healthier CITIES (Net4Cities)

  • Although air pollution from transport—road, shipping, and aviation—has declined in recent decades due to cleaner fuels and stricter emission standards, it remains a major contributor to poor urban air quality. Notably, the transport sector is the only one where ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise over the past 30 years. Road traffic noise is also a serious concern in Europe, affecting the health of at least 20% of the population.

    The Net4Cities project addresses these challenges by developing real-time maps that integrate air and noise pollution data from over 30 monitoring stations across 11 European cities: Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Heraklion, Limassol, Oslo, Rotterdam, Southampton, Tbilisi, and Zurich. In selected cities, including Limassol, a pioneering method for real-time pollution source identification will be deployed—offering a breakthrough in quantifying urban pollution from human activities.

    Net4Cities will pursue its objectives across five measures:

    • Net4Cities will work with policy- and decision-makers, citizens’ associations and interested organisations to develop evidence-based, tailored policy solutions for effective plans to reduce air and noise pollution.
    • Deliver the next generation of advanced monitoring networks for transport-related air (exhaust and non-exhaust) and noise pollution capable of providing information in real-time to support decision-making, for health studies, and to inform policy.
    • Generate data on (emerging) pollutants and noise in cities from contrasting geographical and climatic locations with differing fleet compositions to support source apportionment and modelling applications and the improvement of emissions inventories.
    • Consolidate information from analyses in databases at the city and national levels in order to assess traffic emissions and aid in efforts to comply with limit values and reduce adverse health impacts.
    • Establish the Net4Cities Studio, including guidance on the analysis of emerging pollutants in order to address future challenges appropriately.

    Net4Cities is an EU Horizon project with a duration of four years (January 2024 to December 2027) and has been granted five million euros in funding.

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