SMARTPLANS Research Project

In support of the Canadian federal government's plans to take action to address air pollution in Canada, researchers from the University of Windsor, Ryerson University and Health Canada led a joint effort, during the period February 2018 - March 2022, to develop a full-fledged Integrated Urban Model (IUM) to help local and federal agencies in making decisions that will reduce urban air pollution and create healthier cities. The focus of the joint project was to develop a user-friendly software package for evaluating alternate land use and transportation planning policies in Canadian cities.

As an integrated platform, SMARTPLANS was developed to utilize data on local transportation, land use, economic and travel activity, as well as air pollution, health, and economic indicators, to simulate land use and transportation system changes, with the goal of assessing which decisions and policies will maximize social and economic benefits, while minimizing negative environmental and health impacts.

SMARTPLANS will help to promote healthier cities by facilitating analysis of the impacts of alternate planning and policy decisions on a variety of social, economic, environmental, and health indicators, including exposure to air pollution and health impacts of air pollution in the Canadian population. The SMARTPLANS platform is a user-friendly stand alone planning support tool that is made freely available to policy makers, air zone managers, researchers, public health practitioners, and other stakeholders across Canada.

The development and application of SMARTPLANS to five Canadian metropolitan areas have been funded by Health Canada. The project was supported by the work of several researchers from the University of Windsor and Ryerson University. Major contribution is attributed to the work of Mr. Terence Dimatulac, a PhD Candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Windsor.

The project was led by: