Improving urban weather, climate and air quality

Kids love to taste, even a snow. I really like eating snow too, but wait a moment. This winter, I thought a little and questioned my old behaviour. What if polluted air particulates mix with snow? the particles that cause cancer, for example. As far as I am aware of, there are carcinogenic particulates in the air and their life-time is long. So, is it really good to taste snow? and if not, when is it safe to eat snow? As snow falls from the sky, it traps and binds with air particles. The most common particles found out bound with snow are soot and other chemicals that are released by oil industries, coal and wood burning plants. Pesticides that have been in the air for a long period of time may also appear in the current snow. Researchers found out that, even 30, 40, 50 years old air particles, in several cities, are found in snow, even if the amounts are very low. When is it safe to eat snow? It is better to wait for two or three snow falls. The first fall is not a guarantee that...

It is awhile since it was found out that the air we breath can disrupt the  bodies ability to function properly. The studies confirmed that traffic fumes and cigarette smokes are the main problems. Other tiny and irritating particulate matters in the air trigger widespread inflammation and disruption  to the body's ability to burn energy efficiently leading to undesired weight gain.  Without any other changes in lifestyles or diet, polluted air may cause piled up weights. Even if the short term effects are minimal, in the long run, these would be high enough to affect the human metabolism. Besides the respiratory illnesses, it can suppresses our immune system and leaves us more vulnerable to diseases,  and it disrupts the energy burning mechanism and exposes us to obesity, diabetes and even triggers blood pressure.  In this regard, there has been studies conducted on mice, that would offer clues to the effects of air pollution  that may reach fa...

What would happen if nuclear war erupts? a silly question that anyone can answer right away, "nuclear war claims the lives of many people". However, the consequences are more than claiming lives. It worsens the already messy weather and climate, releases pollutants into the air which leaves generations struggle to remove from the air, and it can pollute water and the atmosphere. It could also alter the general circulation of the atmosphere and oceans, and worsens weather and climate. The already wet regions remain wet and the already dry regions remain dry, i.e., there will be an increase in frequency and magnitude of the climate extremes, such as floods, heat waves and other water and wind storms. What is really a nuclear war? A nuclear war is when the fighting parties are equipped with nuclear warheads and are capable of dropping the bomb at the intended battlefield and/or economically active region that would cripple the economy and power of the opposing side. So, gen...

People migrate to cities due to different reasons such as easy access to schools, health facilities, jobs and transportation . More people, therefore, live in urban areas than in rural. According to the  United Nations estimate, in 2014 more than 54% of the world population dwell in cities. It was 30% in 1950. Projections indicate that 66%  of the world's population will live in urban by 2050 . Most of urban people reside in relatively small areas with high number of inhabitants per square meter of land (UN, 2015): " Close to half of the world's urban dwellers reside in relatively small settlements of less than 500, 000 inhabitants, while only around one in eight live in the 28 mega-cities with more than 10 million inhabitants. " It is ages since people noticed that urban air was different from rural air. However, it was air pollution which is the hallmark of the urban atmosphere. In 1818 Luke Howard (1772-1864) published the first edition of a book deal...

Urban development may encourage people to move to cities. There are unprecedented benefits attributed to urban life. Better schools for the children, health facilities, and transportation are few that comes to mind immediately. Urbanization, if not planned well, has its own bad consequences. The IPCC report (2013), predicts that there will be extremes of climate like flooding, drought and storms. In connection with these effects of climate change, arbitrary urban planning only for the sake of urban development without consideration of those extremes of climate may lead to disaster. Urban flooding can easily occur due to ignorant urban development. It happens when water flows faster to urban region when there is no or little infiltration into the soil and surface obstacle that can hinder its rapid movement. There should be well built dikes, channels, and domes to protect water from flowing into the cities. Hard tile pavements, continuous asphalt, close to each other buildings res...

Dire Dawa is the second largest city in Ethiopia situated in the eastern part of the nation. Dechatu river crosses this city dividing it almost equally into the east and west portions. The river rises from the Ahmar Mountains and flows north towards the larger, and mostly used for irrigation, Awash river.  Even if the Dechatu flows towards the Awash river, it does not visibly empty into Awash river, rather it loses itself in the Cantur plain (Buren Meda) north of the city.    Figure 1. Dechatu river crossing Dire Dawa town dividing the city in to eastern and western portions.  Flash floods in urban Dire Dawa, Ethiopia happened many times in different years. In 2006 alone, 256 people reported to have lost their lives, 244 people disappeared, 10,000 people displaced, and houses, infrastructure, and livelihoods were damaged (ETV and VOA news,  2006).    Figure 2. Asphalt road in the middle of Dire Dawa town being ...

The main purpose of models is to represent the complex real system into simple mathematical equations and/or  computer simulations that is useful for (a) understanding the current scenario and establish the causality,  and (b) predicting the evolution of important variables into the future. So, models make studying an environmental system  easier but not simpler. Direct observations are costly, if possible, and prediction is based purely on  statistical techniques which may not use advances in the basic sciences. For example, to study weather and climate there are a number of ways. One method is directly going out into the field observe, photograph, film and draw whatever conclusion based on pure observation. Remote sensing is also part of the field observation. Observation data of such method can be employed for further statistical and/or laboratory analyses. Even though observation is regarded as the best method for obtaining accurate information about the enviro...