Published Work

Below is a full list of publications by CSUD and affiliated researchers arranged by publish date. Use the tools below to search these resources or browse them by category.

• Traffic impacts on PM2.5 air quality in Nairobi, KenyaKinney, P.L., Gatari Gichuru, M., Volavka-Close, N., Ngo, N., Ndiba, P., Law, A., Gachanja, A., Gaita, S.L., Chillrud, S. and Sclar, E. | Kinney, P.L., Gatari Gichuru, M., Volavka-Close, N., Ngo, N., Ndiba, P., Law, A., Gachanja, A., Gaita, S.L., Chillrud [+]
  Abstract: Motor vehicle traffic is an important source of particulate pollution in cities of the developing world, where rapid growth, coupled with a lack of effective transport and land use planning, may result in harmful levels of fine particles (PM2.5) in the air. However, a lack of air monitoring data hinders health impact assessments and the development of transportation and land use policies that could reduce health burdens due to outdoor air pollution. To address this important need, a study of traffic-related PM2.5 was carried out in the city of Nairobi, Kenya, a model city for sub-Saharan Africa, in July 2009. Sampling was carried out using portable filter-based air samplers carried in backpacks by technicians on weekdays over two weeks at several sites in and around Nairobi ranging from high-traffic roadways to rural background. Mean daytime concentrations of PM2.5 ranged from 10.7 at the rural background site to 98.1 ?g/m3 on a sidewalk in the central business district. Horizontal dispersion measurements demonstrated a decrease in PM2.5 concentration from 128.7 to 18.7 ?g/m3 over 100 m downwind of a major intersection in Nairobi. A vertical dispersion experiment revealed a decrease from 119.5 ?g/m3 at street level to 42.8 ?g/m3 on a third-floor rooftop in the central business district. Though not directly comparable to air quality guidelines, which are based on 24-h or annual averages, the urban concentrations we observed raise concern with regard to public health and related policy. Taken together with survey data on commuting patterns within Nairobi, these results suggest that many Nairobi residents are exposed on a regular basis to elevated concentrations of fine particle air pollution, with potentially serious long-term implications for health.
• Towards a Political Economy of Transportation Policy and Practice in NairobiKlopp, J. | Urban Forum, 23(1): 1-21, 2012
• The Urban Tranformation: Health, Shelter and Climate ChangeSclar, E.D., Volavka-Close, N., Brown, P. | London and New York: Routledge, 2012. [+]
  Abstract: For the first time in history, half of the world's population lives in urban areas and it is expected that, by 2050, that figure will rise to above two-thirds. A large proportion of this urban growth will be taking place in the cities of the developing world, where the provision of adequate health, shelter, water and sanitation and climate change adaptation efforts for rapidly-growing urban populations will be an urgent priority. This transition to an urban world could be a negative transformation; but, if well-planned, it could also offer an unprecedented opportunity to improve the lives of some of the world's poorest people. This volume brings together some of the world's foremost experts in urban development with the aim of approaching these issues as an opportunity for real positive change. The chapters focus on three strategically critical aspects of this transformation: public health; shelter, water and sanitation; and climate change adaptation. These are considered using an integrated approach that takes account of the many different sectors and stakeholders involved, and always in terms of the solutions rather than the problems. The book offers a blueprint for action in these sectors and will be of great interest to academics and policymakers in all aspects of urban development and planning.
• Transportation Infrastructure Integration in East Africa in Historical ContextKlopp, J.M. and Makajuma, G. | Integration of Infrastructures, edited by Schiefelbusch and Dienel | Ashgate, Forthcoming.
• University/City Partnerships: Creating Policy Networks for Urban Transformation in NairobiKlopp, J., Ngau, P. and Sclar, E. | Metropolitan Universities, Special Issue on International Perspectives on Community-University Partnerships, 22(2): 131-142, 2011. [+]
  Abstract: This paper describes an innovative collaboration between the Center f or Sustainable Urban Development at Columbia University and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Nairobi. By bringing universities into urban policy networks, this partnership aims to re-shape pedagogy, policy and research action for sustainable urban development. The strategy underlying this partnership is to foster meaningful local university/municipality partnerships aimed at improving the social and physical sustainability of cities in the global South as well as transform how and what urban planning students learn in order to manage power and complexity. The paper raises questions about international collaborations that bring universities together with cities and their residents and how those collaborations can be designed to better ensure their success.
