The influence of port proximity on air pollution and public health in the world’s cities

“Abstract

Port cities are critical economic hubs but also major hotspots of environmental emissions. To quantify the associations among port proximity, pollution, and health burdens, we partitioned global land areas into 372,178 grid cells and calculated distances from 4436 port terminals to each grid cell for the period 2000–2022. We examine how port proximity relates to pollution indicators, how these patterns differ between port and non-port areas and across national income groups, and how they vary with urbanization and the composition of energy imports. The results show that areas in proximity to ports exhibit higher levels of greenhouse gases (CO₂ and CH₄) and harmful gaseous pollutants (SO₂, NO_x, and CO), as well as particulate pollution indicators such as PM_2.5. The strongest port related pollution gradient is concentrated within approximately 56 km of ports. The pollution burden near ports is more pronounced in low and middle income countries. Linking gridded pollution indicators with health estimates based on the Global Burden of Disease database suggests that port proximity strengthens the association between gaseous pollutants, such as CO₂, NO_x, and SO₂, and cause specific chronic disease mortality burdens, particularly respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes, while the association involving PM_2.5 is more spatially pervasive and varies less with port proximity. These findings support differentiated mitigation strategies to reduce pollution and advance cleaner and low-carbon port-city development.”

 

The full article is accessible via:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2026.107032

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