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Prof. Nelson Barros
UFP Energy, Environment and Health Research Unit (FP-ENAS), University Fernando Pessoa, 4249-004 Porto, Portugal

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0 Air Pollution Control
0 Environmental Health
0 Exposure Assessment
0 Indoor Air Quality
0 Occupational Health

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Chapter
Published: 06 April 2021 in World Sustainability Series
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The residents around Rufina beach are an unique case of knowledge and experience in a fluvial ecosystem of great ecological relevance in Amazon, vital source to the planet and an important subject for all citizens. Currently, it is also a focus of study in several areas of natural and human sciences, in particular due to the specific role that women play in society. Natural resources, such as forest, soil and water, impose themselves as immediate targets for preservation, particularly by residents who daily experience tourism and withdraw their livelihood from these waters. In line with the goal 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), by United Nations (UN), a global appeal to sustainability in general, this research aims to describe survival and tourism actions in the sparsely populated region located in Mucajaí, RR, Brazil, addressing the important actions of women in this region. The descriptive methodology is directed to the attitudes of citizens around the Mucajaí River. For a good resource management, an awareness raising meeting has stimulated actions to minimize the aesthetic stress on the aquatic landscape, a negative factor for geotourism, and which has as its principle conservation the inclusion of local citizens. It can be concluded that awareness and ecologically correct attitudes, such as the reduction of river pollution, guarantee social and environmental sustainability for all.

ACS Style

Ana Sibelonia Saldanha Veras; Diogo Guedes Vidal; Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis; Nelson Azevedo Barros. Rufina Beach and Sustainable Development: The Role of Women in Mucajaí, RR, Brazil. World Sustainability Series 2021, 365 -376.

AMA Style

Ana Sibelonia Saldanha Veras, Diogo Guedes Vidal, Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis, Nelson Azevedo Barros. Rufina Beach and Sustainable Development: The Role of Women in Mucajaí, RR, Brazil. World Sustainability Series. 2021; ():365-376.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ana Sibelonia Saldanha Veras; Diogo Guedes Vidal; Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis; Nelson Azevedo Barros. 2021. "Rufina Beach and Sustainable Development: The Role of Women in Mucajaí, RR, Brazil." World Sustainability Series , no. : 365-376.

Research article
Published: 03 September 2020 in International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology
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The complex interaction of ecological and social systems has shaped the cities through the time. This fosters the need to develop interdisciplinary approaches to urban issues by combining natural and social sciences. Cities, as the predominant mode of social organization, are vulnerable to social and environmental challenges which urban green spaces (UGS) can contribute to solve by the ecosystem services (ES) that can provide. The objective was to assess the quality of UGS framed by the ES classification and relate with the provision of these services in areas of distinct socioeconomic and environmental deprivation. An evaluation grid was applied in 25 UGS in the city of Porto. Socioeconomic and environmental deprivation index applied by the Porto City Hall in the Municipal Master plan to divide the city into 5 clusters of deprivation was used to select 5 UGS of each cluster. In the most deprived communities, namely in clusters of high and very high socioeconomic and environmental deprivation, the quality of UGS is lower than in the less vulnerable ones. Besides this, it was found that some UGS located in clusters with higher vulnerability have an overall good quality, namely those located in historic and touristic areas of the city. The evaluation grid may be useful to the local authorities to diagnose, monitor and evaluate the ES of UGS and to identify situations of environmental injustice contributing to pursue the implementation of sustainable development goals at a local level.

ACS Style

Diogo Guedes Vidal; Cláudia Oliveira Fernandes; Lilian Monteiro Ferrari Viterbo; Helena Vilaça; Nelson Barros; Rui Leandro Maia. Combining an evaluation grid application to assess ecosystem services of urban green spaces and a socioeconomic spatial analysis. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology 2020, 1 -12.

AMA Style

Diogo Guedes Vidal, Cláudia Oliveira Fernandes, Lilian Monteiro Ferrari Viterbo, Helena Vilaça, Nelson Barros, Rui Leandro Maia. Combining an evaluation grid application to assess ecosystem services of urban green spaces and a socioeconomic spatial analysis. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology. 2020; ():1-12.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Diogo Guedes Vidal; Cláudia Oliveira Fernandes; Lilian Monteiro Ferrari Viterbo; Helena Vilaça; Nelson Barros; Rui Leandro Maia. 2020. "Combining an evaluation grid application to assess ecosystem services of urban green spaces and a socioeconomic spatial analysis." International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology , no. : 1-12.

Reference work
Published: 15 October 2019 in Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
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ACS Style

Diogo Guedes Vidal; Nelson Barros; Rui Leandro Maia. Public and Green Spaces in the Context of Sustainable Development. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2019, 1 -9.

AMA Style

Diogo Guedes Vidal, Nelson Barros, Rui Leandro Maia. Public and Green Spaces in the Context of Sustainable Development. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 2019; ():1-9.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Diogo Guedes Vidal; Nelson Barros; Rui Leandro Maia. 2019. "Public and Green Spaces in the Context of Sustainable Development." Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals , no. : 1-9.

Journal article
Published: 03 September 2019 in Atmospheric Environment
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a harmful gas with impacts on human health. Human exposure to this pollutant causes an inflammatory response of the respiratory system and increased susceptibility to pulmonary infections. NO2 also promotes the formation of nitrosamines, some of which are potentially carcinogenic. Bus drivers are chronically exposed to potentially high levels of NO2 during their working hours. The objective of this study was to compare the NO2 exposure of urban bus drivers (target group) with that of office workers (control group) during working hours. This is an observational study of a population comprising 59 people, of which 30 were bus drivers (50.8%) and 29 were administrative workers (49.2%). All participants used a passive NO2 sampler that was only exposed while the participant was working. The data were collected over three-week sampling campaigns, one in winter (from June 28, 2017, to July 20, 2017) and the other in summer (from January 3, 2018, to January 24, 2018), in Caxias do Sul, Brazil. For control purposes, NO2 levels were also measured at three different city locations, one directly affected by traffic emissions (traffic station), the second far from these emissions (background station), and the third in the bus parking garage. In general, the results showed that the exposure of bus drivers to NO2 was significantly higher than that of administrative workers P < 0.001), with differences close to 75%. In winter, normally the NO2 values are higher than the summer values. These results also suggest that, assuming that NO2 is a good indicator of the presence of other pollutants of anthropogenic origin, both drivers and passengers may be exposed to unsafe concentration levels of pollutants present inside buses. Therefore, this type of study should be continued and expanded upon.

ACS Style

Sandra Magali Heberle; Claudia Lorini; Michele S.G. Rosa; Nelson Barros. Evaluation of bus driver exposure to nitrogen dioxide levels during working hours. Atmospheric Environment 2019, 216, 116906 .

AMA Style

Sandra Magali Heberle, Claudia Lorini, Michele S.G. Rosa, Nelson Barros. Evaluation of bus driver exposure to nitrogen dioxide levels during working hours. Atmospheric Environment. 2019; 216 ():116906.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sandra Magali Heberle; Claudia Lorini; Michele S.G. Rosa; Nelson Barros. 2019. "Evaluation of bus driver exposure to nitrogen dioxide levels during working hours." Atmospheric Environment 216, no. : 116906.

Journal article
Published: 31 August 2019 in Environmental Pollution
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Diesel-fueled buses have been replaced by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to minimize the high level of emissions in urban areas. However, differences in indoor exposure levels to Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene (BTEX) in those vehicles have not been investigated so far. The primary aim of this study was to determine if passengers are exposed to different BTEX levels when using buses powered by CNG or by diesel, and further explore if indoor levels are influenced by external air quality. For this purpose, BTEX air concentrations were measured in bus cabins (CNG and diesel), parking stations and in a background urban area using passive air samplers. Results showed that BTEX concentrations inside vehicles were higher than outside, but no significant differences were found between buses powered by CNG or by diesel. In CNG vehicles, high and significant positive correlation was found between benzene and the number of journeys in the same route (rs = 0.786, p < 0.05), vehicle operating time (rs = 0.738, p < 0.05), exposure time (rs = 0.714, p < 0.05) and exposure index (rs = 0.738, p < 0.05), but this was not observed for diesel vehicles. Benzene in bus cabins was found to be significantly below reference value for human health protection. However, excepting p-xylene, all other aromatic pollutants have a mean concentration significantly above the lowest effect level (p ≤ 0.002 for all comparisons). Additionally, higher BTEX levels in cabin buses than in outdoor air suggest the presence of other emission sources in indoor cabins. These findings emphasize the need for further studies to fully characterize indoor emission sources in order to minimize the negative impact of BTEX exposure to human health.

ACS Style

Tânia Fontes; Maria Da Conceição Manso; Joana C Prata; Márcia Carvalho; Cláudia Silva; Nelson Barros. Exposure to BTEX in buses: The influence of vehicle fuel type. Environmental Pollution 2019, 255, 113100 .

AMA Style

Tânia Fontes, Maria Da Conceição Manso, Joana C Prata, Márcia Carvalho, Cláudia Silva, Nelson Barros. Exposure to BTEX in buses: The influence of vehicle fuel type. Environmental Pollution. 2019; 255 ():113100.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tânia Fontes; Maria Da Conceição Manso; Joana C Prata; Márcia Carvalho; Cláudia Silva; Nelson Barros. 2019. "Exposure to BTEX in buses: The influence of vehicle fuel type." Environmental Pollution 255, no. : 113100.

Articles
Published: 03 May 2019 in Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A
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The volatile organic compounds benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) are emitted into the atmosphere at gas stations (GS) leading to chronic exposure of nearby residents, which raises public health concerns. This study aimes at determining the contribution of GS emissions to BTEX exposure in nearby residents. Three Control and Exposed areas to BTEX emissions from GS were defined in a medium-sized European city (Porto, Portugal). BTEX atmospheric levels were determined in Control and Exposed areas using passive samplers deployed outdoors (n = 48) and indoors (n = 36), and human exposure was estimated for 119 non-smoking residents using the first urine of the day. Results showed that median BTEX outdoor and indoor concentrations were significantly higher for Exposed than Control areas, with exception of ethylbenzene and xylene indoor concentrations, where no marked differences were found. Comparison of urinary concentrations between Exposed and Control residents demonstrated no significant differences for benzene and ethylbenzene, whereas levels of toluene and xylene were significantly higher in Exposed residents. No marked correlation was obtained between atmospheric BTEX concentrations and urinary concentrations. Data indicate the potential impact on air quality of BTEX emissions from GS, which confirms the importance of these findings in urban planning in order to minimize the impact on health and well-being of surrounding populations.

ACS Style

Nelson Barros; Márcia Carvalho; Cláudia Silva; Tânia Fontes; Joana C Prata; André Sousa; Maria Da Conceição Manso. Environmental and biological monitoring of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) exposure in residents living near gas stations. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A 2019, 82, 550 -563.

AMA Style

Nelson Barros, Márcia Carvalho, Cláudia Silva, Tânia Fontes, Joana C Prata, André Sousa, Maria Da Conceição Manso. Environmental and biological monitoring of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) exposure in residents living near gas stations. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A. 2019; 82 (9):550-563.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nelson Barros; Márcia Carvalho; Cláudia Silva; Tânia Fontes; Joana C Prata; André Sousa; Maria Da Conceição Manso. 2019. "Environmental and biological monitoring of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) exposure in residents living near gas stations." Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A 82, no. 9: 550-563.

Journal article
Published: 25 December 2018 in Sustainability
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Adequate management of indoor air quality (IAQ) in healthcare units has relevant impacts on sustainability performance due to its effects on patient safety, occupational health and safety, and energy consumptions. This study sought to identify improvement opportunities on IAQ management by collecting and analyzing experimental data of selected parameters in three healthcare units in Portugal: Two general hospitals and one primary healthcare center. Indoor air temperature, relative humidity, CO2, bacteria, and fungi concentrations were measured in summer and winter campaigns in June/July 2017 and in January/March 2018. Results show that the exclusive use of natural ventilation is not adequate when the affluence of users is high, but the analyzed parameters revealed acceptable results under low occupation intensity conditions. Results also show that keeping low indoor air relative humidity has a significant impact in reducing fungi concentration and that there is a significant correlation at the 0.05 level between indoor air CO2 concentration and bacterial loads. Therefore, as opportunities to improve sustainability, IAQ management in healthcare facilities should consider natural ventilation as a complement to mechanical ventilation systems and should focus on adequate control of indoor air relative humidity and CO2 concentration to reduce the risk of airborne infections.

ACS Style

Ana Fonseca; Isabel Abreu; Maria João Guerreiro; Cristina Abreu; Ricardo Silva; Nelson Barros. Indoor Air Quality and Sustainability Management—Case Study in Three Portuguese Healthcare Units. Sustainability 2018, 11, 101 .

AMA Style

Ana Fonseca, Isabel Abreu, Maria João Guerreiro, Cristina Abreu, Ricardo Silva, Nelson Barros. Indoor Air Quality and Sustainability Management—Case Study in Three Portuguese Healthcare Units. Sustainability. 2018; 11 (1):101.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ana Fonseca; Isabel Abreu; Maria João Guerreiro; Cristina Abreu; Ricardo Silva; Nelson Barros. 2018. "Indoor Air Quality and Sustainability Management—Case Study in Three Portuguese Healthcare Units." Sustainability 11, no. 1: 101.

Reference work
Published: 07 August 2018 in Handbook of Environmental Materials Management
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This research consists of a review developed based on studies on the association between air pollution and respiratory health, more specifically, on the effects of NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), particularly on bus drivers. The Revolution Industrial accelerated the emission of pollutants from an anthropogenic origin. The air pollution is present in the world in the most different scenarios. Approximately 50% of the planet’s population lives in cities and urban agglomerations and is exposed to progressively higher levels of air pollutants. Driving vehicles in high traffic routes can increase the level of exposure to NO2 by reducing lung capacity. Therefore, studies in the Medline and B-on databases, which have evaluated the levels of NO2 concentration due to the emission of motor vehicles and their effects on human health, are being sought. On the other hand, the lists of references of the selected articles were also revised, allowing in this way to broaden the research carried out. The research period included studies published until July 2016, with a series of articles, abstracts, and full texts which were screened to identify suitable studies and, therefore, to select the research to be used. The inclusion criteria for articles were those that analyzed the association of NO2 and the effects on human health, particularly in bus drivers.

ACS Style

Sandra Magali Heberle; Gustavo Marques da Costa; Nelson Barros; Michele S. G. Rosa. The Effects of Atmospheric Pollution in Respiratory Health. Handbook of Environmental Materials Management 2018, 1 -16.

AMA Style

Sandra Magali Heberle, Gustavo Marques da Costa, Nelson Barros, Michele S. G. Rosa. The Effects of Atmospheric Pollution in Respiratory Health. Handbook of Environmental Materials Management. 2018; ():1-16.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sandra Magali Heberle; Gustavo Marques da Costa; Nelson Barros; Michele S. G. Rosa. 2018. "The Effects of Atmospheric Pollution in Respiratory Health." Handbook of Environmental Materials Management , no. : 1-16.

Journal article
Published: 01 August 2018 in Environmental Pollution
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Air quality traffic-related measures have been implemented worldwide to control the pollution levels of urban areas. Although some of those measures are claiming environmental improvements, few studies have checked their real impact. In fact, quantitative estimates are often focused on reducing emissions, rather than on evaluating the actual measures' effect on air quality. Even when air quality studies are conducted, results are frequently unclear. In order to properly assess the real impact on air quality of traffic-related measures, a statistical method is proposed. The method compares the pollutant concentration levels observed after the implementation of a measure with the concentration values of the previous year. Short- and long-term impact is assessed considering not only their influence on the average pollutant concentration, but also on its maximum level. To control the effect of the main confounding factors, only the days with similar environmental conditions are analysed. The changeability of the key meteorological variables that affect the transport and dispersion of the pollutant studied are used to identify and group the days categorized as similar. Resemblance of the pollutants' concentration of the previous day is also taken into account. The impact of the road traffic measures on the air pollutants' concentration is then checked for those similar days using specific statistical functions. To evaluate the proposed method, the impact on PM concentrations of two air quality traffic-related measures (M1 and M2) implemented in the city of Beijing are taken into consideration: M1 was implemented in 2009, restricting the circulation of yellow-labelled vehicles, while M2 was implemented in 2014, restricting the circulation of heavy-duty vehicles. To compare the results of each measure, a time-period when these measures were not applied is used as case-control.

ACS Style

Tânia Fontes; Peilin Li; Nelson Barros; Pengjun Zhao. A proposed methodology for impact assessment of air quality traffic-related measures: The case of PM2.5 in Beijing. Environmental Pollution 2018, 239, 818 -828.

AMA Style

Tânia Fontes, Peilin Li, Nelson Barros, Pengjun Zhao. A proposed methodology for impact assessment of air quality traffic-related measures: The case of PM2.5 in Beijing. Environmental Pollution. 2018; 239 ():818-828.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tânia Fontes; Peilin Li; Nelson Barros; Pengjun Zhao. 2018. "A proposed methodology for impact assessment of air quality traffic-related measures: The case of PM2.5 in Beijing." Environmental Pollution 239, no. : 818-828.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2018 in IFAC-PapersOnLine
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ACS Style

Joana Monjardino; Nelson Barros; Francisco Ferreira; H. Tente; Tânia Fontes; P. Pereira; Maria Da Conceição Manso. Improving Air Quality in Lisbon: modelling emission abatement scenarios. IFAC-PapersOnLine 2018, 51, 61 -66.

AMA Style

Joana Monjardino, Nelson Barros, Francisco Ferreira, H. Tente, Tânia Fontes, P. Pereira, Maria Da Conceição Manso. Improving Air Quality in Lisbon: modelling emission abatement scenarios. IFAC-PapersOnLine. 2018; 51 (5):61-66.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Joana Monjardino; Nelson Barros; Francisco Ferreira; H. Tente; Tânia Fontes; P. Pereira; Maria Da Conceição Manso. 2018. "Improving Air Quality in Lisbon: modelling emission abatement scenarios." IFAC-PapersOnLine 51, no. 5: 61-66.

Meta analysis
Published: 01 July 2017 in Journal of Environmental Management
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The fast economic growth of China along the last two decades has created a strong impact on the environment. The occurrence of heavy haze pollution days is the most visible effect. Although many researchers have studied such problem, a high number of spatio-temporal limitations in the recent studies were identified. From our best knowledge the long trends of PM2.5 concentrations were not fully investigated in China, in particular the year-to-year trends and the seasonal and daily cycles. Therefore, in this work the PM2.5 concentrations collected from automatic monitors from five urban sites located in megacities with different climatic zones in China were analysed: Beijing (40°N), Chengdu (31°N), Guangzhou (23°N), Shanghai (31°N) and Shenyang (43°N). For an inter-comparison a meta-analysis was carried out. An evaluation conducted since 1999 demonstrates that PM2.5 concentrations have been reduced until 2008, period which match with the occurrence of the Olympic Games. However, a seasonal analysis highlight that such decrease occurs mostly during warmer seasons than cold seasons. During winter PM2.5 concentrations are typically 1.3 to 2.7 higher than in summer. The average daily cycle shows that the lowest and highest PM2.5 concentrations often occurs in the afternoon and evening hours respectively. Such daily variations are mostly driven by the daily variation of the boundary layer depth and emissions. Although the PM2.5 levels have showing signs of improvement, even during the warming season the values are still too high in comparison with the annual environmental standards of China (35 μg m-3). Moreover, during cold seasons the north regions have values twice higher than this limit. Thus, to fulfil these standards the governmental mitigation measures need to be strongly reinforced in order to optimize the daily living energy consumption, primarily in the north regions of China and during the winter periods.

ACS Style

Tânia Fontes; Peilin Li; Nelson Barros; Pengjun Zhao. Trends of PM 2.5 concentrations in China: A long term approach. Journal of Environmental Management 2017, 196, 719 -732.

AMA Style

Tânia Fontes, Peilin Li, Nelson Barros, Pengjun Zhao. Trends of PM 2.5 concentrations in China: A long term approach. Journal of Environmental Management. 2017; 196 ():719-732.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tânia Fontes; Peilin Li; Nelson Barros; Pengjun Zhao. 2017. "Trends of PM 2.5 concentrations in China: A long term approach." Journal of Environmental Management 196, no. : 719-732.

Journal article
Published: 24 January 2015 in Atmospheric Environment
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The National Emission Ceilings Directive 2001/81/CE (NEC Directive) was adopted in the European Community in 2001 and went through a revision process in 2005. One of its main objectives is to improve the protection of the environment and human health against the risks of adverse effects from ground-level ozone, moving towards the long-term objective of not exceeding critical levels proved to effectively protect the populations and ecosystems. Considering such objectives, national emission ceilings were established imposing the years 2010 and 2020 as benchmarks. Ten years later, what was the effectiveness of this Directive concerning the control of tropospheric ozone levels in Portugal? In order to answer the previous question, annual ozone precursors' emissions (NOx, NMVOC) and annual atmospheric concentrations (NOx and O3) were analyzed between 1990 and 2011. The background concentrations were assessed in each environment type of air quality station (urban, suburban and rural) through their annual mean ozone concentration and the hourly information threshold exceedances (episodic peak levels). To evaluate the statistical differences in the inter-annual episodic peak levels, a Peak Ozone Index (POIx) was defined and calculated. The results show that, despite the achievement on the emissions NEC Directive goals, associated to the reduction of ozone precursors' emissions, and the decrease of ozone episodic peak levels, the mean tropospheric ozone concentrations significantly increased between 2003 and 2007 (p < 0.05) although the number of exceedances to the information threshold (180 μg m−3) has decreased. During the period of 1990–2000, before the implementation of the NEC Directive, the mean ozone values were 25% lower in rural stations, 26% in urban stations and 12% in suburban stations, demonstrating that the NEC policy based on NOx and NMVOCs emissions reduction does not lead to an effective overall reduction of ozone concentrations considering the reduction on these pollutants independently. Indeed, the mesoscale ozone production and/or the long range advection may play also an important role as the analysis of Mace Head ozone concentrations suggests. Above all, and due to its non-linear interactions in the ozone chemical balance, the NEC directive should impose emissions' reduction respecting the NOx/NMVOC ratio instead of consider it as a mere guideline value. The mesoscale photochemical ozone production should be carefully analyzed under the new policies, namely in coastal countries like Portugal where the mesoscale circulations play a crucial role in this type of phenomena.