• UrbanizationSclar, E.D. | In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition. 9 vols., edited by Darity Jr., W.A | Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 8, 545-548, 2008 [+]
  Abstract: This 9-volume study of social sciences is a successor to the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (ESS, 1930-1935) and the initial set of the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (IESS, 1968) – two groundbreaking Macmillan works that "established standards for knowledge in social science research and practice" (CHOICE, 2001). The entirely new International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences covers scholarship and fields that have emerged and matured since the publication of the original international edition. Like its predecessors, the set meets the needs of high school and college students, researchers inside and outside academia, and lay readers in public libraries. The new set highlights the expanding influence of economics in social science research and features nearly 3,000 entirely new articles and important biographies contributed by thousands of scholars (including several Nobel prize winners) from around the world on a wide array of global topics, including: achievement testing, censorship, personality measurement, aging, income distribution, foreign aid (political and economic aspects), food (world problems, consumption patterns), cultural adaptation, comparative health-care systems, terrorism, political correctness, agricultural innovation, legislation of morality, sexual violence and exploitation, white collar crime. The new 2nd edition also features biographical profiles of the major contributors to the study of the social sciences, past and present.
• Urban Health: An OverviewSclar, E.D. and Volavka-Close, N. | In Encyclopedia of Environmental Health | Elsevier, 2011. [+]
  Abstract: For the first time in history, over half the world's population resides in urban areas. The challenge of urban health is already central to the social development of cities and this challenge will continue to grow as the urbanization trend continues. Urban health, particularly in the world's most rapidly urbanizing regions – the low- and middle-income countries referred to as the Global South – is largely determined by social and environmental factors, which are strongly interrelated. These include but are not limited to access to basic services and amenities associated with urban living, such as health care, transport, clean water, sanitation, education, and safe places to live and work. Climate change-related events, such as severe storms and floods, are interacting with and compounding existing urban health risks. Transport-related injuries and deaths are expected to increase as more vehicles are added to the already-chaotic fray of urban traffic. Addressing the urban health challenge will require an approach that focuses on the social and environmental determinants that drive health outcomes and understanding the complex interactions among them in the urban context.
• The social dimensions of urban travel in Nairobi, Kenya: Analysis, Insights, and OpportunitiesSalon, D., and Aligula, E. | Journal of Transport Geography, 22: 64-76, 2012. [+]
  Abstract: This paper uses travel survey data to explore the social dimension of urban travel in Nairobi. It seeks to explain why, where and how people in Nairobi travel and the implications of that behavior pattern. The paper has two parts: an in-depth exploration of the travel patterns and preferences of Nairobi residents and a discussion of the implications of these results for transport policy in this city. The data show that the lack of suitable transport infrastructure exacerbates travel challenges for residents across all income groups. A substantial portion of the local population cannot regularly afford any form of motorized transportation. They thus are forced to locate in slums near sources of employment, and the widespread lack of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure increases the risk that they face when travelling. The middle income group who cannot afford private cars is almost completely dependent on the public transport system. Any disruption in the public transport service severely disrupts their lives and their livelihoods. For the privileged 15-20 percent of Nairobi households who own cars, they are at the mercy of the congested, under-maintained, and dangerous roadways. Finally, as in most other parts of the world, it is clear that once a Nairobi resident owns a car, s/he is going to use it for as many of his or her transportation needs as possible. Unless public transport can be removed from the traffic congestion so that travelling is substantially faster by public transport than by private car, very few car owners will be using the system.
• The 21st century health challenge of slums and citiesSclar, E.D., Garau, P., Carolini, G. | The Lancet, 365, 901-903, 2005.
• Impacts of roadway emissions on urban particulate matter concentrations in sub-Saharan Africa: new evidence from Nairobi, KenyaVan Vliet, E.D.S. and Kinney, P.L.K. | Environ Research Letters, 2(4): 1-5, December 2007. [+]
  Abstract: Air quality is a serious and worsening problem in the rapidly growing cities of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, the lack of ambient monitoring data, and particularly urban roadside concentrations for particulate matter in SSA cities severely hinders our ability to describe temporal and spatial patterns of concentrations, characterize exposure–response relationships for key health outcomes, estimate disease burdens, and promote policy initiatives to address air quality. As part of a collaborative transportation planning exercise between Columbia University and the University of Nairobi, air monitoring was carried out in February 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya. The objective of the monitoring was to collect pilot data on air concentrations (PM2.5 and black carbon) encountered while driving in the Nairobi metropolitan area, and to compare those data to simultaneous 'urban background' concentrations measured in Nairobi but away from roadways. For both the background and roadway monitoring, we used portable air sampling systems that collect integrated filter samples. Results from this pilot study found that roadway concentrations of PM2.5 were approximately 20-fold higher than those from the urban background site, whereas black carbon concentrations differed by 10-fold. If confirmed by more extensive sampling, these data would underscore the need for air quality and transportation planning and management directed at mitigating roadway pollution.
