EPP Seminar

About this event

Environmental justice research often examines the burden of pollution in relation to the population's socioeconomic vulnerability. Climate justice research examines differential responsibility, asking who emits and who ultimately carries the burden they create. Urban mobility justice research rarely combines these two questions empirically, even though mobility is where they intersect most directly, since travel generates emissions and also shapes where resulting pollution concentrations fall across the city. This talk presents findings from an empirical study of Bogotá, Colombia, that measures both sides of this relationship at th e level of city blocks, combining residential pollution concentration (NO2 and PM2.5) with a block-level proxy for travel-emission responsibility built from official mobility and emissions data. Two findings challenge a simple story in which the poor pollute least and suffer most. First, pollution concentration does not increase monotonically with deprivation; it peaks at intermediate socioeconomic levels. Second, emission responsibility does decline cleanly with vulnerability, but the resulting imbalance, where responsibility is low and pollution concentration is high, concentrates in population segments that can only be identified by combining policy instruments that separately inform socioeconomic vulnerability and the spatial distribution of the imbalance. I discuss what this means for the mobility justice conversation and the implications for transportation and environmental policy. Speaker BIo: Sonia Cecilia Mangones Matos is an Associate Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, where she directs the Translogyt Research Group. Her work lies at the intersection of transportation engineering, urban sustainability, environmental impacts of transportation, road safety, and public policy. Her research combines quantitative methods, data analytics, and interdisciplinary approaches to examine sustainable urban mobility, transportation-related air pollution, emissions, and the implications of transportation systems for public health and urban equity. Sonia holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.Sc. in Transportation Engineering from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Her international academic experience includes research stays at CNRS in Toulouse and the LIVE Laboratory at the University of Strasbourg in France, as well as a research visit to Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria in Chile. She is Co-Chair of the Sustainable Transport Committee of the Pan-American Society of Transportation Research (PANAMSTR) and actively contributes to the World Conference on Transport Research, Community Modeling and Analysis System (CMAS) South America, and the Transportation Research Board in the US. She has led and collaborated on research projects with public institutions in Colombia, including the Ministry of Transport and the National Road Safety Agency. Her recent work has received broader recognition, including the 2025 L'Oréal-UNESCO "For Women in Science" Regional Award for her work on AI-enabled sustainable urban mobility and the 2025 Afro-Colombian of the Year Award in the Science and Technology category, recognizing her contributions to science and applied research in Colombia. She is currently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Engineering and Public Policy, where her project develops a justice-based framework integrating mobility, emissions, and pollution concentration and examines how complex technical evidence can be translated into actionable policy.lly with deprivation; it peaks at intermediate socioeconomic levels. Second, emission responsibility does decline cleanly with vulnerability, but the resulting imbalance, where responsibility is low and pollution concentration is high, concentrates in population segments that can only be identified by combining policy instruments that separately inform socioeconomic vulnerability and the spatial distribution of the imbalance. I discuss what this means for the mobility justice conversation and the implications for transportation and environmental policy.

Speaker BIo:

Sonia Cecilia Mangones Matos is an Associate Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, where she directs the Translogyt Research Group. Her work lies at the intersection of transportation engineering, urban sustainability, environmental impacts of transportation, road safety, and public policy. Her research combines quantitative methods, data analytics, and interdisciplinary approaches to examine sustainable urban mobility, transportation-related air pollution, emissions, and t he implications of transportation systems for public health and urban equity.

Sonia holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.Sc. in Transportation Engineering from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Her international academic experience includes research stays at CNRS in Toulouse and the LIVE Laboratory at the University of Strasbourg in France, as well as a research visit to Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria in Chile. She is Co-Chair of the Sustainable Transport Committee of the Pan-American Society of Transportation Research (PANAMSTR) and actively contributes to the World Conference on Transport Research, Community Modeling and Analysis System (CMAS) South America, and the Transportation Research Board in the US. She has led and collaborated on research projects with public institutions in Colombia, including the Ministry of Transport and the National Road Safety Agency. Her recent work has received broader recognition, including the 2025 L'Oréal-UNESCO "For Women in Science" Regional Award for her work on AI-enabled sustainable urban mobility and the 2025 Afro-Colombian of the Year Award in the Science and Technology category, recognizing her contributions to science and applied research in Colombia.

She is currently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Engineering and Public Policy, where her project develops a justice-based framework integrating mobility, emissions, and pollution concentration and examines how complex technical evidence can be translated into actionable policy.