ACS Style

Nelson Barros; Tânia Fontes; M.P. Silva; M.C. Manso; A.C. Carvalho. Analysis of the effectiveness of the NEC Directive on the tropospheric ozone levels in Portugal. Atmospheric Environment 2015, 106, 80 -91.

AMA Style

Nelson Barros, Tânia Fontes, M.P. Silva, M.C. Manso, A.C. Carvalho. Analysis of the effectiveness of the NEC Directive on the tropospheric ozone levels in Portugal. Atmospheric Environment. 2015; 106 ():80-91.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nelson Barros; Tânia Fontes; M.P. Silva; M.C. Manso; A.C. Carvalho. 2015. "Analysis of the effectiveness of the NEC Directive on the tropospheric ozone levels in Portugal." Atmospheric Environment 106, no. : 80-91.

Journal article
Published: 01 August 2014 in Science of The Total Environment
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Tropospheric ozone is a secondary pollutant having a negative impact on health and environment. To control and minimize such impact the European Community established regulations to promote a clean air all over Europe. However, when an episode is related with natural mechanisms as Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchanges (STE), the benefits of an action plan to minimize precursor emissions are inefficient. Therefore, this work aims to develop a tool to identify the sources of ozone episodes in order to minimize misclassification and thus avoid the implementation of inappropriate air quality plans. For this purpose, an artificial neural network model - the Multilayer Perceptron - is used as a binary classifier of the source of an ozone episode. Long data series, between 2001 and 2010, considering the ozone precursors, (7)Be activity and meteorological conditions were used. With this model, 2-7% of a mean error was achieved, which is considered as a good generalization. Accuracy measures for imbalanced data are also discussed. The MCC values show a good performance of the model (0.65-0.92). Precision and F1-measure indicate that the model specifies a little better the rare class. Thus, the results demonstrate that such a tool can be used to help authorities in the management of ozone, namely when its thresholds are exceeded due natural causes, as the above mentioned STE. Therefore, the resources used to implement an action plan to minimize ozone precursors could be better managed avoiding the implementation of inappropriate measures.

ACS Style

T. Fontes; L.M. Silva; M.P. Silva; N. Barros; A.C. Carvalho. Can artificial neural networks be used to predict the origin of ozone episodes? Science of The Total Environment 2014, 488-489, 197 -207.

AMA Style

T. Fontes, L.M. Silva, M.P. Silva, N. Barros, A.C. Carvalho. Can artificial neural networks be used to predict the origin of ozone episodes? Science of The Total Environment. 2014; 488-489 ():197-207.

Chicago/Turabian Style

T. Fontes; L.M. Silva; M.P. Silva; N. Barros; A.C. Carvalho. 2014. "Can artificial neural networks be used to predict the origin of ozone episodes?" Science of The Total Environment 488-489, no. : 197-207.

Proceedings article
Published: 07 July 2014 in Air Pollution XXII
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ACS Style

N. Barros; Márcia Silva; Tânia Fontes; Maria Da Conceição Manso; A. C. Carvalho. Learning from 24 years of ozone data in Portugal. Air Pollution XXII 2014, 1, 117 -128.

AMA Style

N. Barros, Márcia Silva, Tânia Fontes, Maria Da Conceição Manso, A. C. Carvalho. Learning from 24 years of ozone data in Portugal. Air Pollution XXII. 2014; 1 ():117-128.

Chicago/Turabian Style

N. Barros; Márcia Silva; Tânia Fontes; Maria Da Conceição Manso; A. C. Carvalho. 2014. "Learning from 24 years of ozone data in Portugal." Air Pollution XXII 1, no. : 117-128.

Journal article
Published: 28 February 2013 in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
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In recent years, several studies show that people who live, work or attend school near the main roadways have an increased incidence and severity of health problems that may be related with traffic emissions of air pollutants. The concentrations of near-road atmospheric pollutants vary depending on traffic patterns, environmental conditions, topography and the presence of roadside structures. In this study, the vertical and horizontal variation of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and benzene (C6H6) concentration along a major city ring motorway were analysed. The main goal of this study is to try to establish a distance from this urban motorway considered “safe” concerning the air pollutants human heath limit values and to study the influence of the different forcing factors of the near road air pollutants transport and dispersion. Statistic significant differences (p = 0.001, Kruskal–Wallis test) were observed between sub-domains for NO2 representing different conditions of traffic emission and pollutants dispersion, but not for C6H6 (p = 0.335). Results also suggest significant lower concentrations recorded at 100 m away from roadway than at the roadside for all campaigns (p < 0.016 (NO2) and p < 0.036 (C6H6), Mann–Whitney test). In order to have a “safe” life in homes located near motorways, the outdoor concentrations of NO2 must not exceed 44–60.0 μg m−3 and C6H6 must not exceed 1.4–3.3 μg m−3. However, at 100 m away from roadway, 81.8% of NO2 receptors exceed the annual limit value of human health protection (40 μg m−3) and at the roadside this value goes up to 95.5%. These findings suggest that the safe distance to an urban motorway roadside should be more at least 100 m. This distance should be further studied before being used as a reference to develop articulated urban mobility and planning policies.

