Project number:

LIFE21-GIE-BE-LIFE-CityTRAQ/101074741

 

Duration of the project:

1. 9. 2022. – 31. 8. 2026.

 

Total value:

2,097,664 €

 

EU co-financing:

1,258,599 €

 

Coordinating beneficiary:

Flanders Environment Agency

 

Partners:

Državni hidrometeorološki zavod (DHMZ), City of Antwerpen, City of Gent, City of Bruges, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM)

 

Project description:

Air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk in the EU. A significant portion of the EU population is exposed to exceedances of air quality (AQ) standards. CityTRAQ will tackle this problem in Flanders and collate all relevant AQ related information into a single, coherent view on local AQ. This interactive view will guide cities and municipalities in exploring their local domain, identifying local hotspots and supporting problem definition. Connecting problem assessment to actual policy options, CityTRAQ will provide scenario tools to quantify both mobility and emission driven interventions. This allows policy makers to work out appropriate measures to improve the situation and map out their effects in terms of air pollution. CityTRAQ’s governance and information system will hence drive the local policy cycle. All city partners in the project will explore these features through cases on the implementation of measures influencing the traffic flow and/or emissions, resulting in optimised local air quality plans. Partner cities will explore actions to improve AQ and influence traffic flows through a participatory approach. Citizens and schools will be closely involved in AQ and traffic monitoring, raising awareness to affect behavioral change. Monitoring activities will focus on the evolution of AQ in the city use cases in which traffic and air quality measures are being implemented (e.g. heavy traffic/bus routes, neighborhood traffic plans, school streets …). Together with all partners, a plan of action based on the experiences gathered in the use cases will be developed to create a support base for good AQ/mobility measures and plans. Generic approaches will be developed allowing other EU cities to learn from CityTRAQ’s experience and make use of the tools provided in this project by transposing them to their local domain. The added value & transferability of the CityTRAQ tools & generic approaches will be demonstrated in an extra case.