Estimating within-city variability in air pollution concentrations is important. Land use regression (LUR)
models are able to explain such small-scale within-city variations. Transparency in LUR model development
methods is important to facilitate comparison of methods between different studies. We
therefore developed LUR models in a standardized way in 36 study areas in Europe for the ESCAPE
(European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects) project.
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) were measured with Ogawa passive samplers at 40
or 80 sites in each of the 36 study areas. The spatial variation in each area was explained by LUR
modelling. Centrally and locally available Geographic Information System (GIS) variables were used as
potential predictors. A leave-one out cross-validation procedure was used to evaluate the model
performance.
There was substantial contrast in annual average NO2 and NOx concentrations within the study areas.
The model explained variances (R2) of the LUR models ranged from 55% to 92% (median 82%) for NO2 and
from 49% to 91% (median 78%) for NOx. For most areas the cross-validation R2 was less than 10% lower
than the model R2. Small-scale traffic and population/household density were the most common predictors.
The magnitude of the explained variance depended on the contrast in measured concentrations
as well as availability of GIS predictors, especially traffic intensity data were important. In an additional
evaluation, models in which local traffic intensity was not offered had 10% lower R2 compared to models
in the same areas in which these variables were offered.
Within the ESCAPE project it was possible to develop LUR models that explained a large fraction of the
spatial variance in measured annual average NO2 and NOx concentrations. These LUR models are being
used to estimate outdoor concentrations at the home addresses of participants in over 30 cohort studies.