ACS Style

Nelson Barros; Tânia Fontes; M.P. Silva; M.C. Manso. How wide should be the adjacent area to an urban motorway to prevent potential health impacts from traffic emissions? Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2013, 50, 113 -128.

AMA Style

Nelson Barros, Tânia Fontes, M.P. Silva, M.C. Manso. How wide should be the adjacent area to an urban motorway to prevent potential health impacts from traffic emissions? Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 2013; 50 ():113-128.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nelson Barros; Tânia Fontes; M.P. Silva; M.C. Manso. 2013. "How wide should be the adjacent area to an urban motorway to prevent potential health impacts from traffic emissions?" Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 50, no. : 113-128.

Journal article
Published: 12 April 2011 in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
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Benzene is a carcinogenic and genotoxic pollutant which mainly affects the people health through the inhalation. Nevertheless, this pollutant is not frequently measured by air-quality networks. To solve this problem, some models have been published to estimate benzene concentrations in the atmosphere. However, the lack of measures makes difficult the application of complex models in order to get a detailed spatio-temporal analysis, namely in urban areas. In this work was developed a simple semi-empirical model to predict benzene concentrations based on the ratio of benzene and carbon monoxide concentrations in order to predict the concentrations of this pollutant in large areas and periods with lack of benzene measurements but with higher impact in the human health. The model was applied to an urban area, the Metropolitan Area of Oporto, for a period of 12 years (1995-2006). Monthly correlations between benzene and carbon monoxide concentrations at Custóias air-quality station are significant (p = 0.01) and higher in winter (r(s) > 0.7) than in summer (0.3 > r(s) > 0.7). Estimate of the monthly ratio of the concentration of these two pollutants range between 199 and 305. The methodology validation shows good results (r(s) = 0.81) which allow, assuming the availability of carbon monoxide data, the use of this tool for areas with low benzene recorded data. The application of this methodology in the study area shows an annual average trend decrease of benzene concentrations during the study period, which may be linked to a general trend decrease of benzene emissions in European urban areas, including the study domain.

ACS Style

Tânia Fontes; Nelson Barros. Spatio-temporal prediction of atmospheric benzene (Part I). Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 2011, 184, 893 -902.

AMA Style

Tânia Fontes, Nelson Barros. Spatio-temporal prediction of atmospheric benzene (Part I). Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. 2011; 184 (2):893-902.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tânia Fontes; Nelson Barros. 2011. "Spatio-temporal prediction of atmospheric benzene (Part I)." Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 184, no. 2: 893-902.

Book chapter
Published: 19 October 2010 in Oceans and the Atmospheric Carbon Content
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Concerns about global warming over the last years have stimulated a large number of studies regarding atmospheric and oceanic carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and its consequences. In spite of the available data on global atmospheric CO2, there is only limited knowledge on CO2 variability at regional scales. Moreover, there is an important gap in our understanding of the contribution of high CO2 emission regions, such as metropolitan areas, to CO2 concentrations over nearby coastal areas–considered by several authors as an important CO2 sink. A possible working hypothesis is that, large littoral metropolitan areas may have a significant influence on CO2 atmospheric concentrations over those areas and exert an important influence on sea-air CO2 exchanges. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to estimate CO2 concentration at a regional scale, under the influence of Oporto Metropolitan Area (OMA) emissions as a first test of this hypothesis. To fulfil this objective, an emission database was built and used to force, together with meteorological synoptic data, a mesoscale atmospheric dispersion model. The model was used to simulate several weather scenarios and estimate CO2 concentrations along a ca. 90 km stretch of the Portuguese northern shore. The results obtained suggest that emissions from OMA have an important influence on CO2 atmospheric concentrations up to 6–12 km offshore, particularly in autumn and winter. However, this CO2 increase does not seem to have the potential to significantly affect sea-air CO2 exchanges, although this is just a preliminary conclusion that has to be tested by field work.

ACS Style

Rogério Carvalho; Nelson Barros; Pedro Duarte. Impact of Oporto Metropolitan Area Carbon Dioxide Emissions over the Adjacent Coastal Zone. Oceans and the Atmospheric Carbon Content 2010, 23 -46.

