Mo continues to publish and present...

Former PhD student Dr Mofoluso Fagbeja is presenting a paper at the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Conference Confluence by the Bay - A Gathering of Geospatial Insights. March 24 - 28, 2013,   Baltimore, Maryland USA.  Mo’s attendance at the conference is supported by the Ian McCrea Travel Grant awarded by the Institute of Air Quality Management  and the Institution of Environmental Sciences.

 

Full details of the paper are:  Fagbeja M.A., Hill, J.L., Chatterton, T., Longhurst, J.W.S., Akinyede, J.O. (2013)  A subjective assessment of the suitability of Sciamachy total column    measurements to interpolate reliable concentration estimates over  a low latitude region. To be published in the proceedings of The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Conference 2013 Confluence by the Bay - A Gathering of Geospatial Insights. March 24 - 28, 2013,   Baltimore, Maryland USA.

 

Mo will also attend the Association of American Geographers conference in Los Angeles, USA,  from the 9^th to the 13^th of April where he will present a paper entitled The Need for Improved Sensing Technology for Estimating Concentrations of Air Pollutants at Ground Level in Low-Latitude Climates. The authors of the paper are Mofoluso Fagbeja,  Tim Chatterton,  Jennifer Hill,  James Longhurst and Joseph Akinyede.  

London Sustainability Exchange behaviour workshop

On Wednesday 27th March, Tim will be helping the London Sustainability Exchange run a workshop at City Hall in London on Planning and Measuring Behaviour Change Campaigns.

The workshop is aimed at a wide range of NGO and Community groups to help them develop and monitor their own programmes to stimulate pro-environmental and pro-social behaviours.

http://www.lsx.org.uk/news/events.aspx?id=3567

AQMRC 'backing Bristol's bid' to be European Green Capital

AQMRC are 'backing the bid' for Bristol to be the 2015 European Green Capital. 

The European Green Capital Award is an annual prize by the European Commission, that goes to one city every year, singling out its environmental performance. Bristol, Brussels, Glasgow and Ljubljana have been shortlisted from 8 entries across Europe.  An independent panel of 12 experts assessed each entry on the basis of 12 indicators, including local contribution to global climate change and quality of local ambient air.

Bristol, Brussels, Glasgow and Ljubljana, will now go forward to present their vision, their potential to act as a role model to other cities, and their communication strategy to the Jury in Brussels on 24 May. Following the Jury’s deliberations the final result, the European Green Capital 2015 will be announced at an official Award ceremony in France on 14 June 2013, hosted by the current European Green Capital, Nantes.

AQMRC and UWE are pleased to be supporting the Bristol bid. Professor Martin Bigg, Director of the Environmental Technologies iNet at UWE is chair of the Bristol Green Capital Partnership and some of AQMRC's work included playing a key role in public engagement activities through the 'Future Bristol' website. We all have our fingers crossed that Bristol will make it third time lucky!

Pledge your support to Bristol's bid here: http://bristolgreencapital.org/back-the-bid.php

Future Bristol website is award-winning!

The 'Future Bristol' website has only been live a month but has already won several accolades! These include: 

• CSS Design Award: winner 24th February 2013 ("a living archive of the world's greatest websites and an inspirational showcase celebrating emerging talent.")
• 'Smashing Award' ("for design, creativity and innovation on the Internet, which recognize and promote the best web, flash, print, logo designers in the world.")
• Nominee for best website by Awwward ("recognition & prestige for web designers")
• Special mention in the online magazine Abduzeedo's 'sites of the week'. 

'Future Bristol' has also been featured online by The Ecologist Magazine, the Institution of Environmental Sciences, and used as a case study for online public engagement by Delib. 

Rose has also lectured on her use of creative, digital and social media for public engagement to UWE students, presented the project at a recent seminar at UWE on 'Achieving Energy Efficiency' with guest speaker Pat Murray from the New Zealand government, and visited a local primary school to explore their visions and concerns for Future Bristol.

Congratulations to Rose on successful SPUR5 application

Rose has been successful in winning a SPUR5 grant from UWE for her project entitled "‘Future Bristol’: exploring public views on low carbon futures through art and digital media". This project builds on current public engagement work via the recently launched website www.futurebristol.co.uk

The interactive website was created with the support of the Institution of Environmental Sciences, Bristol City Council and the Bristol Green Capital Partnership. The two scenarios depicted on the site are based on the results of Rose's PhD, which explored possible low carbon futures for the Bristol region in 2050.

This research project, starting in August, seeks to understand how the public perceives, comprehends and engages with the notion of Bristol as a low carbon city in 2050, by exploring responses to the scenarios and website, and aims to answer the following research questions:

• How do different groups engage with and respond to alternative visions for a low carbon future?
• Which options and features of low carbon futures are popular/unpopular? What additional ideas are elicited by the public engagement process
•  Are creative media and web tools effective for engaging and communicating low carbon futures?

Rose will be using the results of this research to support a bid to the ESRC Knowledge Exchange Opportunities Scheme later in the year to further develop research and engagement activity in Bristol around low carbon futures.

'Future Bristol' website launched!

The 'Future Bristol' website has launched!

'Future Bristol' is an interactive website aimed at engaging the public with the concept of Bristol as a low carbon city in 2050. It presents two alternative possible scenarios for the city in 2050, developed through a large Delphi consultation with key stakeholders in the Bristol region as part of Rose's PhD research. Visitors to the site are encouraged to explore the two scenarios, cast their votes on different features of each, and have their say by joining the discussion on the Dialogue page.

Thanks to the 2012 John Rose Award grant from the Institution of Environmental Sciences, and with additional support from Bristol City Council and Green Capital Partnership, Rose was able to commission illustrations of the two scenarios and an interactive website to allow the results of her research to be communicated in an accessible, engaging and user-friendly way. 

The 'Future Bristol' website also forms a key part of the public engagement and communications strategy for Bristol's 2015 European Green Capital bid, and will be developed into a larger research project over the next year.

Go online, explore and have your say!

Tim supports Green Alliance Workshop

On Thursday 21st March, Tim was a key participant in a workshop organised by the Green Alliance think tank http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/ to kick off their project to try and identify what an effective package of measures to seriously promote energy efficiency might look like in the wake of the Green Deal.

The project is seeking to encourage government to go beyond very simple economic and information deficit interpretations of householders (non) action, and is a clear indication that the work Tim undertook in his year long fellowship in the Department of Energy and Climate Change is beginning to show impact within the NGO sector.

Successful meeting with the EU Commission and Member States (8th March)

We had a very constructive meeting with the EU Commission and Member States last week discussing the draft findings of our project assessing the impact of AQUILA, FAIRMODE and SEG recommendations. This project, delivered with partners from the Danish Centre for Environment and Energy (Aarhus University) is part of our larger Framework Contract to support the EU Commission in services related to the review of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution.

 

Enda & Jim off to Brussels

Enda and Jim are heading to Brussels on Thursday and Friday (7th & 8th March) for a project meeting with DG-Env and a Member State consultation meeting for our project on the impact assessment of the AQUILA, FAIRMODE and SEG recommendations.
This project is part of our larger Framework Contract to support the EU Commission in services related to the review of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution.