Tim presenting at Centre for Transport and Society Winter Conference

On Wednesday 14th December, Tim will be giving a presentation at the CTS Winter Conference at UWE.  The presentation on "Putting people at the heart of air pollution issues" will cover elements from three recent or current projects: Disruption-Unlocking low carbon mobility (www.disruptionproject.net / www.fleximobility.solutions), MOT (www.MOTproject.net) and ClairCity (www.ClairCity.eu)

Enda interview by Horizon Magazine

Wearing his ClairCity Technical Director hat, Enda was interviewed for the European Commission’s Horizon EU Research & Innovation Magazine for an article on current and recent EU-funded research into public awareness and attitudes to air pollution. ClairCity was one of only two projects suggested for inclusion by Commission. The article should be published shortly.  For more information on ClairCity please visit www.claircity.eu

 

Policy, poverty, green infrastructure and better places

On 24^th November, Tim had a busy day up in London. 

First off he gave an invited presentation at a Policy UK workshop on “Improving Air Quality in our Towns and Cities” http://www.policy-uk.com/event/2365/Improving_Air_Quality_in_Our_Towns_and_Cities__Implementing__lsquo_Clean_Air_Zones_rsquo___creating_sustainable_transport_system

Then he was an invited participant at a round table workshop on Transport Poverty, organised by the Institute of Transport Studies at Leeds University and the RAC Foundation

 

Finally, he attended a workshop hosted by the London Sustainability Exchange on Green Infrastructure and Air Quality http://www.lsx.org.uk/news/events.aspx?id=3743

 

Meanwhile, Jo gave an invited presentation on air quality at  Landor’s Better Places conference http://landor.co.uk/betterplacesparkingworld/Better-Places/programme.php

Jo invited to speak to global BBC reporters at New Broadcasting House

Jo has been invited by the BBC World Service to advise on air pollution and showcase AQMRC's research to a global audience of reporters at New Broadcasting House on Monday 5th December. She will be joining representatives from the World Health Organization, C40 and ClientEarth as part of the new Solutions-Focussed Journalism project at BBC News – tagged ‘So I can breathe’ - which is due to be launched next March. As the name suggests, the project is interested in the success stories that can be reported so that lessons can be learnt elsewhere. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate the impact of AQMRC's research and to put UWE more firmly on the global map with regards air quality research.

Jo speaking at Better Places and Parking World 2016

Jo spoke at the Better Places and Parking World 2016 conference at the Kia Oval in London yesterday. The event, which was organised by Landor LINKS, was attended by a broad range of professionals all seeking to improve urban design and the impact of road traffic. Jo's presentation, entitled "Beyond nudge and improving transport infrastructure: the real task of tackling poor air quality", led the 'Improving Air Quality' session, and discussed the role of social practice theory in understanding how emissions are generated and by whom, contextualized with examples from the EPSRC-funded projects, Disruption and MOT, and the new H2020 project, ClairCity. The novel approach presented was perhaps a challenge to traditional thinking on air quality and transport management and was met with a lot of interest from the diverse, and largely receptive, audience.

New paper on active school travel from TIm

Tim has just had a new paper published on active school travel in the Journal of Transport and Health.  The work was led by Sara Ahern at Bradford Institute of Health Research and involved colleagues from Newcastle University, Imperial College and the University of Leeds.  The paper was based around the application of a Theoretical Domains Framework, to understanding the challenges around active school travel (AST) in the West Yorkshire region.  The paper found that capacity for active travel to school was often compromised by the need for parents to combine the journey with other activities (particularly the commute to work) as was identified in other work such as Tim’s recent EPSRC funded Disruption project (www.fleximobility.solutions). Similarly, structural interventions such as better spatial planning and the making of school environments more AST friendly were seen to be necessary to developing a coordinated approach to encouraging more sustainable school travel.

Ahern, S.M., Arnott, B., Chatterton, T., de Nazelle, A., Kellar, I. and McEachan, R. (2016), Understanding parents' school travel choices: A qualitative study using the Theoretical Domains Framework. Journal of Transport & Health  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2016.11.001i  

Abstract

Traffic related air pollution is detrimental to health and creates a substantial attributable mortality burden. It is suggested that a shift from motorised transport to active forms of travel will therefore have significant health benefits. Currently 46% of school journeys for primary aged children are made by car and this figure has risen steadily. Understanding barriers to active school travel (AST) is an important first step in developing behavioural interventions to increase active travel. The purpose of this study was to explore parents’ experiences of school travel and their choices regarding travel mode with a focus on identifying barriers and facilitators to AST.

Twenty parents of primary school children (4–12 years) in the West Yorkshire region took part in semi-structured interviews regarding school travel, informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework. Framework Analysis was used to identify key themes in the data and to develop a comprehensive picture of parents' experiences of school travel at both individual and structural levels.