• Economic Fall-Out of Failing Urban Transport Systems: An Institutional AnalysisSclar, E.D. and Touber, J. | In Urban Transport in the Developing World: Persepctives from the First Decade of the New Millennium, edited by Dimitirou, H. and Gakenheimer, R. | Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009. [+]
  Abstract: The twenty thematic chapters in this book provide a broad set of perspectives on the plight, possibilities and opportunities of urban transport in the developing world set against the challenges of sustainable development. The contributors expertly set the international context of transport policy-making and planning for developing cities and present a critical review of recent developments that have taken place that offer lessons for the future.
• Improving Population Health in a Rapidly Urbanizing WorldVolavka-Close, N. and Sclar, E.D. | In Urban Health: Global Perspectives, edited by Vlahov, D., Boufford, J.I., Pearson, C., Norris, L. | San Francisco: Jossey Bass/Wiley, 2010 [+]
  Abstract: In the twentieth century, the urban settings of the wealthy nations were largely associated with opportunity, accumulation of wealth, and better health than their rural counterparts. In the twenty-first century, demographic changes, globalization, and climate change are having important health consequences on wealthy nations and especially on low- and middle-income countries. The increasing concentration of poverty and significant inequalities between urban neighborhoods and the physical and social environments in cities are important determinants of population health. In this important new book, experts identify the priority problems and outline solutions that can generate and sustain healthy urban environments.
• Links between the Built Environment, Climate and Population Health: Interdisciplinary Environmental Change Research in New York CityRosenthal, J.K., Sclar E.D., Kinney, P.L., Knowlton, K., Crauderueff, R., Brandt-Rauf, P.W. | Annals Academy of Medicine, 36:10, 2007. [+]
  Abstract: Global climate change is expected to pose increasing challenges for cities in the following decades, placing greater stress and impacts on multiple social and biophysical systems, including population health, coastal development, urban infrastructure, energy demand, and water supplies. Simultaneously, a strong global trend towards urbanisation of poverty exists, with increased challenges for urban populations and local governance to protect and sustain the wellbeing of growing cities. In the context of these 2 overarching trends, interdisciplinary research at the city scale is prioritised for understanding the social impacts of climate change and variability and for the evaluation of strategies in the built environment that might serve as adaptive responses to climate change. This article discusses 2 recent initiatives of The Earth Institute at Columbia University (EI) as examples of research that integrates the methods and objectives of several disciplines, including environmental health science and urban planning, to understand the potential public health impacts of global climate change and mitigative measures for the more localised effects of the urban heat island in the New York City metropolitan region. These efforts embody 2 distinct research approaches. The New York Climate & Health Project created a new integrated modeling system to assess the public health impacts of climate and land use change in the metropolitan region. The Cool City Project aims for more applied policyoriented research that incorporates the local knowledge of community residents to understand the costs and benefits of interventions in the built environment that might serve to mitigate the harmful impacts of climate change and variability, and protect urban populations from health stressors associated with summertime heat. Both types of research are potentially useful for understanding the impacts of environmental change at the urban scale, the policies needed to address these challenges, and to train scholars capable of collaborative approaches across the social and biophysical sciences.
• Reinventing Healthy and Sustainable Communities: Reconnecting Public Health and Urban PlanningNorthridge, M.E., Sclar, E.D., Feighery, A., Fiebach, M.Z., Kurtz E.K. | In Social Inequality and Public Health, edited by S.J. Babones, S.J. | Bristol: The Policy Press, 2009.
• Making Connections: Putting Social Policy at the Heart of Infrastructure DevelopmentDani, A., Kessler, T. and Sclar, E.D. | Washington, DC: World Bank Publications, 2011. [+]
  Abstract: Access to water, sanitation and electricity is as critical to social development as education and health services. Many developing countries continue to suffer from lack of access, affordability and sustainability of utilities services, which remain essential social policy objectives of utility sector reforms. This book focuses on three inter-related mechanisms – policy and institutional design options, innovations in regulation and contracts, and the role of stakeholders in utility governance – to improve access, affordability and sustainability of water and electricity services. The main objective is to provide advice enabling policy makers to integrate social policy goals as explicit elements of utility reforms. This title is part of the 'New Frontiers of Social Policy' series. In most developing countries, the mixed record of state effectiveness, market imperfections, and persistent structural inequities has undermined the effectiveness of social policy. The 'New Frontiers of Social Policy' Series, edited by Anis A. Dani,examines issues and approaches to extend the boundaries of social policy beyond conventional social services toward more developmental policies and institutions for improving equalityof opportunity and social justice in developing country contexts.
• A University Partnership for Metropolitan Planning: Nairobi, KenyaTouber, J. and Sclar, E.D. | In Barefoot and Prada: Architects and planners, the urban poor and the Millennium City, edited by Garau, P. | Rome: Officina Edizioni, 2008