It is the require of term paper, it is the same as I have written above. However it more details, and it also have the introduction about what we learned in the course. Please read it carefully.
Michelle_Michy
20200430220231topic_proposal.docxName
Prof.
Case Studies in Environmental Issues and Policy Analysis
Date
Actions to take to Minimize Air Pollution caused by Transportation in Mexico City
Air pollution is a serious environmental problem that many cities are grappling with presently. This has prompted stakeholders in the field to try to come up with strategies of curbing it as a way of alleviating associated health problems and preserving mother earth for posterity. Many planners and managers in urban areas prefer the use of public transport over the private ones in controlling air pollution arising as seen in the case of Mexico City.
Mexico was considered one of the most populated areas in the early 1990s, and air pollution has been of great concern since then. For people between thirty and seventy years, air pollution has contributed to approximately seventeen percent of all deaths caused by non-communicable diseases (Betancourt et al., 2019). Individuals in urban areas are of specific interest since they are exposed to a significant amount of air pollutants, which can lead to serious health issues. Exposure to air pollutants harms people’s health.
The leading causes of air pollution in Mexico City include transportation, industrialization, urbanization, and individuals’ daily activities. The geographical environment further exacerbates pollution. The metropolitan area of Mexico City covers the city itself and the surrounding states and cities located in the Mexico Valley. This annular basin formed by the eruption of ancient volcanoes is not conducive to the dissipation of emissions. Besides, the altitude with less oxygen results in a reduction in the efficiency of the vehicle engine and increase of the releasing pollutants.
Over the past two decades, Mexico has introduced different measures, programs, and policies to reduce pollution and enhance the urban public transport network in Mexico City. For instance, Metrobus, Mexico City’s bus rapid transport (BRT) network, was introduced in June 2005 to ease the congestion, cut air-polluting emissions, and enhance the city’s transport efficiency (Bel & Holst, 2018). In 2016, a Supreme Court overturned a ruling that barred all cars that are over eight years old from the streets. This ruling introduced more than 1.4 million cars back on the road each day. The city reported an air pollution alert during this period, which indicated that its air pollution problems still exist. As such, there is a need to come up with effective strategies to address the air pollution problems in the city.
This paper will take advantage of field data and existing literature to establish how the current public transportation impacts on air pollution and whether the existing environmental policy is effective in reducing air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and particulate matter of bellow 10µm (PM10) (Shinohara et al., 2017). This paper will also discuss economic factors such as the legal, administrative, and enforcement costs; operation costs; and capital costs when deciding on the policies that would be adopted to address the air pollution problem. From the obtained results and the conclusions regarding public transportation and air pollution, this paper will recommend policy changes to improve the city’s air quality while considering the health perspective of the existing public transportation.
References
Bel, G., & Holst, M. (2018). Evaluation of the impact of bus rapid transit on air pollution in Mexico City. Transport Policy, 63, 209-220.
Betancourt, R. M., Galvis, B., Rincón-Riveros, J. M., Rincón-Caro, M. A., Rodriguez-Valencia, A., & Sarmiento, O. L. (2019). Personal exposure to air pollutants in a Bus Rapid Transit System: Impact of fleet age and emission standard. Atmospheric Environment, 202, 117-127.
Shinohara, N., Ángeles, F., Basaldud, R., Cardenas, B., & Wakamatsu, S. (2017). Reductions in commuter exposure to volatile organic compounds in Mexico City due to the environmental program ProAire2002–2010. Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology, 27(3), 339-345.
