Stories
City Logistics for the Urban Economy (CLUE)
Symposium, May 2024
Positive Zero took part in the 3rd Annual City Logistics for the Urban Economy (CLUE). Symposium. The event took place on Thursday, May 30, 2024 at the University of Toronto St. George campus. The event welcomed over 40 poster presentations from University of Toronto, York University, Toronto Metropolitan University, and McMaster University. Attendees ranged from academia, industry and government.
Positive Zero Program Director Junshi Xu shared his poster “Prediction of short-term ultrafine particle exposures using street-level images and air quality data based on mobile monitoring”. PhD candidates Weaam Jafar and Yunhong (Doris) Tian shared posters “Capturing the Impacts of Construction Activities Using a Network of Low-cost Sensors Placed on Residential Balconies” and “Sampling Strategy of Truck Flow Estimation”. PhD candidate Sara Torbatian presented her poster “Implications of Freight Electrification Scenarios for GHG Emissions, Air Quality, Health, and Environmental Justice”, winning the poster competition for the theme “Social, Environmental and Safety Impacts”.
Sara’s work studies the disproportionate contribution of large trucks to air pollution in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Using emission inventories and the Polari3D chemical transport model, Sara explores and evaluates the air quality benefits of different mitigation strategies for freight electrification. She finds that the electrification of heavy-duty trucks achieves the highest benefits for air quality improvement, especially in areas close to highways and major roads. Electrification of heavy duty trucks also achieves the highest reduction of GHG emissions. Studying environmental justice, Sara finds that the most disadvantaged groups experience the best air quality improvements when electrifying heavy-duty trucks. Read more about Sara’s work in her recent publication in Environmental Science & Technology: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c08867
CLUE is an academic collaboration between ten faculty researchers across the University of Toronto, York University and McMaster University. The CLUE research group explores how the transportation of goods in urban landscapes can be adapted to address congestion, emissions, safety and equitable distribution of benefits and costs. Read more about CLUE here: https://clue.utoronto.ca/