Dr. Levy's research centers on developing models to quantitatively assess the environmental and health impacts of air pollution from local to national scales, with a focus on urban environments and variability in exposures and risks. This involves the evaluation of exposure using a combination of atmospheric dispersion modeling, predictive statistical models, and field measurements. Health risks are quantified through epidemiological investigations, interpretation of past epidemiological studies, and supporting physiological and toxicological evidence.
Current research efforts include:
- Developing a discrete event simulation model of environmental exposures and pediatric asthma, focusing on modeling the health benefits of indoor environmental interventions.
- Evaluating the exposure and health risk implications of aviation-related emissions, considering both national-scale impacts and exposures near T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island and Los Angeles International Airport.
- Evaluating spatial patterns of air pollution in New York City to help identify hot spots and understand the exposure and health benefits of congestion pricing and other traffic mitigation strategies, using a combination of modeling and monitoring in both urban street canyons and neighborhoods near key bridges.
- Evaluating air pollution control strategies for the Yangtze River Delta in China, prioritizing across various source types based on population risk profiles.
- Modeling exposures, doses, and health risks associated with usage of pesticides in urban low-income settings, as an extension to a large-scale research initiative in Boston public housing developments.
- Using geographic information systems (GIS) to determine spatial heterogeneity in levels of air pollution both outdoors and indoors in low-income urban neighborhoods, using statistical techniques for source apportionment.
- Developing quantitative measures of environmental equity suitable for air pollution risk assessment and benefit-cost analysis, including case studies evaluating power plant and diesel bus control strategies
- Determining the relationship between traffic and levels of air pollution in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, in a community-university partnership with the Mission Hill Health Movement involving area high school students in neighborhood-scale monitoring.