Tim is Researcher of the Year

Very many congratulations to Dr Tim Chatterton who has been awarded the title of Researcher of the Year   2012/13 in Geography and Environmental Management. Tim will receive his award at the Faculty of Environment and Technology Graduation Ceremony on July 15^th. Photos of the event will be posted later.

A Low Emission Zone for Bristol?

The Mayor of Bristol has proposed a Low Emission Zone to combat air pollution within the city. The proposal has created a lot of media interest and on Wednesday 19^th June Jim Longhurst was interviewed by BBC Radio Bristol and appeared on BBC TV’s Points West discussing the implications of the proposals. His comments were also reported on BBC online. Read the BBC online report here.

 

 

 

An Air Quality Strategy for Bristol?

Earlier this year Jim was part of a Bristol Ad – Hoc Air Quality Working Group that was brought together by the City Council to consider air quality in the city and the measures available to improve the situation. A YouTube video of the discussions is available here.

 

The Working Group submitted its report to   Bristol City Council’s Sustainable Development and Transport Scrutiny Commission in March 2013. The Working Group’s key recommendation is that   the Mayor develops an Air Quality Strategy for Bristol.   Read the report to the Scrutiny Commission here. 

 

Jim attended the March meeting of the Scrutiny Commission and assisted the   Council Officers in presenting the report to Commission Members.

 

 

 

Bristol European Green Capital 2015

 

AQMRC supported the Bristol  team writing the air quality part of the European Green Capital 2015  bid and we are delighted that Bristol has been successful in its bid to become European Green Capital 2015.

 

Read the UWE Press Release here and view the promotional films featuring work by UWE Bristol researchers looking at technologies that could transform our futures through sustainable energy creation and water management. Click here to see the film.

Making mixed methods work in Transport Research

On Thursday Tim co-chaired a workshop organised by the Disruption project (http://www.disruptionproject.net) and the Travel Behaviours Network ( http://www.travelbehaviours.net/) on the challenges and issues around using mixed-methods in transport.

Tim also gave a presentation on the MOT project (www.tinyurl.com/MOTproject) discussing the challenges and opportunities of big datasets, and the need for them to be linked to other data (qualitative or quantitative) in order to determine meanings and texture.

Tim presents at IAPSC

Tim is giving a presentation at the Investigation of Air Pollution Standing Conference in Sheffield today. He will be presenting early work from the MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK) on the linking of energy use, carbon and air pollution emissions from transport and domestic emissions. http://tinyurl.com/MOTproject

Jim Co - Chairs Air Pollution 21

Jim co-chaired the 21^st meeting on Air Quality Modelling, Monitoring and Management held at Certosa di Pontignano, Universita Degli Studi di Siena from the 3^rd to the 5^th of June 2013.  Read his welcome address below.

Welcome Address.  Air Pollution 21

Welcome to the Twenty First International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution held in Certosa di Pontignano, Universita Degli Studi di Siena, Italy and organised by the Wessex Institute of Technology and the University of the West of England.   This successful international meeting builds upon the prestigious outcomes of the 20 preceding conferences beginning with Monterrey, Mexico in 1993 and most recently in Malta in 2011 and A Coruna, Spain in 2012. I am delighted that the Co-Chairs from that first meeting in Monterrey, Professors Brebbia and Zanetti, are here today to contribute to this meeting.  The Air Pollution series of   meetings has attracted outstanding contributions from leading researchers from around the world. The peer reviewed papers selected for presentation and included in the Conference Proceedings have been permanently stored in the WIT eLibrary as Transactions of the Wessex Institute (see http://library.witpress.com). These collected papers provide an important record of the development of science and policy pertaining to air pollution. To have reached a total of twenty one successful conferences on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution is a significant achievement and I would like to thank the many colleagues in academia and practice around the world who have contributed to this series of meetings. Undoubtedly, the series has filled a significant gap in the conference landscape and during the 21 year period there have been many competitor and complementary conferences   launched. That the conference series continues to grow and meet the demands of a discerning market is testament to the quality of the science and policy presented at the meetings, the publication formats and the quality of the conference venues.

The twenty one conferences in this series have discussed many important air pollution issues and the international nature of the attendees has ensured that of the conference findings and conclusions enjoy a wide and rapid dissemination amongst the air pollution science and policy communities. The conferences to date have concluded that despite the long history of attempts to manage the consequences of air pollution the issue remains one of the most challenging problems facing the international community. The conference series has demonstrated the wide spread nature of the air pollution phenomena and has explored in great depth the impacts of air pollution on human health and the environment. Conference presentations have explored the causes of air pollution from transport, manufactured goods and services and discussed the often unintended, but none the less real, impacts on the atmospheric environment at scales from the local to the global. A particular strength of the conference series has been the attention given to regulatory and, more recently, market solutions to air pollution management.  Conference delegates have explored a range of regulatory successes in minimising such impacts but equally have recognised that the continuing development of the global economy bring new pressures upon the ability of the atmosphere to process pollutants and to safely remove them.   The willingness of governmental authorities to move quickly to regulate air pollution is often balanced by concerns over the economic impact of such regulation. This frequently results in a lag between the scientific knowledge about the nature, scale and effect of air pollution and the implementation of appropriate, targeted and timely legislation. 

The conference series has consistently acknowledged that science remains the key to identifying the nature and scale of air pollution impacts and reaffirmed that science is essential in the formulation of policy relevant information for regulatory decision-making.  The conference series also recognised, at a very early stage, that science alone will not improve a polluted atmosphere. The scientific knowledge derived from well designed studies needs to be allied with further technical and economic studies in order to ensure cost effective and efficient mitigation. In turn, the science, technology and economic outcomes are necessary but not sufficient. Increasingly, the conference series has recognised that the outcome of such research need to be contextualised within well formulated communication strategies that help policy makers and citizens to understand and appreciate the risks and rewards arising from air pollution management.  Consequently, the conference series has enjoyed a wide range of high quality presentations that develop the fundamental science of air pollution and an equally impressive range of presentations that places these new developments within the frame of mitigation and management of air pollution. The peer reviewed nature of the conference volumes enables policy makers to confidently use the new findings to formulate sustainable decisions and to build public acceptance and understanding of the nature and scale of the air pollution problem.

This conference brings together contributions from scientists from around the world to present recent work on various aspects of the air pollution phenomena. Notable in each of the twenty preceding conferences in this series has been the opportunity to foster scientific exchange between participants. New collaborations amongst scientists and between scientists and policy makers or regulators have arisen through contacts made in this series and each meeting has provided a further opportunity for identifying new areas of air pollution science demanding collaborative investigation. Contributions in the twenty first conference in the Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution series continue to address a broad range of urgent scientific and technical developments in our understanding of the cause, consequence and management of air pollution.  

In conclusion I would like to thank the authors for their contributions and to acknowledge the eminent members of the International Scientific Advisory Committee for their assistance with the organisation of the conference and in particular for their support in peer reviewing the papers.

Thank you.

Jim Longhurst

Siena, Italy

June 2013

Jim Delivers Keynote Presentation at Air Pollution 21, Siena, Italy

Read the abstract of his paper below.

Abstract

A Critique of the Local Air Quality Management Process in the United Kingdom.

James Longhurst, Jo Barnes, Enda Hayes and Tim Chatterton

University of the West of England, Bristol, U.K

This presentation will provide an overview of the current position of Local Air Quality Management as practiced in the United Kingdom. It will assess the current approach within a perspective drawn from an analysis of historical attempts to manage air pollution, provide a diagnosis of the current situation and offer a prognosis for the future management of air quality.

Specifically the paper will ask why, despite our knowledge of harm, do we continue to do little to change the behaviours that cause air pollution problems?  It is recognized that the cause of air quality problems in the UK is almost, but not exclusively, traffic related. This is   a function of our desire for personal mobility without thought for the consequences of our decisions and actions on the health, wellbeing and   environments shared with fellow citizens. 

National air pollution control actions are well defined and appropriate for lowering the overall burden of air pollution but the spatial  patterns of air pollution  are not uniformly distributed across the UK space and thus not simply a question of overall burden. Rather it is a picture of burden concentrated in selected areas with the consequences often – but not always- borne by the more disadvantaged or weakest communities. This burden is, of course, inflicted upon them by the travel habits of others. National pollution control actions, often as part of EU requirements, have improved individual vehicle emissions per kilometer travelled, and reduced industrial and power station emissions through improved combustion techniques or post combustion control. This is necessary action but not sufficient to address the scale and complexity of the problems. Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) is the process carried out by UK local authorities to identify areas of poor air quality through a review and assessment process. Having identified such areas according to guidance and regulation provided by central government, a local authority declares an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA)  and develops and Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP). However, some 60% of UK local authorities now have one or more AQMAs and in such areas, widely distributed across the UK space, concentrations continue to exceed targets and public health is affected.  The AQAP component of LAQM is intended to improve local air quality but clearly has failed to deliver its intended policy goals.   That this situation continues, despite action from the late 1990s and a policy intention that all parts of the UK space will have achieved air quality objectives identified by Government by 2005, can be considered a failure of political will nationally and locally  and hence it can be described as a mismanagement of air quality. This continues to occur despite compelling and growing evidence about the spatial extent of the problem, the magnitude of the concentrations and the impact on public health.

  

New paper on Air Quality and Carbon Co-Management

TIm has just had a paper published with Abishek Tiwary and Anil Namdeo of Newcastle University in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.

 

The paper is on “Co-managing carbon and air quality: pros and cons of local sustainability initiatives” and presents three case studies of local sustainability issues where air quality and carbon management have been linked.

 

The paper can be found online here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09640568.2013.802677#.Ubg0D_nqnzg

Air Pollution 2014 Call for Papers

CALL FOR PAPERS Air Pollution 2014 22nd International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution 7 - 9 July, 2014 Opatija, Croatia Papers presented at Air Pollution 2014 will be referenced by CrossRef. View the conference website for more information or to submit an abstract. Air Pollution 2014 is organised by the Wessex Institute, UK and the University of the West of England, UK. It is sponsored by WIT Transactions on the Ecology and the Environment and the International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning.   Benefits of Attending ·         Conference Book Papers are published in a book by WIT Press. Delegates may choose to receive a copy of the book in either hard cover or digital format. ·         Indexing Papers presented at Wessex Institute conferences are referenced by CrossRef and regularly appear in referencing and abstract services such as SCOPUS, Compendex, Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge and ProQuest. ·         Reviews Abstracts and papers are reviewed by members of the International Scientific Advisory Committee and other experts. ·         Papers Online All conference papers are archived online in the WIT eLibrary. View papers from Air Pollution 2012 ·         Special Fee for Students PhD Students may publish and present for a much reduced fee. How to Participate Papers are invited on the topics outlined and others falling within the scope of the meeting. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted as soon as possible. Delegates may also attend without submitting a paper. Submit your abstract online or by emailing the Conference Secretariat Registration for the conference will be available online shortly Conference Topics ·         Air pollution modelling ·         Air pollution mitigation ·         Air pollution management ·         Aerosols and particles ·         Emission studies ·         Exposure and health effects ·         Indoor air pollution ·         Monitoring and measuring ·         Case studies ·         Emerging technologies ·         Power generation and air pollution ·         Incineration plant studies ·         Air pollution chemistry ·         Global and regional studies ·         Policy and legislation Conference Secretariat Genna West Wessex Institute of Technology Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst Southampton, SO40 7AA Telephone: 44 (0) 238 029 3223 Fax: 44 (0) 238 029 2853 Email: gwest@wessex.ac.uk Submit an Abstract Scientific Committee C A Brebbia Wessex Institute, UK J W S Longhurst University of the West of England, UK C Borrego University of Aveiro, Portugal D Ganjo University of Salahaddin-Erbil, Iraq A Gonzales Bicol University, Philippines O Herbarth University of Leipzig, Germany M Lopes University of Aveiro, Portugal S Shiva Nagendra Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India F Nocera University of Catania, Italy F Patania University of Catania, Italy S Pongpiachan National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand J A Souto University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain T Tirabassi ISAC-CNR, Italy S Viegas ESTeSL, Portugal Q Wang Saitama University, Japan Please circulate this announcement to colleagues who may be interested in this conference. They can subscribe by emailing enquiries@wessex.ac.uk with 'Subscribe - Air Pollution 2014' as the subject line. Follow us on:   Facebook     Twitter     Blogger

Jo chairs session at Air Pollution 2013

Jo chaired the Monitoring and Measuring session at the Air Pollution 2013 conference in Siena last week.  The session included a keynote address from Dr Paulo Zannetti and two invited presentations from Professor Dr Olf Herbarth and Dr Myrium Lopes and an additional presentation from Mr Shaikh Abdullah.

Jo presents at Air Pollution XXI

Jo presented a paper on 'Is Local Air Quality Management a Successful Strategy in Achieving Selected EU Limit Values' at the 21st Air Pollution conference in Siena last Wednesday. The paper appeared in the 'Regional Studies' session. The abstract submitted  follows:

'Is Local Air Quality Management a Successful Strategy in Achieving Selected EU Limit Values'
For the past 15 years, local air quality management in the UK has relied on the implementation of air quality action plans to allow local authorities to work towards remediating breaches of the national air quality objectives, primarily due to road traffic. Failure of national policies to sufficiently reduce road traffic emissions has added to the importance of local air quality action plans to help the UK government to meet EU limit values for NO₂ and PM₁₀. Local authorities are required to report measured pollutant concentrations and progress on their action plans annually, but, to date, there have been no studies published to determine whether, locally or collectively, action plans are effectively implemented and what, if any, effect they are having on air quality.  This paper provides a synoptic and time-series approach to assess the effectiveness of local air quality action planning using local authority case studies to demonstrate.

Report Back from ECEEE Summer Study

Tim had a busy time at last week’s Summer Study held by the European Council for and Energy Efficient Economy.  He ran workshops during the week.  The first on the EPSRC funded MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK) Project and dealt with “Linking energy use from private transport and domestic use:  The challenges and opportunities of ‘Big Data’”.  The second workshop, run with Charlie Wilson from UEA,  was  on his current ESRC Follow On Fund (Characterising Energy Behaviours – or “When is a behaviour not (just) a behaviour?”).  

 

Tim also presented a paper on his ‘4 Dimensions of Behaviour’ framework from his Follow-On Fund project, which was described by ECEEE old-timer and esteemed energy anthropologist from Oslo University as “representing the future of social science engagement around energy”.

 

 

Tim at the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy summer study

Tim is currently representing UWE at the ECEEE summer stud in France this week.
He is giving a presentation and running a workshop on the '4DB Framework' from his ESRC energy behaviour project, and ran a workshop on the challenges and opportunities of big energy datasets as part of the MOT project.