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Medellín's air quality plan leads to improvements - Coggle Diagram
Medellín's air quality plan leads to improvements
Context
However, no strong actions have been implemented regarding mobile sources, which are responsible for 80% of air pollution. On the contrary, a dramatic increase in private transportation has been reported.
Medellín has reduced air pollution red alert days from 30 in 2016 to just one so far in 2018 and it has maintained good alerts until now.This is an important achievement because, despite urban growth, pollution has decreased.
For example, the explosive growth in motorcycles (from 139,000 to a 710,000) has increased emissions of ultrafine particle pollution (PM), which are so tiny they can burrow into the deepest reaches of the lungs and enter the bloodstream and brain, carrying with them toxic pollutants.
This implies thinking about new strategies. For example “We have to evolve from car-free day to a future of car-sharing. The message should not be that we are enemies of the car but that we are making irrational use of it. We can double the road capacity of the city without building roads”
Implemented action plans.
Before
Program for the Protection and Control of the Air Quality from the Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley, issued in 2008
Now
PIGECA 2017-2030
“It is one of the most comprehensive Plans in the Latin American region, with concrete goals, abatement strategies and commitments from all sectors, with a communication strategy threaded through”
Smog season in Medellín and strategies
Medellín is geographically prone to two smog seasons a year: when the city transitions from dry to rainy weather in March-April and September-October.
But 2016’s March-April smog catapulted air quality to the top of public consciousness. Since that year, several initiatives have been carried out, such as:
Models wearing face masks paraded around the city
“Pico y placa”, which disallowed certain car plate numbers from driving on certain days.
Several citizen groups took to the streets with innovative strategies to the issue more visible to the public: Aire Medellin, La Ciudad Verde, Low Carbon City, Bicitertulia and Ciudadanos por el Aire
Implemented actions
A resolution requesting that all new buses be electric.
Air quality data is publicly available online, and the regional government began coordinating a comprehensive air quality management plan in collaboration with citizens, universities, the private sector and local authorities.
Medellín have 40 air quality monitoring stations that account for more than half of all such stations in the country.
When air pollution levels rise to unhealthy levels, contingency measures under "Plan Operacional para Enfrentar Episodios de Contaminación Atmosférica" (POECA) are activated.
Conclusion
We need the government to implement communication strategies that achieve an understanding of poor air quality as a structural problem and not a temporary one.
We need braver decisions to make public transport more attractive, to promote bicycle mobility, Carpooling and to discourage the use of private vehicles.
Vocabulary
Air pollution
Smog season
Ultrafine particle pollution
Air quality monitoring stations
Growth in private transport
Prevention phase
Radical urban transformation.
Bicycle mobility