Environmental Science Exam 4

city planning/urban planning

advise policy makers to maximize cities efficiency, functionality, and beauty

regional planning

Planning across regions to maximize efficiency, functionality, and beauty in ways similar to city planning, but across broader geographic areas and usually in concert with multiple municipal governments. Compare city planning; urban planning.

zoning

practice of classifying areas for different types of development and land use.

Urban Sprawl

Low-density, car-dependent expansion of cities into surrounding land

Reasons: Cheap land, highway expansion, single-use zoning

Issues:

• Cars directly release carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and
  sulfur-containing pollutants.

• Physical Inactivity

• Less habitat

  • Social inequity (limited transit access) Solutions: Smart growth, mixed-use zoning,
    transit-oriented development (TOD), urban growth boundaries

Urban Heat Islands (UHI)

Cities become hotter than rural surroundings due to heat-absorbing surfaces and limited vegetation.

Reasons:
Asphalt, concrete, dark roofs, low tree canopy, waste
heat.

Impacts:

• Heat-related illness

• Energy demand for cooling

• Worsened air quality (ozone formation) Solutions: Urban trees, parks, green roofs, cool roofs, reflective pavements, compact design

Urban Waste Management

Reduction, reuse, recycling, composting, safe disposal,
waste-to-energy.

Challenges:

Growing waste volumes
• Landfill scarcity
• Methane emissions
• Environmental injustice in facility siting

Solutions: Circular economy, extended
producer responsibility (EPR), community recycling, anaerobic digestion, composting.

Sanitary Landfills

• bury waste in the ground or pile it in large mounds engineered to prevent waste from contaminating the environment

extended producer responsibility (EPR)

an environmental policy approach that makes manufacturers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, particularly the post-consumer, "end-of-life" stage

anaerobic digestion

a natural, oxygen-free process where microorganisms break down organic materials—such as food waste, manure, or sewage sludge—inside sealed vessels called digesters

Particulate matter

is composed of solid or liquid particles small enough to be suspended in the air.
– It can be a primary pollutant (dust and soot) or
secondary pollutant (sulfates and nitrates).
– Particulate matter is classified by size: PM10 particles
are less than 10 microns in diameter; PM2.5 particles
are less than 2.5 microns in diameter

Key Pollutants

• Ozone : A toxic, secondary pollutant formed when NOx and VOCs react in sunlight, causing breathing difficulties and lung inflammation.

• Nitrogen Oxides NOx: Emitted from cars and power plants; contributes to smog, acid rain, and ozone formation.

• Sulfur Dioxide SO2: Released by burning fossil fuels (coal/petroleum) and industrial processes, causing acid rain and respiratory issues.

• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): Organic chemicals emitted from industrial sources, solvents, paints, and vehicle exhaust; they are major precursors to ozone formation. They contain carbon and hydrogen.

Major Pollutant Sources

Sources: Vehicles, industry, energy production, construction, land-use patterns.

Connections:
• Sprawl → more driving → more emissions
• UHIs → faster chemical reactions → more ozone Solutions: Public transit, EVs, emissions standards, green space, clean energy.

troposphere

provides air we breathe and drives planet’s weather

temperature inversion

An inversion can work like a cap on the atmosphere. Air pollution is increased in concentration below the cap. Normally denser cold air falls to the surface, forcing the polluted air up and mixing it. A layer of warm air over a layer of colder air prevents mixing with upper layers.

stratosphere

ozone layer that limits damaging solar radiation striking the earth

scrubbers

Scrubbers chemically convert or physically remove airborne pollutants before they are emitted from smokestacks.