Rose speaks to year 12 geographers at North Bristol Post-16 Centre

Rose was invited to speak to year 12 Geographers at North Bristol Post-16 Centre at Redland Green School on Tuesday. She talked to students about carbon management and climate change, both internationally, and emissions accounting and mitigation options locally in Bristol. The students discussed issues ranging from international climate politics, renewable energy feasibility, and spatial planning policies, to energy efficiency in the home and public transport in Bristol. The morning aimed to provide students with a climate change case study for forthcoming AS and A2 exams.

Air Quality and Carbon Management CPD available from UWE

With the recent multitude of changes to the LAQM process and the increasing predominance of climate change on the political agenda, now is the time for employers and staff to ensure that they are in command of all the facts.

The University of the West of England’s Air Quality Management Resource Centre (AQMRC) have developed a range of training and development opportunities to build skills and understanding in the fields of air quality and carbon management. Whether you are a recent graduate or needing to update your skills in an existing role, this training will give you the opportunity to focus your development in a way that is specific to your needs and requirements.

Supported by the Institute of Air Quality Management and the Institution of Environmental Science, these training opportunities are available from 2010 for CPD. A flexible package of CPD is available for delivery at your location or at UWE. For more information about the training opportunities and to discuss your specific needs, please contact Jo Barnes (aqmrc@uwe.ac.uk) and visit the training pages of the AQMRC website (http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/training.html).

Rose has abstract accepted for the Second International Conference on Climate Change

Rose has had an abstract accepted for presentation at the Second International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts and Responses, to be held at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia from 8-10 July 2010. More information can be found on the conference website: http://www.climate-conference.com

Roses's abstract is entitled "Envisioning the Future: a Methodology for City-Scale Carbon Management".

Using the example of Bristol in south west England, the paper will discuss a methodology for how cities could respond to the challenge of climate change and capitalise on their unique mitigation opportunities. By engaging local stakeholders through an innovative Delphi-like process, a number of low-carbon scenarios for the future city-region are imagined. Using backcasting techniques, together with conventional forecasting, a robust pathway from the present to a future desirable low-emission city can be described. This will bring benefits to planning and policy making, by providing a low emission-pathway beyond the short-term, and creates buy-in from key stakeholders through the Delphi-process, who have helped to define the city’s future.

Read more about Rose's research on her webpage.

Tim becomes Chair of IAPSC

At the end of the IAPSC meeting in Birmingham last Wednesday, it was formally announced that Tim will be the next chair of IAPSC committee, following Mark Daly's departure from the role.

(IAPSC = Investigation of Air Pollution Standing Conference http://www.iapsc.org.uk/ )

Dotun presents research in Brussels

Dotun will be giving a presentation on "Managing local traffic-related air pollution in England" at the on Polis Conference 2009 in Brussels (10th and 11th of December). He will be presenting key findings from his recently concluded PhD research on the integration of air quality management into the second round of local transport planning (LTP2) process.

Tim Keynote Speaker at IUAPPA Regional Workshop

Tim has been invited to give a keynote presentation on “Managing Transport Impacts in Asian Mega-Cities” at the IUAPPA North African Regional Workshop in Tunis (23^rd-25^th November).

Mofoluso to present a paper at IAA conference in Nigeria

Mofoluso is attending the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) 3rd African Regional Conference being held at the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja from 24 to 26 November, 2009. The theme of the Conference is "Space for Africa: Joint Participation, Knowledge Development and Sharing".

Mofoluso will be presenting a paper entitled, "The need for improved sensing technology for estimating emissions and concentrations of pollution at ground-level in the lower latitudes".

Check out Mofoluso's research page to see the presentation on his return.

We all wish Mofoluso a safe journey and all the best in his presentation.

Tim on Environment Panel at Music South West

Last Friday Tim represented the Institute for Sustainability, Health and Environment in a panel discussion at the Music South West conference in Bristol.

The discussion was chaired by Matt Booth of the Bristol Music Foundation.  Other members included Alison Tickell of Julie’s Bicycle, and Ben Chalis and Clare O’Neil of A Greener Festival

Tim appears on the BBC

On Monday 2nd November, the BBC screened its regional Inside Out programme containing a feature on air pollution. Focussing in particular on Bedford, the programme contained interviews with Tim from AQMRC, along with Ed Dearnley of EPUK and Barry Williams from Bedford Borough Council.

The programme is available on the BBC I-Player site here.

15th IUAPPA World Clean Air Congress - Call for abstracts

Abstracts are now invited for the 15th International Union of Air Pollution Prevention and Environmental Protection Association's World Clean Air Congress
Date: September 12-16, 2010
Place: Vancouver, British Columbia
Conference Theme: Achieving Environmental Sustainability in a Resource Hungry World
Abstract Submission Deadline: March 12, 2010
Further details available here or visit their website www.iuappa2010.com.

AQMRC/EPUK-SW Annual Conference - Presentations now available online

The presentations from the AQMRC, UWE and Environmental Protection-UK SW Divison Annual Conference ' Air Quality Management: the 11th hour' are now available on the AQMRC website http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/training.html.

The conference provided a positive message for the future of air quality management through integration with other disciplines, such as transport (John Murlis), climate change (Guy Hitchcock), land use planning (Claire Holman) and noise (Steve Crawshaw and Tim Clarke), and Mark Broom presented Neath Port Talbot as a case study of collaborative agency working with regard to the industrial steelworks. There was also a policy update from Robert Vaughan reporting on Defra's approach to the NO2 time extension and a reminder from Ben Barratt to ensure that policy measures are accountable to the science. Ben Williams, the 2008 winner of the EPUK student conference presented his research measuring nuisance dust from a waste transfer station and Phil Mulligan's summary of the EP-UK Biomass and Air Quality event from the previous week highlighted one of the new and increasing considerations for air quality management.

In all, the feedback from the day was equally as positive and the presentations were extremely well-rated.

If you have any suggestions for future conference topics, do let us know at aqmrc@uwe.ac.uk.

Tim is Keynote Speaker on Health and Planning

On Monday, Tim attended the GO-East "Multi-Professional Symposium on Health and the Built Environment" in Cambridge. He was invited as one of the keynote speakers to make a presentation on "Urban Design and Health", alongside Neil Blackmore from the NHS Healthy Urban Development Unit and Dr Tim Crayford, Chief Medical Advisor for DfT.

Tim's presentation can be viewed here.

In the afternoon, Tim got back to his roots and participated in the Norfolk workshop with members of Norwich City Council, NHS Norfolk, and Tim O'Riordan (Emeritus Professor at UEA and Sheriff of the City of Norwich).

Port Talbot Study Presented at Openair Workshop

Tim attended the Openair/Aitrack workshop "Towards Smarter Air Quality Analysis" at the Institute of Physics on Thursday. At the workshop he presented a poster illustrating the work that AQMRC has carried out for the Welsh Assembly Government, using Openair and R to analyse pollution data from 11 monitoring stations in the Neath Port Talbot area.

A copy of the poster can be viewed here

AQMRC - EPUK SW Annual conference success

The Air Quality Management Resource Centre, UWE and Environmental Protection - South West Division joined forces once again yesterday to deliver an "excellent" Annual Conference entitled 'Air Quality Management - the 11th hour'. The conference was held, as in previous years, at the very welcoming Bristol Zoo which afforded delegates and speakers a extremely pleasant venue, access to the gardens and a splendid spread for lunch and tea. The talks, which were all excellently presented and thoroughly informative, explored the various ways in which air quality management can be achieved holistically through integration with other disciplines and by working with related parties, giving a highly positive feel to a, perhaps, ominously titled event. Further information on the individual talks together with the presentations themselves will be posted shortly on the AQMRC website.

Emissions of air pollutants down in EU-27

The European Community's air pollutant emission inventory report released by the European Environment Agency finds that in 2007, sulphur oxides (SOx) emissions were down by 72% from 1990 levels. The downward emission trend of three main pollutants which cause ground-level ozone continued in 2007: carbon monoxide (CO) fell by 57%, non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) were down by 47% and nitrogen oxides (NOx) have dropped 36%. EU-27 emissions of all four pollutants were lower in 2007 than in 2006.

Read more ... <http://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/emissions-of-air-pollutants-down-in-eu-27?&utm_campaign=emissions-of-air-pollutants-down-in-eu-27&utm_medium=email&utm_source=EEASubscriptions>

Air quality vacancy at Bristol CC

Bristol City Council are now recruiting an Environmental Technical Support Officer for their environment team. The role will be mainly working on air quality, covering Bristol's monitoring sites and also working on other air quality projects, EMAS, water quality and GIS. Click here for further details.

Jimi chairs Defra review of monitoring for acidifying and eutrophying pollutants

Jimi Irwin has chaired a review of monitoring for acidifying and eutrophying pollutants for Defra. Such measurements have been an important part of the United Kingdom measurement programme since the first national precipitation chemistry network was established in 1986. They have played an important role in determining pollutant deposition over the country and in identifying areas where research was necessary to improve our understanding of atmospheric chemistry and deposition processes. More recently, they have provided a tool for the implementation of a critical loads and levels approach to environmental protection.

The Review Panel reviewed current monitoring with regard to species measured, locations, frequency of measurement, methodology and quality assurance. They also considered the status of the UK supersites at Harwell and Auchencorth Moss within the European Evaluation and Monitoring programme. In reaching their conclusions the Panel drew on material provided by the network operators, past reports and also the findings of a user survey. Relevant material is available on the NERC open research archive.

AQMRC - EPUK SW Annual Conference back on!

The 11th Annual Conference organised by Air Quality Management Resource Centre, UWE and Environmental Protection SW Division is back on after being postponed from its usual slot in March. The conference will now be held on Wednesday 30th September. The title of the event is 'Air Quality Management - The 11th Hour' focusing on the fact that the Air Quality Objective dates have now largely been reached and EU Limit Values are on the horizon.

The presentations selected will highlight the benefits of integrating air quality with other disciplines, e.g. transport, carbon management, health and land use planning. Defra's Robert Vaughan will set the scene with his keynote address and will be joined by speakers from Bristol City Council, King's College, London, University of London, Peter Brett Associates, Exeter University and Portsmouth University, including Ben Williams, winner of the 2008 Environmental Protection Student Day event. There will also be a conference exhibition for suppliers, consultants and academics to display their wares and research.

The venue remains the same, Bristol Zoo, and the conference fees will include delegate packs (including CPD certificate), buffet lunch and refreshments. For details and a link to the conference flier and registration form, please visit the AQMRC website http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/training.html or ring 0117 32 81626 for further information.

Jim and Simon go to Westminster

Jim and Simon were invited to the Great Western Research (GWR) event 'Innovation through Collaboration', Portcullis House, Westminster on 29th June. The event celebrated the achievements of the Great Western Research project to date and called for further funding to maintain momentum. Jim gave an enthusiastic presentation on his experiences as a research supervisor on Simon's PhD - made possible through the GWR initiative – and Simon presented an academic poster on his research. The event was well attended by GWR, Students, Fellows, Supervisors and Business Partners and joined by senior academics from across the South West and representatives of the SW-RDA, HEFCE, Research Councils, and the Technology Strategy Board. The event was sponsored by Phil Willis MP Chair of the Commons Select Committee responsible for science and technology. Go to Simon's webpage to see the poster and find out more about his research.

Jo presents at EPUK East Midlands Division AGM, Buxton

Jo Barnes gave a presentation on the 2009 LAQM Technical Guidance to the EPUK East Midlands Division AGM at the Tarmac Lime and Cement plant at Tunstead Quarry, in Buxton, Derbyshire last Thursday, 25th June. Malcolm Brown and Rhonda Newsham (British Geological Survey) also gave a very interesting talk on the use of GIS in assessing assessment of contaminated land exposure and Peter Grosvenor and Frank Emerson (Tarmac) spoke about the operations at the quarry and gave us a fascinating tour of the works. The presentations and tour were well-received by the audience of Environmental Protection Officers and Councillors from the region. [Photographed L-R Jo Barnes (UWE), Peter Grosvenor and Frank Emerson (Tarmac), Malcolm Brown and Rhonda Newsham (British Geological Survey.]

And the winner is...

...Rose Bailey from the AQMRC!

Rose was awarded a cash prize for her presentation at the Faculty of Environment and Technology Postgraduate Research Conference last Monday (15th June). Her talk on "Managing carbon emissions at the city scale: opportunities and challenges" outshone all of the other presentations from Bristol Institute of Technology (BIT) and Built and Natural Environment (BNE) postgrad students. Visit Rose's research webpage to read all about her research.

Well done, Rose!

The John Rose Award and Non-Exhaust Emissions - calling all postgrads - applications welcome

Atmospheric particle pollution has been linked to a number of health issues and is thought to be directly responsible for a reduction in the life expectancy of a person living in the UK by an average of 7-8 months. Road transport is a major source of atmospheric particle emissions, particularly within urban areas. Current legislation has only focused on reducing emissions from the exhaust pipe of vehicles. New studies have shown that other unregulated vehicle-related emissions, such as non-exhaust emissions, can equal or surpass exhaust contributions.

The winner of the John Rose Award 2008 from the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES) was Samantha Lawrence, for her PhD research on non-exhaust particles. Samantha Lawrence has used the £1000 grant to publicise her work on non-exhaust emissions and to launch a campaign to encourage the Government to create appropriate legislation to control non-exhaust emissions. As part of this campaign, a Government e-petition has been created. You can add your name to the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/non-exhaust/.

In collaboration with the IES, Samantha has also created an exciting new website with information on her research, interactive features and learning resources. Please visit www.ies-uk.org.uk/non-exhaust.

The IES hosts the John Rose Award every year to reward outstanding pieces of environmental post-graduate research, which have the potential to motivate people and facilitate environmental improvement. The £1000 grant is used to publicise the results of the work to the general public.

We are pleased to announce that applications for the 2009 John Rose Award are now welcome. The applicant must have completed, or be in the writing-up stages of a postgraduate piece of work that can contribute to positive environmental change. Upon winning the Award, applicants will receive £1000 to promote their research to the public, along with the chance to speak at the prestigous Burntwood Lecture to an audience of scientists and environmental professionals. The Award will be officially presented by Paul Leinster, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency at the 2009 Burntwood Lecture on 11th November at the Royal Society in London.

Please visit http://www.ies-uk.org.uk/awards/awards.php for more information and to apply. The closing date for applications is 2nd October 2009.

Mofoluso's presentation at the AQMRC Seminar Series

Mofoluso recently gave a presentation to the University community as part of the AQMRC Seminar series, describing the current status of his PhD research. The presentation, "Applying remote sensing and GIS techniques to air quality and carbon management in the Niger Delta" gave insight to the methods Mofoluso is adopting for the research and can be accessed from his Research page on the AQMRC website.

Rose to present at International Conference on Human Ecology

Rose has had two abstracts accepted for the International Conference on Human Ecology, to be held at the University of Manchester from 29th June to 3rd July. The conference theme is 'Human Ecology for an urbanising world', and Rose will be presenting a paper entitled 'Managing carbon emissions at the city scale: opportunities and challenges' in the climate change and the urban environment session. Rose will also be presenting an overview of her research in the research paper workshop for PhD students. More information on the conference can be found on the Society for Human Ecology website

UWE and Cranfield NERC funded research on impacts of commercial composting

Read the recent press release on this NERC funded project at http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/article.asp?item=1470&year=2009.

Institute for Sustainability, Health and the Environment Inaugural Conference

More than 100 invited guests drawn from practitioners, researchers and policy makers in public health, local authorities, environment, planning, business and other organisations attended the inaugural conference of the Institute on April 21st . The conference entitled Anticipating Tomorrow for Change Today featured amongst others a presentation from the co-directors of ISHE, Judy Orme and Jim Longhurst outlining the vision, aims, capacity and capability of the Institute .

Read the associated press release here. http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/article.asp?item=1468&year=2009

The presentations from the conference will be available on the ISHE web site (http://www.uwe.ac.uk/ishe/) soon.

AQMRC Work Featured in Research and Knowledge Exchange Conference

The work of the Air Quality Management Resource Centre was presented at the Faculty of Environment and Technology’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Conference held on April 23rd 2009. Click here to see the presentation on AQMRC delivered by Jim Longhurst.

Biomass and Air Quality Guidance Consultation Now Online

The draft biomass and air quality guidance is now available on the Environmental Protection UK website for consultation. The link is:

www.environmental-protection.org.uk/biomass

The consultation period will run until Friday 8th May, responses should be sent to Ed Dearnley via post or email.

Environmental Protection UK
44 Grand Parade
Brighton
BN2 9QA

Email - ed.dearnley@environmental-protection.org.uk

AQMRC at Environmental Protection UK Spring Workshop

The AQMRC team attended the Environmental Protection UK Spring Workshop in beautiful Northamptonshire last week and contributed a couple of presentations and a workshop to the proceedings. Dotun struck a chord amongst the delegates with his presentation on 'Air Quality and the Local Transport Planning Process', while Jo addressed the 'Capacity development and capability enhancement opportunities for air quality and carbon management professionals', introducing the Masters level CPD training course that is currently being developed by the AQMRC, and Tim gave an animated introduction to the LAQM process in his 'LAQM for beginners' workshop (pictured). The presentations are available from the Environmental Protection UK website http://www.environmental-protection.org.uk/events/details/?id=1743.

Tim elected to UKPHA Council

At Tuesday's AGM of the UK Public Health Association, Tim was voted on
to UKPHA Council as a trustee. On the council Tim will represent the
views of the Chairs of the UKPHA's Special Interest Groups.

AQMRC and ISHE well represented at the UKPHA annual forum

AQMRC and the new Institute of Sustainability, Health and Environment
were well represented at the UKPHA public health forum in Brighton this
week. Over half a dozen people represented The University of the West
of England presenting a wide range of work, chairing sessions and
organising workshops.

RSC Interview with Jo

The January edition of the Royal Society of Chemistry Environmental Chemistry Group's biannual Bulletin features an interview with Jo Barnes http://www.rsc.org/images/ecgbull0901_tcm18-142982.pdf. Jo is the Honorary Secretary of the ECG and this interview offers a reflection on her move from Cornwall College to the AQMRC, UWE and on her career so far. For more information on Jo visit her webpage www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/jo.html.

Simon's case study interviews near completion.

Simon has been visiting south west local authorities to investigate the level of cooperative inter-professional engagement between officers dealing with air pollution and officers responsible for carbon management at a local level. This stage of the project will complement the research findings from earlier work (click here for more information) and will further investigate some of the barriers to integrated management highlighted by the questionnaire survey stage of the project.

Jo, Tim and Dotun to speak at Environmental Protection UK Spring Workshop

AQMRC will be represented by three speakers at the forthcoming Environmental Protection UK 2009 Spring workshop taking place on 2nd to 3rd April themed; Beyond the Limits: From Assessment to Action.

Jo will be speaking on "Training for Air Quality Professionals". She will be discussing the HERDA-SW project, which she is currently managing, in which AQMRC are currently developing a series of air quality and carbon management modules for air quality professionals in the South West Region (For more on the HERDA-SW project click here).

Tim will be sharing his vast knowledge on the LAQM process and a review of helpful information and where to get it in a friendly workshop setting to delegates who are new to the process.

Dotun will be speaking on "Air Quality and Local Transport Plan". He will be summarising the key findings from his 3-year research on the subject, and provide recommendations on how to keep air quality at the top of the agenda in the proposed LTP3 and improving engagement between the environmental health officers and transport planners. Find out more about Dotun’s research here.

Dotun concludes case study interviews

Dotun just concluded the case study interviews on the integration of air quality into the Local Transport Plan process at various local authorities in England. This involves visits to West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Greater Nottingham, Bedford, Devon, Leicestershire and Hampshire. He appreciates the support and encouragement he received from all the participants.

Rose attends Carbon Connections conference

Rose attended the second Carbon Connections conference, 'Success through Innovation - Knowledge Transfer and the path to a low carbon economy', held at the Natural History Museum, London, on 12th March. Speakers included Prof. Bob Watson, Chief Scientific Advisor to Defra, and Jonathon Porritt, Founder Direcrtor of Furum for the Future, who spoke on the urgent need for mitigation of climate change, and the ways we might do this in the UK.

Carbon Connections, based at the University of East Anglia, is an investment body, set up by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to seek out, encourage and invest in carbon-saving innovation either through technological advance or behavioural change.

Rose presents at RGS-IBG postgraduate forum mid-term conference

Rose presented her research at the RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum mid-term conference, at the University of Plymouth, on 7th March. The conference provided an opportunity for a large number of postgraduates to present their research, and gain feedback from other postgraduate research students working on all aspects of Geography. The conference also included poster presentations and exhibitions, and workshops addressing aspects of postgraduate development. Rose's presentation can be downloaded here.
Rose has nominated herself as next year's conference organiser, with the help of other research students in the faculty, and is hoping UWE will win the vote! Watch this space for news...

Welcome back, Nicky

AQMRC is delighted to announce that Dr Nicky Woodfield will be working with AQMRC on a range of projects in the next year.

Nicky was the first appointment to AQMRC back in 1997 and as well as coordinating the work of the Centre studied part time for a PhD which was awarded in 2004. Her thesis was entitled Conflict and consensus in spatial and temporal designations of Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) to secure air quality objectives in Great Britain and her research led to a large number of papers and conference presentations. The staff in AQMRC look forward to working with Nicky on a range of LAQM projects.

Farewell and Good Luck, Nurul

After 8 years in Bristol, first as a PhD student and then as a Research Fellow, AQMRC has bid farewell to Dr Nurul Leksmono. Nurul has returned to her home city of Jakarta, Indonesia to work for the environmental consultancy ERM. We wish Nurul well in this the next part of her career and we look forward to the opportunity for collaborating on some interesting and challenging new projects.

Nurul first joined AQMRC in 2001 to study for a PhD funded by the Environment Agency. Her PhD 'Sustainable, proportionate and cost-effective action plans to deliver air quality objectives within AQMAs' explored the relationship between the LAQM and the IPPC regimes and focused on the application of the above principles within the development of air quality action plans. Her PhD was supervised by Jimi Irwin, Katy Ling and Jim Longhurst.

Following the award of her PhD Nurul worked on a range of AQMRC projects including the ESRC 'Science in Society' project 'Consultation as Science Communication' (see http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/esrc/), the ESRC Impact project 'Mediating Consultation: Private Sector Consultancies Engagement in Local Air Quality Management Consultation' (see http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/Mediating_Consultation.html) as well as providing technical and policy support for AQMRC activities including the Defra Review and Assessment contract and a wide range of LAQM projects.

Everyone in AQMRC will miss Nurul greatly, and wish her all the best.

LAQM Guidance and tools now available

The LAQM Policy Guidance (England only); Practice Guidance (England only) and Technical Guidance (all of the UK) have been launched today (19th February 2009) in electronic format (hard copy to follow). New support tools are also now available and the Report Submission Website is now live. These documents and support tools can all be accessed at the links below:

LAQM Policy Guidance (England only): http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/airquality/local/guidance/pdf/laqm-policy-guidance-part4.pdf.
LAQM Technical Guidance (all of the UK): http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/airquality/local/guidance/pdf/tech-guidance-laqm-tg-09.pdf.
LAQM Technical Guidance Support Tools: http://laburnum.aeat.co.uk/archive/laqm/tools.php.

These documents and links for the LAQM Practice Guidance (England only) are also available on the LAQM Guidance pages of the Defra website: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/airquality/local/guidance/index.htm.

Report Submission Website: http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/la_report_admin/logon.php. Further information and login details, etc, will be sent out next week.

The Review and Assessment website FAQs will be updated tomorrow.

Bookmark these links and happy reading!

Rose and Mofoluso's abstracts accepted for RGS-IBG Conference

Rose and Mofoluso have both had abstracts accepted for presentation at the forthcoming RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum mid-term conference, at the University of Plymouth on 7th March. The conference provides an opportunity for postgraduates working on aspects of geography to present their research, and also to participate in workshops addressing aspects of postgraduate development. More information on the conference can be found here.

Celebrating 10,000 subscribers - Science for Environment Policy goes from strength to strength

Now with 10,000 subscribers, Science for Environment Policy plays a key role in disseminating cutting edge, policy-relevant research findings in the environmental sciences. The news alert service is edited by the Science Communication Unit at the University of the West of England on behalf of the European Commission. It was first launched in January 2006 and quickly attracted a considerable number of subscriptions from old Member States of the EU. Recently, these figures have been buoyed by a notable and important increase in subscribers from new EU Member States.

Doubravka Nedvedova of the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic, the service’s 10,000th subscriber, said: “Being from the Czech Republic, I was delighted to find a service that directly addresses a number of the environmental problems we face both nationally and across the EU. It is very helpful to have such clearly written and relevant information delivered directly to my inbox.”

Brought to you FREE by DG Environment of the European Commission, this information service brings policy-relevant research findings in the following areas direct to the subscriber’s email inbox:

Agriculture
Air pollution
Biodiversity
Biotechnology
Chemicals
Climate Change & Energy
Environment and Health
Environmental Information Services
Environment Technologies
Forests
Land use Marine Ecosystem
Natural Hazards
Noise
Risk Assessment
Soil
Sustainable Consumption and Production
Sustainable Development and Policy Assessment
Sustainable Mobility
Urban Environment
Waste Water

The service is weekly and covers recently published studies. The articles are written in easy-to-read, non-scientific English specifically to allow non-scientists and non-native speakers of English easy access to the latest scientific research.
To subscribe to the service, send an email to sfep@uwe.ac.uk with the message line: 'subscribe-SfEP' or visit the news alert website at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/research_alert_en.htm
For more information please contact:

Emma Weitkamp, Managing Editor
Tel +44 (0) 117 32 82081
Emma.weitkamp@uwe.ac.uk

Or Michelle Kilfoyle, Production Editor
Tel +44 (0) 117 32 83913
Michelle.kilfoyle@uwe.ac.uk

Air Quality Management Resource Centre are very pleased to be working with SCU on this project.

