Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban areas around the world are facing a range of environmental health challenges including the contamination of air, water and soil; traffic congestion and noise; and household waste. The additional pressure of climate extremes and the recent global impacts of coronavirus and a challenging economic system provide important drivers for underlying human responses. Environmental quality directly affects health status and plays a major role in quality of life, years of healthy life lived, and health disparities. All these highlight the need for a systems-based understanding of urban environment and public health.

This Special Issue intends to provide an opportunity for the research community to publish the latest results from illustrating the issue "Urban Environmental Quality and Its Health Impacts". We look forward to your related papers.

Prof. Dr. Andrew S. Hursthouse
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

environmental pollution
environmental health
urban environment
waste management
risk assessment
environmental management
public health
climate change
economic crisis

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Open AccessArticle

How Do Road Traffic Noise and Residential Greenness Correlate with Noise Annoyance and Long-Term Stress? Protocol and Pilot Study for a Large Field Survey with a Cross-Sectional Design

and

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(4), 3203; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043203 - 11 Feb 2023

Viewed by 677

Abstract

Urban areas are continuously growing, and densification is a frequent strategy to limit urban expansion. This generally entails a loss of green spaces (GSs) and an increase in noise pollution, which has negative effects on health. Within the research project RESTORE (Restorative potential of green spaces in noise-polluted environments), an extended cross-sectional field study in the city of Zurich, Switzerland, is conducted. The aim is to assess the relationship between noise annoyance and stress (self-perceived and physiological) as well as their association with road traffic noise and GSs. A representative stratified sample of participants from more than 5000 inhabitants will be contacted to complete an online survey. In addition to the self-reported stress identified by the questionnaire, hair cortisol and cortisone probes from a subsample of participants will be obtained to determine physiological stress. Participants are selected according to their dwelling location using a spatial analysis to determine exposure to different road traffic noise levels and access to GSs. Further, characteristics of individuals as well as acoustical and non-acoustical attributes of GSs are accounted for. This paper presents the study protocol and reports the first results of a pilot study to test the feasibility of the protocol. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Environmental Quality and Its Health Impacts)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Open AccessArticle

Contamination and Probabilistic Ecological–Health Risk of Heavy Metal(loid)s in Urban Topsoil of Mianyang, SW China

Huaming Du

and

Xinwei Lu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(22), 15126; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215126 - 16 Nov 2022

Viewed by 526

Abstract

Heavy metal(loid) (HM) pollution in urban topsoil seriously endangers the health of urban residents and urban sustainable development. Compared with large cities, the research on the HM pollution of topsoil in emerging medium-sized industrial cities is quite limited. This study focuses on topsoil HM contamination in Mianyang, which is a representative moderate emerging industrial city in Southwest China. The results indicate that Ba, Cr, Cu, and Zn in the samples were much higher than their background values. The hot spots of Ba, As, Cu, Pb, Co, Cr, and Zn showed an obvious enrichment trend. The potential ecological risk of HMs showed a low ecological risk, which was mainly caused by As. The investigated HMs presented no significant non-carcinogenic hazard to local adult residents, but there were three sampling sites which presented a non-carcinogenic hazard to children; the carcinogenic risks of As, Cr, Co, and Ni were acceptable. In this study, a mixed source of industry and traffic was identified to be the priority anthropogenic source, and Cr and As were identified as the priority elements for further risk control. The findings of our study could be beneficial to decision-makers with regard to taking appropriate measures to control and reduce HM pollution in the Mianyang urban area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Environmental Quality and Its Health Impacts)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Special Issue "Urban Environmental Quality and Its Health Impacts"

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (2 papers)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI