Possibilities of Sustainable Development including Improvement in Air Quality for the City of Murmansk-Examples of Best Practice from Scandinavia

Abstract

The Russian city of Murmansk has about 300,000 inhabitants and is located inside the Arctic Circle in NE Scandinavia (Russia). It has one of the largest such concentrations of people in the Arctic. The city is a scientific, industrial, cultural, and transportation centre (an ice-free port in the so-called Northern Sea Route, connecting Europe with Asia). Currently, air pollution in the city is associated with outdated city heating technology, coal dust from the port and vehicular traffic, and so-called “small emissions”. The authors propose practical solutions based on known examples of Scandinavian cities with similar climatic conditions such as: the modernisation of heat energy acquisition; diversification of energy acquisition including renewable sources; thermal insulation of buildings; arrangement of urban greenery with dust-catching plants, and proposals for changing the habits within the population by promoting the use of public transport.