Regional polycentric spatial patterns and air pollution: An empirical study of German metropolitan regions
Date:
Does a polycentric spatial structure help clean up a region’s air? Using satellite-derived PM2.5 measures across 50 German urban regions and a multi-scale research design, this paper finds that polycentricity has no significant effect on regional air pollution overall — but that urban cores in more polycentric regions are measurably more polluted than their monocentric counterparts, most likely through the longer and more congested commuting that multiple strong centers generate.
This work was later published in Cities (2026). See the paper.