大象传媒

Spring 2025 Workshops

This spring, four in-person Community Workshops on Transportation Futures, Air Quality and Community Resilience were held in our four Burnaby case study neighbourhoods: Burnaby Mountain, Edmonds, Metrotown and Lakeview/Sperling. We also hosted a community engagement table at the Edmonds World Party event on Saturday July 12th.

Participants: Twenty-six Burnaby residents took part in four 2-hour community workshops this spring. The sessions introduced the SCRAM research project, reviewing our city-wide mobility survey and air quality modeling to ground-truth findings to date. In small-group discussions, participants explored community mobility assets, challenges, and potential opportunities鈥攂oth large and small. Transcripts from the meetings are now being analyzed and will be published in a What We Heard report on this webpage.

What: Researchers from 大象传媒 and the University of British Columbia have partnered with the Civic Innovation Lab, Translink, Evo CarShare and Mobi BikeShare to explore a variety of transportation futures and how it relates to air pollution and community resilience in our communities. This project is titled 鈥淐ommunity-based alternative urban transportation decarbonization pathways and co-benefits for climate resilience, air quality, health, and equity鈥� and is led by Dr. Vahid Hosseini, Associate Professor at 大象传媒鈥檚 School of Sustainable Energy Engineering, with funding support from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Contact: For more information, please contact Dr. Chris Buse, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, 大象传媒,聽cbuse@sfu.ca

Objectives

As municipalities craft action plans to achieve zero-emission targets, significant opportunities emerge to reduce urban vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT). While fleet electrification remains a prominent focus in both research and policy, it is essential to consider other pathways to decarbonize mobility that do not rely solely on electrification. Reducing VKT can substantially (a) lower emissions, (b) alleviate the immediate need for widespread private vehicle electrification, and (c) enhance climate resiliency while supporting broader community objectives. Expanding mobility options is likely to boost community resilience and sustainability. This project aims to enhance Canadian capabilities in knowledge and tools, assisting community decision-making processes in pursuit of net-zero goals through exploring alternative transportation options.

The Project

At CREATE, we are working in partnership with Action on Climate Team (ACT), 大象传媒's Chris Buse, UBC's Amanda Giang, and Mahmudur Fatmi to examine community-centered urban transportation decarbonization strategies. Utilizing extensive data from the City of Burnaby and Metro Vancouver, alongside advanced modeling tools, we aim to pinpoint opportunities and assess their impact on community resilience. Health impact assessments and considerations of environmental justice are critical components of our mobility recommendations.

Project's Status

Currently, in year 2, a mobility survey was completed for Burnaby, BC.  The traffic agent-based model for Metro Vancouver and Burnaby, the mobile source emission model for Burnaby, the weather and chemical transport model for the Lower Mainland, and the co-impact model for Burnaby are ready. The first co-creation workshop, involving all project partners, was held to select the case study neighborhood and gather initial input on modeling needs, data support, and output requirements. More co-creation workshops will be held in 2025.

Concentration of Sample Criteria Air contaminants (aggregated at Dissemination Level) over the Metro Vancouver Regional Districts

The integrated assessment tool was used to simulate air quality across the Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD) at a 1 km spatial resolution. Traffic-related air pollutants (TRAP), including CO, NO鈧�, PM鈧�.鈧�, and O鈧�, were modeled at hourly intervals and aggregated at the dissemination area (DA) level to better identify air quality hotspots and impacted communities. The results highlight that neighborhoods in close proximity to major roadways experience elevated pollutant levels over extended periods.

These outputs will support follow-up analyses on health exposure and environmental equity within the SCRAM framework, contributing to the calculation of a livability index for MVRD communities.

Future directions

Findings of mobility survey expected to aid in the calibration and validation of the agent-based model. The project is set to deliver an integrated and validated modeling system by March 2025, which will subsequently be used in 2026 to test scenarios aimed at reducing vehicle kilometers traveled in Burnaby.

Additionally, the project currently supports 15 Highly Qualified Personnel (HQPs), including post-doctoral researchers, PhD and MASc students, and research assistants. 

Funding agency:

Partners:

• Civic Innovation Lab 

Co-Principle Investigators 

Highly Qualified Personnel (HQPs)