Rose lectures at University of Iceland

Rose has just returned from giving three lectures at the University of Iceland, from 7th - 10th February. These included lectures on carbon management and carbon footprinting, for Masters students taking a course on 'Sustainable Futures', and a lecture on her research as a case study of carbon management, for Environmental Engineering Undergraduates. The lectures can be downloaded on her research page.

Rose is pleased that she managed to see some of Iceland's beautiful scenery whilst there, but isn't sorry to leave behind the sub-zero tempertures!

New LAQM training session in the south east

Due to massive demand, Air Quality Management Resource Centre, UWE, and Air Quality Consultants Ltd will be holding another LAQM Training session in the south east in addition to the previously advertised events in Bristol, Reading and York.

The new event will be held at the Hawth in Crawley on Tuesday 3rd March. Please click here to access further information and the registration form.

South West EP-UK & AQMRC 11th Annual Conference: Local Authority National Environmental Indicators – Where next?

Environmental Protection UK South West Division & Air Quality Management Resource Management Centre, UWE, are holding their 11th Annual Conference: Local Authority National Environmental Indicators – Where next? at Bristol Zoo on Friday, 20th March 2009.
Please click here for a copy of the flier and details of how to register.

Public Health publication

The journal Public Health has just published a paper jointly written by Tim Chatterton at AQMRC, with colleagues at UWE in the Centre for Transport and Society, and the British Market Research Board.  The paper provides a summary and discussion of key issues arising in research carried out by them for the Department of Transport.

 

Understanding how transport choices are affected by the environment and health: Views expressed in a study on the use of carbon calculators

T.J. Chatterton, A. Coulter, C. Musselwhite, G. Lyons and S. Clegg

doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2008.10.022  

Tim Exchanges Knowledge at IEMA

On 28th January, Tim presented the AQMRC's work in the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia to the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment's Knoledge Transfer (Exchange) Workshop.  The event, held in Oxford, was aimed at bringing the work of a range of accademic institutions to the the attention  of the practioner and business communities and was well attended by representatives from the UK Research Councils, Universities and businesses.  Further details of the meeting and presentations can be found on the IEMA website <a heref="http://www.iema.net/conferences/knowledgeexchange">here</a>.

Rose to lecture at University of Iceland, Reykjavik

Rose will be contributing to a weekend of lectures on sustainable futures, at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik. Rose will be lecturing Masters students on carbon management frameworks and accounting techniques. The lecture series has been organised by Professor Vala Ragnarsdottir, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Iceland, and one of Rose's supervisors, and will run from 6th-9th February.

Rose presents at Regional Studies Association South West Branch Conference

Rose gave a presentation on carbon management in the Bristol Region at the South West Branch of the Regional Studies Association conference at UWE on 23rd January. Rose's presentation included a review of current climate policy and emissions in the Bristol region and an overview of her research, before discussing some of the methods and challenges in emissions estimates and forecasts. Rose's presentation can be downloaded here.

Consultation on UK application for an extension to meet EU air quality limits

Defra is seeking views on the UK application to the European Commission for an extension to meet air quality targets for Particulate Matter (PM₁₀). The application for an extension will be submitted to the European Commission as soon as possible after this consultation has closed on 10 March.

 

PM₁₀ is made up of very small particles of soot and dust in the air, less than 10 micrometers in diameter (human hair ranges from 17-180 micrometers in diameter). The sources of these particles include transport, industrial plants, construction, and extremely small particles carried on the wind from neighbouring countries. There is also a small amount from natural sources, such as dust blown from Africa or sea salt.

 

Most other Member States have also reported some breaches of the EU PM₁₀ limits since they came into force in 2005: 24 out of 27 reported breaches of the limit in 2007. They will also need to apply to the European Commission for additional time.

 

Levels of PM₁₀ have been falling across the UK. However, in eight areas breaches of the PM₁₀ limit values have been reported to the European Commission since they came into force in 2005 and so additional time to meet the limits is needed.

The extension would enable current and planned measures to take effect to reduce PM₁₀ levels to within the EU limits by the extended deadline of 2011.

 

Consultation documents are available to download from the Defra website http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/air-quality/index.htm.  The deadline for responses is 10^th March 2009.

 

Rose to present at South West Branch of the Regional Studies Association conference

Rose is to present at the 1st annual conference of the South West branch of the Regional Studies Association, on Friday 23rd January. Rose will be presenting an overview of her research on carbon management in the Bristol region. The conference aims to facilitate and stimulate dialogue between policy makers and academics with an interest in England's South West region, in an attempt to identify ways to enhance and improve the working of our economy and to make the region a better place to live. More information can he found here: http://www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk/events/future.asp

LAQM Training Days 2009 - booking form available

It won't have escaped your notice that air quality management in 2009 is set to see some changes with the imminent publication of the new Local Air Quality Management Policy and Technical Guidance and tools to facilitate report preparation and submission. To ease air quality professionals into this Review & Assessment year and help them to fully understand the implications of these changes, the Air Quality Management Resource Centre, UWE, and Air Quality Consultants Ltd will be holding a series of Training Days during March 2009. Sessions will be held throughout England (see dates and venues below) and will provide delegates with, among other things, advice on the preparation of LAQM reports (Review & Assessment Reports and Air Quality Action Plans) under the new Technical Guidance, the online USA template and the web submission tool and LAQM support tools. Please click here to access further information and the registration form.

10/3/09 Bristol (hosted by Bristol City Council)
19/3/09 Reading (hosted by the Environment Agency)
23/3/09 York (hosted by York City Council)

Further dates may be announced depending on demand. Click here to receive email notification of training sessions and other upcoming AQMRC activities and here to subscribe to the AQMRC Latest News for RSS feed updates.

The Welsh Assembly Government (10/2/2009) and the Scottish Government (13/2/2009) are also hosting LAQM training sessions in Cardiff and Edinburgh respectively. Please contact us for further information on these training sessions.

On Thursday 23^rd January Jim Longhurst will be speaking at the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education’s (http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/) training seminar being held at Warwick University.  Jim will speak on the subject of Research and Enterprise in Higher Education.

 

Back in November Jim Longhurst gave an invited talk on the subject of ‘Major environmental challenges and responses’  at the Great Western Research Conference  ‘Future Imperfect’. The film of Jim’s talk can now be viewed as a streamed webcast on the GWR web site at http://www.greatwesternresearch.ac.uk/FutureImperfect.php

 

Enda Hayes, Tim Chatterton and Jim Longhurst were submitted as part of the University’s submission to sub panel 32 Geography and Environmental Studies. 70% of this submission was judged as being of internationally recognised quality or internationally excellent. See the RAE web page at http://www.rae.ac.uk/ and http://www.built-environment.uwe.ac.uk/research/newsDisplayPublic.asp?NewsID=1143&rss=True

 

Promotion to Senior Research Fellow

Congratulations to Dr Enda Hayes on his well deserved promotion to Senior Research Fellow in AQMRC. Read Enda’s web page at  http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/enda.html

LAQM Training Days 2009 - booking form available

It won’t have escaped your notice that air quality management in 2009 is set to see some changes with the imminent publication of the new Local Air Quality Management Policy and Technical Guidance and tools to facilitate report preparation and submission. To ease air quality professionals into this Review & Assessment year and help them to fully understand the implications of these changes, the Air Quality Management Resource Centre, UWE, and Air Quality Consultants Ltd will be holding a series of Training Days during March 2009. Sessions will be held throughout England (see dates and venues below) and will provide delegates with, among other things, advice on the preparation of LAQM reports (Review & Assessment Reports and Air Quality Action Plans) under the new Technical Guidance, the online USA template and the web submission tool and LAQM support tools. Please click here to access further information and the registration form.

10/3/09 Bristol (hosted by Bristol City Council)
19/3/09 Reading (hosted by the Environment Agency)
23/3/09 York (hosted by York City Council)

Further dates may be announced depending on demand. Click here to receive email notification of training sessions and other upcoming AQMRC activities and here to subscribe to the AQMRC Latest News for RSS feed updates.

The Welsh Assembly Government (10/2/2009) and the Scottish Government (13/2/2009) are also hosting LAQM training sessions in Cardiff and Edinburgh respectively. Please contact us for further information on these training sessions.

South West EP-UK & AQMRC 11th Annual Conference - date change

Scrub 26th February 2009 from your diary and add 20th March! We're back to Bristol Zoo for the 11th Annual South West Environmental Protection UK and AQMRC Conference. The theme of the conference is Environmental Indicators, where next? The conference will address local authority environmental indicators (e.g. air quality, climate change, land, noise, etc). Detail agenda to follow shortly.