Spatial Analysis of The World Bank's Global Urban Air Pollution Dataset

This paper describes the method used to spatially render the World Bank's air pollution database of modelled PM10 concentrations for some 3,200 locations across the world for cities over 100,000 people and capital cities. The dataset has very good spatial coverage with each of the 11 GGI regions well populated by data points. Mapping these point concentrations with respect to population density reveals that most densely populated areas of the world are well accounted for with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa. In total, 1.96 billion people are accounted for, which is 2/3 of the total global urban population. South Asia and the Middle East/North Africa have the highest average concentration. Concentrations and exposures are then mapped according to World Health Organization guidelines. It is found that much of the urban populations in the world's most populous countries have concentrations that lie outside of even the lowest air quality targets. Finally, concentrations are compared to other spatially explicit datasets of pollutants to build a picture of spatial air pollution patterns and help to understand the characteristics of the model.

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