Distance was the biggest barrier to AST. Time constraints were reported as the main barrier to parents accompanying children in AST, while concerns about safety deterred parents from allowing children to travel independently. The need to incorporate multiple jouneys, such as the work commute and/or multiple school drop-offs, placed demands on parents' time, while difficulty getting children into local schools meant further to travel for a number of parents. Findings suggest that interventions to promote AST may be particularly effective if tailored towards working parents. However, also addressing factors such as distance to school and school travel at a policy level may produce more significant shifts in behaviour.

 

AQMRC in Amsterdam

Enda, Jo, Tim and Corra are all in Amsterdam for a two day ClairCity workshop (http://www.claircity.eu/). The workshop brings together project partners, advisory board members and other interested stakeholders (including Amsterdam policymakers, the national government, research institutes and city citizens) to discuss the air quality, carbon and health challenges that the city faces and how ClairCity can orientated its research to engage citizens in forming solutions.

Jo on the BBC national news

Air quality made the national news today (2nd November 2016) following the announcement of the High Court ruling supporting ClientEarth's case against Defra's Air Quality Plan. Mr Justice Garnham agreed with ClientEarth that the Environment Secretary had failed to take measures that would bring the UK into compliance with the law “as soon as possible” and said that ministers knew that over optimistic pollution modelling was being used. In an interview for the BBC News at Ten and Radio 4 evening news AQMRC's Dr Jo Barnes highlighted the impact that this ruling could have for public health if Defra are required to rewrite the Plan: "This is, hopefully, going to affect the potential health impacts for thousands, tens of thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people and, potentially, save lives ultimately."

AQMRC, UWE win NERC-MRC-MoES bid to work in India

AQMRC, UWE, in conjunction with Newcastle University, have just been awarded funding by the National Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) to undertake one of five short-listed research projects in Delhi, India. The four-year project 'CADTIME: Clean Air for Delhi Through Interventions, Mitigations and Engagement' is in response to a Newton Bhabha call 'Atmospheric Pollution and Human Health in an Indian Megacity'. It is a really exciting opportunity to work with colleagues from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Delhi and Bombay, the Central Road Research Institute and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute in India. The aim of the project is to understand what needs to be done to mitigate air pollution from a range of sources in what has been cited by the World Health Organization as the second-most polluted major city in the world (2016). Ultimately the project aims to reduce the impacts of air pollution on human health, reducing the number of deaths and improving quality of life for Delhi's inhabitants.

Tim involved in workshop at Bristol Leadership Festival

On Friday 18^th November, Tim will be involved in running a workshop on behaviour at the Bristol Leadership Festival with Fiona Spotswood (editor of 'Beyond Behaviour Change: Interdisciplinary approaches and future directions’ ), John Bromley (Director of The National Social Marketing Centre), Naomi Brook (Lifestyles Project Manager, Coventry City Council,), Andrew Darnton (author of The ISM Tool, A D Research) and Natalie Horne (Director of Prime-Decision behavioural insight consultancy) 

 

http://www.festivalofleadership.org/friday/4592977023

 

 

 

Tim speaks at Routes to Clean Air 2

Tim was invited to present the groups work on “Putting People at the Heart of Air Quality Management” at the recent IAQM Routes to Clean Air 2 conference.

The invitation was as a last minute replacement for Professor Frank Kelly who had to pull out at the last moment.

http://iaqm.co.uk/event/routes-to-clean-air-2016/

 

Ben and Jim pen an air polution blog for Healthy Cities Week

As part of Bristol Green Capital’s Healthy Cities Week, Ben and Jim penned a blog piece discussing air pollution progress over the last 60 years.

 

The blog piece and other articles can be found here: http://bristolgreencapital.org/air-pollution-a-global-crisis-or-a-problem-solved/ and here: http://bristolgreencapital.org/

 

 

 

 

 

 

The AQMRC out in force at RTCA 2

The AQMRC were out in force at the Routes to Clean Air Conference, held in The Grand Hotel Bristol on the 11^th and 12^th of October, with Jim, Tim, Jo, Ben and Emily in attendance.

 

Contributions were given from Jim Longhurst and Tim Chatterton on the first day. Jim discussed what has been achieved since the Clean Air Act of 1956, and Tim spoke on air pollution, exposure inequality and future research through the Clair-City project. Jim also chaired a number of sessions over both days. Other talks focused on health impacts, emissions monitoring and modelling and local solutions to the air pollution crisis.

 

The conference was considered a great success and we look forward to Routes to Clean Air 3 next year!

 

 

 

New Publications from AQMRC

The Proceedings of the 24^th Conference Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution held in Crete are now available.   The Proceedings are co-edited by Jim Longhurst, Carlos Brebbia and Jo Barnes and are available from WIT Press: Longhurst, J.W.S.,    Brebbia, C.A.  & Barnes, J.H. (Editors, 2016)   Air Pollution XXIV. WIT Press, Southampton and Boston. pp280,  ISBN: 978-1-78466-129-8

 

Selected papers from the 24^th Conference have been published in a Special issue of the International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning edited by Jim Longhurst and Carlos Brebbia: Longhurst J.W.S. & Brebbia, C.A (2016, editors) Special Issue: Air Pollution.  International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning 11 (4) pp157 ISSN 1743-7601

 

The special issue includes the Key Note conference paper authored by AQMRC staff: Longhurst, J.W.S.,   Barnes, J.H.,   Chatterton, T.J., Hayes, E.T.,   &   Williams, B.  (2016) Progress with Air Quality Management in the 60 years since the UK Clean Air Act, 1956. Lessons, failures, challenges and opportunities.  International Journal of Sustainable Development & Planning.       11 (4) 491–499

 

Other publications from the Air Pollution Conference are also available through the AQMRC Research Repository and several are shown below.

 

Williams, B., Barnes, J., Chatterton, T., Hayes, E. T. and Longhurst, J. (2016) A critical review of the robustness of the UK government’s air quality plan and expected compliance dates. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 207. pp. 1-9. ISSN 1743-3541 Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/28958

 

Chatterton, T. and Barnes, J. (2016) A social and spatial analysis of emissions from private vehicle use in Great Britain. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 207. pp. 99-110. ISSN 1743-3541 Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/28883

 

Barnes, J. and Chatterton, T. (2016) An environmental justice analysis of exposure to traffic-related pollutants in England and Wales. In: Air Pollution XXIV, Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution, Greece, 20-22 June 2016, Crete, Greece, 20-22 June 2016. Southampton, UK: Wessex Institute of Technology Press Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/28882

 

 

 

Jim to present at the Routes To Clean Air Conference

Jim Longhurst will be reviewing progress in air quality management since the Clean Air Act of 1956 at the Routes to Clean Air conference organised by IAQM and the IES and being held in Bristol on October 11-12, 2016. Full details are available at http://iaqm.co.uk/event/routes-to-clean-air-2016/   The AQMRC team have helped with the local organisation and will be chairing a session at the event.

 

 

 

Jo interviewed for Made in Bristol #BristolNews

Jo will be featuring in an interview on Bristol News on Made in Bristol TV tonight at 6pm and 9pm https://www.madeinbristol.tv/programme/bristolnews/. The feature focuses on air pollution in Bristol following the publication of a new WHO report last month http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/air-pollution-estimates/en/.

Enda invited to Brussels to explore synergies among EU funded projects

Enda has been invited to two workshops in Brussel on 11^th October to explore methods to enhance synergies among EU funded Research and Innovation projects related to air quality and carbon footprint in cities. Representing the ClairCity consortium (www.claircity.eu), the morning workshop will allow Enda to introduce the project to the Partnership on Air Quality (PAQ) of the Urban Agenda of the EU (http://urbanagendaforthe.eu/partnerships/air-quality/) as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities. The afternoon workshop will bring the three Horizon 2020 funded projects (ClairCity, ICARUS and iSCAPE) together with EASME to explore opportunities for collaboration.

 

Enda and Ben attend bioaerosol workshop

Enda and Ben attended a NERC/DSTL workshop in Cranfield University (30^th September) which brings the ENDOTOXII and RAMBIE projects together to explore synergies and collaboration opportunities. Ben presented on the dispersion modelling elements of the ENDOTOXII project while Enda introduced the basis of the ENDOTOXII analytical framework which will be developed with Cranfield to assess the SIBS and other datasets.

HEFCE reports on Interdisciplinary Research

Tim was recently interviewed as part of some HEFCE study into Interdisciplinary research in the U.K.  Two reports from the research have now been published on the HEFCE website.

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rereports/Year/2016/interdis/Title,110229,en.html

TIm invited to Dutch Government/European Commission workshop on Sustainable Mobility Behaviours

On 27-28th September, Tim will be an invited participant at a work shop hosted by the Cutch government and European Commission on 'Behaviour in Sustainable Mobility and Logistics'

http://www.nwo.nl/en/about-nwo/organisation/nwo-divisions/magw/captain+for+one+day

TIm presents at Public Health England conference

On Monday, Tim presented work resulting from the Disruption (www.fleximobility.solutions), MOT (www.MOTproject.net) and ClairCity (www.ClairCity.eu) projects on 'Putting people at the heart of the air quality problem’.  The presentation described a range of work being done by AQMRC to allow the development of approaches to air quality management that learn more from the social sciences.

More information on the event can be found here: https://www.phe-events.org.uk/hpa/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=239673&eventID=606&traceRedir=2&eventID=606

Emily Prestwood joins AQMRC

We are delighted to announce that Emily Prestwood has joined the Air Quality Management Resource Centre as a Research Associate. Emily joins us from Loughborough University where she was a transport and infrastructure researcher on an EU FP7 project, CARONTE. She also completed a PhD in the Building Energy Research Group entitled ‘Energy use and related emissions of the UK residential sector: quantitative modelling and policy implications’, analysing historical changes in householders’ energy using behaviour in response to energy and climate change policies and initiatives.  Prior to her PhD, Emily worked on the EUCO2 80/50, a climate change mitigation project engaging stakeholders in regional scenario workshops to produce energy-emissions scenarios to inform local emission reduction policy.  

 

 

Tim invited to Dutch Government workshop on Behaviour in Sustainable Mobility

On 27^th and 29^th September, Tim has been invited to attend an event in Rotterdam hosted by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment on

 ‘Behaviour in Sustainable Mobility and Logistics’. The conference, held aboard the SS Rotterdam cruiseship, is co-organised by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and supported by the European Commission.

 

 

2016 Annual UK Air Review Meeting on Outdoor and Indoor Air Pollution Research

On Monday 26^th September, Tim will be giving a presentation at Public Health England’s annual air pollution review meeting.  His presentation on will be on “Putting people at the heart of Air Quality Management – developing a more social approach to emissions analysis and reduction” and will introduce work from the UWE projects Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK (MOT www.MOTproject.net) funded by EPSRC and Citizen Led Air Pollution Reduction in Cities (ClairCity www.ClairCity.eu) funded by EU H2020.

 

 

 

_________________________________________
Dr Tim Chatterton

Senior Research Fellow
Air Quality Management Resource Centre
Faculty of Environment and Technology
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Bristol
BS16 1QY

Tel: 0117 328 2929
Fax: 0117 328 3360
Email: Tim.Chatterton@uwe.ac.uk

 

 

 

Tim giving lecture at Aveiro University

Whilst in Portugal, Tim visited colleagues at Aveiro University to discuss the ClairCity project (www.ClairCity.eu) and whilst there gave a lecture to staff and students on “Energy, Air Quality, Climate and Citizen Behaviour”

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CsJBaPmXEAAuHuK.jpg:large

IEA Task XXIV Workshop and Behave Conference

 

Tim has been at the university in Coimbra, Portugal on energy behaviour business.

On Wednesday 7^th September, he was an invited participant at the International Energy Agency Demand Side Management Task XXIV (Behaviour Change) workshop http://www.ieadsm.org/task/task-24-phase-2/

 

On Thursday and Friday he attended ‘Behave 2016’, the 4^th European Conference on Behaviour and Energy Efficiency (http://www.uc.pt/en/org/inescc/org_scientific_events/behave2016) where he gave a presentation on work from the MOT project (www.MOTproject.net) on “Linking Household Energy Consumption from Domestic Gas and Electricity with Energy Consumed by Private Motor Vehicles”

 

 

 

Jo acknowledged for contribution to EC report on noise, air pollution and socioeconomic status

A new European Commission (DG Environment) Science for Environment Policy was published last Friday 9th September. The In-depth Report on 'Links between noise and air pollution and socioeconomic status', was produced by the Science Communication Unit at UWE with advice provided by AQMRC's Dr Jo Barnes.

Full citation for the report:
Science for Environment Policy (2016) Links between noise and air pollution and socioeconomic status. In-depth Report 13 produced for the European Commission, DG Environment by the Science Communication Unit, UWE, Bristol. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/science-environment-policy (direct link here). 

Tim's research hits the headlines

Research by Tim (AQMRC) and Graham Parkhurst (CTS) into a lack of improvement in air pollution over past 20 years has hit the local and national headlines this week. Tim and Graham have been in London to present their work to the Royal Geographical Society but additional media interest in their work has stimulated discussion of the topic on news channels, print and digital media. UWE’s Press Release can be found here: http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/news.aspx?id=3442 and links to a small selection of articles on Tim and Graham’s work are shown below.

 

http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/national/article/Transport-planners-neglecting-air-quality-in-favour-of-road-death-prevention-3eb06387-37b7-46fd-bcc2-c4b60c7deb4d-ds

https://www.aol.co.uk/news/2016/08/29/transport-planners-neglecting-air-quality-in-favour-of-road-death-prevention/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3764305/Transport-planners-neglecting-air-quality-favour-road-death-prevention.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37213786

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/the-biggest-killer-on-our-roads-is-being-ignored-according-to-bristol-study/story-29666754-detail/story.html

 

 

TIm gives presentation on air quality at DfT

On Tuesday 30th August, Tim gave a joint presentation with Professor Graham Parkhurst at the Department for Transport.  The presentation on 'Why after two decades is air pollution from transport not declining?'  Was part of the Royal Geographical Society knowledge exchange event organised by the Transport Geography Research Group.

TIm and Graham will also give the presentation at the annual RGS-IGB conference on Wednesday.

 

The work, which represents a summary of a considerable amount of research and practice by the AQMRC and Centre for Transport and Society over the last twenty years. 

TIm giving three presentations at annual RGS conference

IN addition to the joint presentation with Graham Parkhurst of the Centre for Transport and Society at UWE (described in another article) Tim will be also giving two other presentations at the 2016 Royal Geographical Society conference based on work from the MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership and Trends in. The U.K.) project www.MOTproject.net

The first of these will cover an extension to the work published the journal of Energy Research and Social Science earlier this year and will consider 'Energy and the Urban:Rural Divide'.  

The second presentation will consider 'The risk of spatial stress to electricity networks from deployment of electric vehicles'.

Everyday Futures Workshop

On 14^th/15^th July, Tim participated in a workshop at Lancaster University on ‘Everyday Futures’ http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/everydayfutures/

The workshop established a pan-European network of 21 researchers from a wide range disciplines who are all looking at aspects of how day-to-day life may change as time progresses.

 

The theme of the network ties in very closely with Tim’s work at UWE on the Horizon 2020 CLAir-City project (www.claircity.eu).

 

A series of essays on Everyday Futures arising from the workshop will be published online in September.

 

 

 

 

60 Years since the Clean Air Act

Yesterday marked 60 Years since the introduction of the Clean Air Act, a move which helped reduce the burden of visible air pollution on the health and wellbeing of the UKs citizens. Jim Longhurst the AQMRCs Executive Director noted that “The United Kingdom parliament passed the first Clean Air Act in 1956 in response to the public health catastrophe of the 1952 London Smog.  The UK became leaders in clearing the air, but can we say that now with a worsening air pollution problem, a growing public health burden  and, at best,  an inadequate governmental response?” Furthermore, as a result of the recent referendum on membership of the European Union there is also concern that air pollution regulation will be diluted within the UK, putting the population at an increased risk of ill-health. The AQMRC will be following events closely over the months and years ahead and will continue to work towards cleaner air for all.

 

MOT project goes to Nottingham for Transport Practitioners' Meeting

Tim is involved in two presentations and a workshop for the MOT project (www.MOTproject.net) at the PTRC annual Transport Practitioners Meeting in Nottingham on Thursday 30th June.

The presentations will cover both a basic overview of the data, and how it can be used to link transport with both air pollution and energy agendas.  The workshop explore how the data and project findings can be made most accessible to end users.

https://www.ptrc-training.co.uk/Events/TPM2016.aspx

AQMRC participate in Air Pollution 2016 in Crete

Over the 20^th to the 22^nd of June Jim, Tim and Ben participated in the 24th International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution in Crete. Jim co-chaired the conference with Carlos Brebbia of the Wessex Institute of Technology, gave a keynote speech on the ‘Progress with air quality management in the 60 years since the UK Clean Air Act, 1956’, and chaired two sessions, the first of which was on the health effects of air pollution and the second on the monitoring and measurement of air pollution. Tim gave two talks at the conference, the first was on ‘An environmental justice analysis of exposure to traffic-related pollutants in England and Wales’ and the second on ‘A social and spatial analysis of emissions from private vehicle use in Great Britain’. Ben presented a paper on ‘A critical review of the robustness of the UK government's air quality plan and expected compliance dates’ and chaired a session on air pollution modelling.

All papers presented at the conference will be available through open access arrangements here: http://www.witpress.com/elibrary 

Several new acquaintances were made and the team looks forward to participating next year when the conference will be held in Cadiz, Spain. Details for this conference can be found here: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2017/air-pollution-2017 

New AQMRC paper on energy justice

Jo and Tim have just had a paper on mapping household energy consumption published in Energy Research and Social Science.  The paper is another output from the MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK) project www.MOTproject.net.

 

The paper takes new datasets from the Department for Transport and Department of Energy and Climate Change and uses it to map and analyse patterns of energy use from domestic gas and electricity and from private vehicle use.

Then, based on identified inequalities in energy consumption and spatial structural determinants, it poses the question “Can we identify the difference between ‘energy decadence’ and ‘high energy need’?”

 

Highlights

• Analysis of new UK datasets based on over 70 million domestic energy meters and vehicle odometers.

• New spatial analyses of household direct energy consumption, through gas, electricity and private car use.

• Investigation of high energy consuming areas in terms of ‘choice’ or ‘need’.

• Assessment of greater capabilities of high energy consumers to reduce energy consumption.

• Recommendations for policy to target high energy consumers on the basis of principles of equity and justice.

 

The paper is open access.

 

Chatterton, T., Anable, J., Barnes, J. and Yeboah, G. (2016) Mapping household direct energy consumption in the United Kingdom to provide a new perspective on energy justice. Energy Research & Social Science. ISSN 22146296 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2016.04.013

 

Abstract:

 

Targets for reductions in carbon emissions and energy use are often framed solely in terms of percentage reductions. However, the amount of energy used by households varies greatly, with some using considerably more than others and, therefore, potentially being able to make a bigger contribution towards overall reductions. Using two recently released UK datasets based on combined readings from over 70 million domestic energy meters and vehicle odometers, we present exploratory analyses of patterns of direct household energy usage. Whilst much energy justice work has previously focussed on energy vulnerability, mainly in low consumers, our findings suggest that a minority of areas appear to be placing much greater strain on energy networks and environmental systems than they need. Households in these areas are not only the most likely to be able to afford energy efficiency measures to reduce their impacts, but are also found to have other capabilities that would allow them to take action to reduce consumption (such as higher levels of income, education and particular configurations of housing type and tenure). We argue that these areas should therefore be a higher priority in the targeting of policy interventions.

 

 

UWE Bristol successful in £5.2 million (€6.7m) EU project tackling air pollution

Thousands of people across Europe will be invited to share their views on how to reduce air pollution and improve public health in six cities as part of a multi-million pound project featuring the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).

In an innovative approach to addressing air quality, residents will use a specially-created game on their smartphones, tablets and laptops to suggest how their home cities should develop in future.

Responses gathered from players will form a 'people's vision' spelling out to civic leaders exactly how the cities should be shaped over the next 35 years – and what measures need to be taken to improve air quality, reduce CO2e emissions and diminish negative health effects.

Named CLAiR-City, the four-year project which kicked-off in Bristol last month, features 16 partners including the pilot cities of Bristol; Amsterdam; Aveiro, in Portugal; Ljubljana, in SIovenia; Sosnowiec, in Poland; and the Liguria region in Italy.

UWE Bristol's Dr Enda Hayes, Technical Director of CLAiR-City, said a bold approach was being taken because all other efforts were struggling to combat air pollution, a problem responsible for the deaths of more than 400,000 people in Europe every year.

Up to a third of Europeans living in cities are exposed to pollutant levels exceeding EU air quality standards, with approximately 90 per cent affected according to the World Health Organization's more stringent guidelines.

Dr Hayes, an Associate Professor and Director of the Air Quality Management Resource Centre (AQMRC) at UWE Bristol, said: "Air quality management is failing in many cities around the world. This is an exciting and innovative project to try to address one of the key issues – how do you empower citizens to define their own solution?

"Using game technology as an engagement platform means everyone's voice and opinion is valued. If you run traditional workshops or surveys it can be that the quiet voices get lost and the reach can be limited. With our game, everyone's voice is equal and we can all be experts on our own city."

Funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme, the project is aimed at creating a major shift in public understanding towards the causes of poor air quality – encouraging a focus on people's everyday practices like commuting and shopping rather than technology such as cars, buses and HGVs.

Dr Hayes said: "To date, air quality policy has primarily been focussed on technology and technological solutions. Instead of apportioning the pollution to the technology (e.g. cars), this project will apportion it to people and our behaviour (e.g. why do we use our cars).

"By apportioning pollution to behaviour and practises, we want to give people a better understanding of how their behaviour generates pollution. If they change their behaviour it can have a substantial impact on a city. The innovation lies in how we are bringing social science into our data analysis and then engaging city citizens with that data to help them visualise and define their city's future."

The game, being developed by UWE's in-house gaming studio PlayWest, will give the player the chance to outline how they would like to live, behave and interact in their city up to 2050. Responses from players will lead to the creation of a 'citizen-led future city scenario' which will be delivered to city leaders as a 'policy package' document setting out what changes they would eventually like to see introduced.

Dr Hayes said: "We wanted to empower citizens to define their futures and use that to influence policy. We are using game technology to engage a wider population and to envision what a city looks like in 2050 so the project is particularly relevant to younger people.

"Also involved in the project is UWE Bristol's Science Communication Unit, whose internationally-recognised expertise in public engagement and dissemination will help enhance the reach of the study."

The project will also involve detailed data and policy analysis, with a study of existing evidence on themes such as energy and transport at a local, national and European level. It will explore six cities in detail but will also generate data which could be utilised by all EU cities with a population of more than 50,000.

The 16 partners include universities, cities, small and medium sized enterprises and research organisations.

Ten members of staff from UWE Bristol – which has received over £980,000 (€1.25m) of the total funding - will be involved including members of the Air Quality Resource Management Resource Centre, Science Communication Unit and PlayWest.

Jeroen van der Laan, of economic policy consultancy Trinomics, the project coordinator, said: "We are very excited to start implementing our CLAiR-City project over the next four years with the excellent group of Europe's leading research organisations and frontrunner cities we have in our consortium. CLAiR-City will develop innovative approaches and means of communication to inform European citizens about the air quality in their cities and engage them in forming ideas and pathways on how their living environment should look like in 2050."

UWE's Assistant Vice Chancellor for Environment & Sustainability, Professor Jim Longhurst, said: "CLAiR-City is a great example of how different expertise can be blended together across the university, and indeed Europe, to build imaginative and effective responses to the profound environmental and public health challenges we face."

Citizen Led Air pollution Reduction in Cities (CLAiR-City) Consortium Members:

1. Trinomics B.V. (Project Coordinator - Netherlands)

2. University of the West of England, Bristol (Technical Lead - UK)

3. Statistics Netherlands (Netherlands)

4. Technical University of Denmark (Denmark)

5. Norwegian Institute for Air Research (Norway)

6. PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (Netherlands)

7. REC Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe (Hungary)

8. Techne Consulting (Italy)

9. Transport & Mobility Leuven (Belgium)

10. University of Aveiro (Portugal)

11. Municipality of Amsterdam (Netherlands)

12. Bristol City Council (UK)

13. Intermunicipal Community of Aveiro Region (Portugal)

14. Liguria Region (Italy)

15. Municipality of Ljubljana (Slovenia)

16. Sosnowiec City Council (Poland)

Dr Ben Williams awarded Researcher of the Year - full-house for AQMRC

 

Dr Ben Williams has just been awarded the Department of Geography and Environmental Management Researcher of the Year, following in the footsteps of his AQMRC colleagues, Dr Enda Hayes, Dr Jo Barnes and D Tim Chatterton, who have in turn each received the accolade over the last three years.

Ben joined the Air Quality Management Resource Centre as a Research Associate in October 2014 and seamlessly embedded himself into the team while quickly exploring and building connections across the Department and Faculty. Ben has proven himself to be an able, diligent, enthusiastic and reliable team member and has been instrumental in helping the group grow and work towards the UWE Strategy 2020 priorities. Ben has taken a lead role in winning and delivering two major Research Council funded projects (‘EndotoxII’ funded by NERC and ‘Upstream’ funded by the Wellcome Trust) collectively valued at over £1.8m. Additionally, Ben has led a project to support Gatwick Airport in understanding the implications of the UK’s Air Quality Plans and is now frequently invited by Gatwick to be their representative at national events. Ben has taken a keen interest in knowledge exchange and public engagement activities such as running a well-attended air quality event during the 2015 Bristol Bright Night initiative and is now co-organising the ‘Routes to Clean Air 2’ conference with the Institute of Air Quality Management. He is building his publications profile while also developing his national and international standing through attendance and presentations at conferences. In addition to his research activities, Ben has proactively sought out UG and MSc projects to supervise, while also delivering teaching and CPD provision linked to his and AQMRC’s research.

Congratulations Ben, on this well-deserved award!

 

 

 

  
   

Tim giving talk at Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand

On Tuesday 3rd May, Tim will be giving a presentation to the Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand at Sussex University.

The talk, titled 'Energy Consumption from Private Motor Vehicles - Exploring a rich new dataset' will present an overview of the EPSRC funded Motoring and vehicle Ownership and Trends (MOT) project.

http://cied.ac.uk/engagement/newsandevents/events?id=35193

Emissions in the news - when will the government wake up?

In a week when we have seen evidence of further emissions cheating in Japan
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36089558) while VW agrees compensation deals for its use of defeat devices in the US (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36103903), and DfT finally provides evidence that real-world emissions across all motor manufacturers are on average six times higher that the type approval tests (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vehicle-emissions-testing-programme-conclusions), how then can the PM continue to defend the motor industry (http://www.airqualitynews.com/2016/04/21/prime-minister-defends-car-industry-over-diesel-emissions/) that has proven itself time and again to not have public health interests at heart. When will the government wake up to the incontrovertible proof that our motor industry is killing us and that no amount of economic growth can justify that!
 

Expert response to the Department for Transport report on the real-world emissions from diesel vehicles

In response to the Department for Transport report out yesterday on the real-world emissions from diesel vehicles, Dr Jo Barnes made the following statement: “It is fantastic news that the UK government has now finally officially, and independently, acknowledged the extent of the discrepancy between test cycle and real world emissions across all motor manufacturers. At last air quality modellers can now stop labouring under the false pretence that published emission factors are “realistic” and, through the implementation of on-road real-world emission testing, motor manufacturers will now have to ensure new vehicles are cleaner. There is still a long way to go however to ensure public health is protected from vehicle emissions. The agreed new emissions tests will still allow emissions to exceed the standards by twice as much and, compared to US standards, it could be argued even the standards themselves are too lenient. It is also unclear what the government plans to do about the dirty vehicles that are already on our roads. Will a new scrappage scheme be in order? This will also have implications for the new Air Quality Plan that Defra has just submitted to the European Commission. Effectively this announcement undermines the emissions forecasts that underpinned Defra’s assumption that health-based air quality limit values would be achieved by 2020 in most areas and by 2025 in London and would push this date on by years.” In addition, the government should seriously consider introducing NOx and PM testing into MOT tests and funding roadside testing in order to check the on-going effectiveness of emissions management systems in real-world driving conditions over time.

UWE air quality training on new LAQM Guidance - book now!

The AQMRC at UWE, Bristol have launched a new suite of IES and IAQM-accredited air quality training sessions to help policy makers and practitioners to understand their role and requirements in the latest Local Air Quality Management Policy and Technical Guidance. Technical Guidance TG(16) for the UK (except London) and Policy Guidance PG(16) for the Devolved Administrations was released by Defra last Friday. The new guidance will have implications for anyone working in air quality, transport, development control, public health and sustainability, both in the public and private sector.

