With half of the world's population now living in urban areas, and rapid urbanization continuing apace, it is essential that the growth of urban areas is supported by the development of adequate and sustainable infrastructure. This work offers comprehensive coverage of critical issues on the highway and urban environment which are key to understanding sustainability in the world's expanding urban areas.

Zusammenfassung
The 8th Highway and Urban Environment Symposium (8HUES) was held on 1214 June 2006 in Nicosia, Cyprus. 8HUES was hosted in Cyprus by the Cyprus Institute. HUES is run by Chalmers University of Technology within the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS). The following facts provide a background for 8HUES: • 150 abstracts for posters and papers were accepted • 80 delegates (24 female) attended the symposium • 23 countries were represented, including all continents • 71 oral presentations at the symposium • 20 poster presentations • 50 written manuscripts for these proceedings HUES was initiated by Professor Ron Hamilton at Middlesex Polytechnic (now University) in the early 1980s. The initial aim was to measure and assess challenges in highway pollution. These challenges particularly - cluded urban photochemical smog, with an emphasis on ozone formation and particle release. The first symposium was titled Highway Pollution and had a clear aim to make a difference. The proceedings were published in an interdisciplinary journal.

Inhalt
Vehicle Consumption and Emissions and Traffic Management.- Engineeringeconomic simulations of sustainable transport policies.- Life cycle environmental benefits of biodiesel production and use in Spain.- Engine management for Flex Fuel plus compressed natural gas vehicles.- Mobility and Environment in Spain.- Influence of gear-changing behaviour on fuel use and vehicular exhaust emissions.- Effect of speed reduction on emissions of heavy duty lorries.- Gender-linked disparity in vehicle exhaust emissions? Results from an activity-based survey.- Floating Automotive Data Collection.- Reducing car trip and pollutant emissions through strategic transport planning in Madrid, Spain.- Evaluation of car control measures based on an Internet-based travel survey system.- Integrating cycling in Bus Rapid Transit system in Accra.- Air Pollution and Air Quality.- Evaluation of hydrogen peroxide in rainwater in downtown São Paulo.- The comparison of pollutant concentrations in liquid falling and deposited precipitation, and throughfall.- Wet deposition at Llandaff station in Cardiff.- Monitoring the atmospheric deposition of particulate-associated urban contaminants, Coventry, UK.- Size, morphological and chemical characterization of aerosols polluting the Beijing atmosphere in January/February 2005.- Air pollution levels in two São Paulo subway stations.- Air quality nearby different typologies of motorways: Intercomparison and correlation.- Assessment of air pollution in the vicinity of major alpine routes.- The relative impact of automobile catalysts and Russian smelters on PGE deposition in Greenland.- Cultural heritage stock at risk from air pollution.- Contaminated Environments and Remediation.- Organic contaminants in urban sediments and vertical leaching in roadditches.- The use of an epiphyte (Tillandsia usneoides L.) as bioindicator of heavy metal pollution in São Pauo, Brazil.- On-line matrix separation for the determination of PGEs in sediments by ICP-MS.- Determination of PGE and REE in urban matrices and fingerprinting of traffic emission contamination.- Sorption behaviour of Pt, Pd, and Rh on different soil components: results of an experimental study.- Reactive soil barriers for removal of chromium(VI) from contaminated soil.- Cleaning of highway runoff using a reactive filter treatment plant a pilot-scale column study.- Heavy metal removal efficiency in a kaolinitesand media filtration pilot-scale installation.- Storm Water.- Site assessment of road-edge grassed channels for highway drainage.- Evaluation of the runoff water quality from a tunnel wash.- An investigation of urban water and sediment ecotoxicity in relation to metal concentrations.- Establishing a procedure to predict highway runoff quality in Portugal.- A field microcosm method to determine the impact of sediments and soils contaminated by road runoff on indigenous aquatic macroinvertebrates.- Assessment of storm water ecotoxicity using a battery of biotests.- Is catchment imperviousness a good indicator of ecosystem health?.- Storm Water Treatment.- Evolution on pollutant removal efficiency in storm water ponds due to changes in pond morphology.- Characterization of road runoff and innovative treatment technologies.- Development and full-scale implementation of a new treatment scheme for road runoff.- Reactive filters for removal of dissolved metals in highway runoff.- Designing filters for copper removal for the secondary treatment of storm water.- Modelling the oxygen mass balance of wet detention ponds receiving highway runoff.- Monitoringand modelling the performance of a wet pond for treatment of highway runoff in cold climates.- Can we close the long-term mass balance equation for pollutants in highway ponds?.- Environmental Assessment and Effects.- Cardiovascular and respiratory variability related to air pollution and meteorological variables in Oporto, Portugal preliminary study.- Component analysis on respiratory disease variability at São Paulo.- Management and optimization of environmental information using integrated technology: a case study in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.- Using Bayesian inference to manage uncertainty in probabilistic risk assessments in urban environments.- An assessment framework for urban water systems a new approach combining environmental systems with service supply and consumer perspectives.- Large area noise evaluation.