A new method for tracking climate change and air pollution
Two papers by Prof. Thomas A. Weber develop a rank-based method to track environmental change. They apply the idea to follow Geneva's warming climate, and generalize the approach to quantify shifts in spatial air-pollution exposure across Switzerland. The method compares observations with a historical baseline and shows how accounting for where people live changes the assessment of air-quality…
Two papers by Professor Thomas A. Weber introduce a rank-based method to track environmental changes, including climate and air pollution. The approach compares recent observations with a historical baseline and accounts for population distribution to assess air-quality improvements. The first paper, presented at the 2026 ICSEDI conference, uses temperature data from Geneva-Cointrin to show a shift towards fewer cold days and more warm/hot days since 1961-1990.
The second paper, presented at CODASSCA 2026 in Yerevan, extends the method to air-pollution exposure, specifically nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter. By weighting locations based on population, the study finds greater improvement in pollution metrics in areas with higher population concentrations. Both papers provide a compact measure of distributional change, facilitating environmental monitoring and policy analysis.
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