In the week commencing 23rd May 2016, the AQMRC will be running updated sessions on:

•        Air Quality Management
•        Air Quality Monitoring
•        Air Quality Dispersion Modelling
•        Air Quality and Development Control
•        Air Quality Action Planning

Each session is delivered in one day and delegates can book on to as many or few days as they like, although there are discounts available for bookings of all five sessions. Each day costs £200, which includes course materials, car parking, lunch and refreshments. Full details of each of the sessions, including online booking forms are available by clicking on the links above. Places are limited, so please book now to avoid disappointment. If you have any queries, please contact jo.barnes@uwe.ac.uk.

Tim at American Association of Geographers Conference

Tim will be attending the American Association of Geographers annual conference in Chicago between the 28^th March and 2^nd April. http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting

He is presenting a paper on “Energy Justice” based on the work of the MOT project (www.MOTproject.net) as well as organising and chairing a panel session for the project on “Vehicle Odometers and Other Novel Methods of Examining Car Ownership and Usage” with a range of international coleages, including Dr Deborah Salon from University of Arizona State University, Professor Joseph Ferreira from MIT, and MOT PI Prof. Jillian Anable from Leeds University.

Tim invited participant at the DEMAND conference

Tim is an invited panel member on the “Energy and Money” workshop stream at the 2016 DEMAND Centre conference (13-15^th April)  http://www.demand.ac.uk/conference-2016/

He will also be giving a presentation on “The Financial Implications of Car Ownership and Use” based on the work of the MOT project (www.MOTproject.net)

Air quality in the media

Jo Barnes has been invited to participate in interviews on BBC Radio Bristol's Breakfast programme and with ITV and BBC News tomorrow morning. The interviews are linked to the 'Smogmobile' which will be making a trip to Bristol tomorrow. In previous journeys the Smogmobile has demonstrated that air pollution levels within vehicles can be as high or even higher than those measured outside. This, together with the findings from the report from the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health released last week, encouraging walking and cycling to reduce air pollution, help to highlight the need to reduce our reliance on cars, not only to reduce emissions but also to reduce our personal exposure to pollution.

AQMRC welcomes the publication of 'Every breath we take: the lifelong impact of air pollution' by the RCP and the RCPCH

The AQMRC welcomes this report into the lifelong impact of air pollution by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. This is yet another publication that reinforces the fact that air pollution contributes significantly to poor health outcomes locally, nationally and internationally.

 

We are pleased to see that the working group have gone beyond the three principal tenets of reducing the long term health effects of air pollution that we set out in our consultation response.   The report emphasises the importance of embracing  a number technological, behavioural and statutory means to achieve better health outcomes for both individuals and society as a whole.

 

The RCP and RCPCH report can be found here: https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/every-breath-we-take-lifelong-impact-air-pollution

 

 

 

Jo presentated at Westminster Briefing event on Tuesday

On Tuesday 16th February, Jo gave a presentation on 'Local and National Action - Next Steps' at the Westminster Briefing 'Air Quality Management Under the New Government: Understanding National Priorities and the Next Steps for LAQM'. The presentation covered the latest LAQM and Action Plan consultations from Defra and speculated on the effects that recent legislative actions may have on air quality management in the near future. The presentation can be accessed here: https://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/secure/28240/








 

Jo invited to speak at Westminster Briefing Air Quality event

Jo Barnes has been invited to speak at the Westminster Briefing event 'Air Quality Management Under the New Local Government: Understanding National Priorities and the Next Steps for LAQM'. The event is to be held in Victoria, London on Tuesday 16th February. There are still places available though, so to book yours, please register online at: http://www.westminster-briefing.com/home/event-detail/newsarticle/air-quality-management-under-the-new-government/

Bristol Method - UWE's transport module most popular

The Bristol Method: Transport modules, which AQMRC, UWE helped write and coordinate, have just been announced as the most popular. The Bristol Method is a knowledge-transfer programme aimed at helping people in other cities understand and apply the lessons that Bristol has learned in becoming a sustainable city.In a summary of the web stats:

• 25 modules have now been published on line. A further seven are due to be published before end of Feb taking the final total to 32.
• The Method has been accessed by people in 56 different countries including 20 unique users in Japan and four in Nigeria.
• As expected, the bulk of the audience to date has been from the UK and western Europe, particularly Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Around 2% of traffic has come from the USA.
• In total, 2,400 unique users have visited 3,300 pages.

AQMRC's Jo Barnes helped to write and coordinate the module 'How to reduce traffic and its impacts' in conjunction with Bristol City Council and with additional contributions from the Centre for Transport and Society at UWE.

Financial Implications of Car Ownership - a social and spatial analysis

On 6th January, Tim presented work from the MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK) project (www.tinyurl.com/MOTproject) at the 48th Annual Universities' Transport Study Group conference in Bristol.

Tim gives presentation at CTS Winter Conference

On 14th December, Tim gave a presentation at the annual UWE Centre for Transport and Society Winter Conference. The presentation was on 'Financial Implications of Car Ownership' was based on analyses undertaken in the MOT (Motoring and vehicle Ownership Trends in the UK' project (www.tinyurl.com/MOTproject).