Pollution indicators to achieve sustainable transport, Case study: Al Ramadi City

Abstract

Environmental indicators of urban sustainable development are very important especially in sustainable transportation in cities and towns. This research evaluates the environmental indicators, such as air and dust polluters and noise, consequent to transportation and traffic in Ramadi city. There is a clear lack of attention to such indicators in the planning of sustainable transportation in the city in spite of the fact that the pollution it causes far exceeds the standards rates. The research analyzes the data collected from the eight sectors of the city. The research uses analytical method of spacial-quantitive analysis. This method was never used before in studies on Iraqi cities which preferred general indicators only. Findings show that the city suffers many polluters which exceeds standards rates in most of its sectors. Sectors 4 and 8 show the highest level of pollution whereas sectors 1 and 2 show the lowest rate of pollution. These high levels of pollution have serious future consequences that needs to be addressed by specific strategies. The method and findings of this research can be extended to other cities in Anbar province and other Iraqi cities to achieve an acceptable level of sustainable urban transportation standards