AMA Style

Rogério Carvalho, Nelson Barros, Pedro Duarte. Impact of Oporto Metropolitan Area Carbon Dioxide Emissions over the Adjacent Coastal Zone. Oceans and the Atmospheric Carbon Content. 2010; ():23-46.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Rogério Carvalho; Nelson Barros; Pedro Duarte. 2010. "Impact of Oporto Metropolitan Area Carbon Dioxide Emissions over the Adjacent Coastal Zone." Oceans and the Atmospheric Carbon Content , no. : 23-46.

Book chapter
Published: 02 March 2006 in Air Pollution Modeling and Its Application XIV
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The Lisbon Region (LR), by its urban and industrial importance is the example of a coastal region subject to high emission levels and potentially favourable to the development of high levels of photochemical pollutants, particularly tropospheric ozone. The application of the photochemical modelling system, MAR IV, suggest that the current ozone formation is NO x -limited and that the forest VOC emissions represent a negligible contribution toward the ozone formation in this region. On the other hand, small industrial sources and particularly road traffic emissions arise as being the principal precursors sources for the development of short-term ozone high concentration levels in the Lisbon Region. Finally, in accordance with the previous conclusions and keeping in mind the future evolution of precursor emissions, it was possible to modelling alternative scenarios so as to define an efficient abatement strategy for the formation of tropospheric ozone in the Lisbon Region.

ACS Style

Carlos Borrego; Nelson Barros; Oxana Tchepel. An Assessment of Modelling Ozone Control Abatement Strategies in Portugar: The Lisbon Urban Area. Air Pollution Modeling and Its Application XIV 2006, 87 -95.

AMA Style

Carlos Borrego, Nelson Barros, Oxana Tchepel. An Assessment of Modelling Ozone Control Abatement Strategies in Portugar: The Lisbon Urban Area. Air Pollution Modeling and Its Application XIV. 2006; ():87-95.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Carlos Borrego; Nelson Barros; Oxana Tchepel. 2006. "An Assessment of Modelling Ozone Control Abatement Strategies in Portugar: The Lisbon Urban Area." Air Pollution Modeling and Its Application XIV , no. : 87-95.

Conference paper
Published: 01 September 2005 in Environmental Health Risk 2005
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In this paper is presented firstly the traffic and emission characterization of Via de Cintura Interna (VCI), an urban highway at Oporto city,...

ACS Style

N. Barros; T. Fontes; C. Bras; L. M. Cunha. Population exposure to urban highway traffic emissions. Environmental Health Risk 2005 2005, 9, 1 .

AMA Style

N. Barros, T. Fontes, C. Bras, L. M. Cunha. Population exposure to urban highway traffic emissions. Environmental Health Risk 2005. 2005; 9 ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

N. Barros; T. Fontes; C. Bras; L. M. Cunha. 2005. "Population exposure to urban highway traffic emissions." Environmental Health Risk 2005 9, no. : 1.

Technical paper
Published: 01 March 2003 in Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association
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Numerical simulations with photochemical transport models were independently performed for two domains situated in the Iberian Peninsula covering the Lisbon and Barcelona airsheds. Although the days chosen for simulation of the two cities are not the same, the synoptic situations in both cases, known as typical summertime situations, were similar, which allowed the development of typical mesoscale circulations, such as sea breezes and mountain and valley winds dominated by the Azores anticyclone. Emission inventories for the two areas were developed. The O3 concentrations recorded in both cities have a similar level. Nevertheless, O(x) values in Barcelona are higher than in Lisbon, which may, at a first glance, indicate an apparently more oxidant atmosphere in Barcelona. Photochemical modeling for the two cities has shown that the behavior of the circulatory patterns in both urban areas is rather different, which mainly has to do with the different strengths of the sea breeze and the topography, inducing an important offshore vertical layered dimension of pollutant transport in Barcelona versus an important inland horizontal transport in Lisbon.

ACS Style

Nelson Barros; Carlos Borrego; Isabel Toll; Cecilia Soriano; Pedro Jiménez; José Maria Baldasano. Urban photochemical pollution in the Iberian Peninsula: Lisbon and Barcelona airsheds. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 2003, 53, 347 -359.

AMA Style

Nelson Barros, Carlos Borrego, Isabel Toll, Cecilia Soriano, Pedro Jiménez, José Maria Baldasano. Urban photochemical pollution in the Iberian Peninsula: Lisbon and Barcelona airsheds. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association. 2003; 53 (3):347-359.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nelson Barros; Carlos Borrego; Isabel Toll; Cecilia Soriano; Pedro Jiménez; José Maria Baldasano. 2003. "Urban photochemical pollution in the Iberian Peninsula: Lisbon and Barcelona airsheds." Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 53, no. 3: 347-359.