Recent Conference Presentations from AQMRC Staff and Students

AQMRC staff and students are actively communicating the outcomes of their research. Below are some recent national and international presentations from AQMRC.

Fagbeja, M., Hill. J, Chatterton, T., Longhurst, J.W.S., Akinyede, J.A., and Adegoke, J.O. (2009) The need for improved sensing technology for estimating emissions and concentrations of pollution at ground-level in the lower latitudes, Space for Africa: Joint Participation, Knowledge Development and Sharing. International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) 3rd African Regional Conference Abuja, Nigeria 24th - 26th November, 2009.

Olowoporoku, D., Hayes, E., Parkhurst, G. & Longhurst J.(2009) Managing local traffic-related air pollution in England, Polis Conference 2009, Brussels 10th and 11th of December, 2009.

Longhurst, J.W.S., Everard, M., Bailey, R., Baldwin. S and Orme, J. (2010) 2020 Vision. A green and pleasant land? Invited Plenary Presentation. GWR Research Symposium 2010 Hewlett Packard, Bristol, January 20th 2010.

Longhurst, J.W.S., Bailey, R., & Baldwin. S. (2010) Low Carbon Initiatives in British Cities. Invited presentation to the Academy of Sciences of South Africa Low Carbon Cities Consensus Panel. Pretoria, South Africa, February 2nd 2010.

Longhurst, J.W.S., Bailey, R. (2010) Evaluation Methods for CO2, CATCH Project Interest Group meeting organised by Polis. Brussels, 17th-18th February 2010.

New and In Press Publications from AQMRC

AQMRC continues to publish its work in the peer-reviewed literature.

The following papers were published in late 2009, early 2010 or are in press for publication in the next few months.

Deacon L., Pankhurst, L., Liu, J., Drew, G. H., Hayes, E.T., Jackson, S., Longhurst, J., Longhurst, P., Pollard, S. & Tyrrel, S. (2009) Endotoxin emissions from commercial composting activities. Environmental Health 8:S9 Available at: http://www.ehjournal.net/qc/content/8/S1/S9.

Deacon, L.J., Pankhurst, L.J., Drew, G.H., Hayes, E.T., Jackson, S., Longhurst, P.J., Longhurst, J.W.S., Liu, J., Pollard, S.J.T. & Tyrrel, S.F. (2009) Particle size distribution of airborne Aspergillus fumigatus spores from compost using membrane filtration. Atmospheric Environment 43 935) 5698-5701.

Dorfman, P., Gibbs, D.C., Leksmono, N.S., Longhurst, J. W. S., Weitkamp, E.L.C. (2010) Exploring the context of consultation. The case of Local Air Quality Management. Local Environment 15:1 15 – 26.

Leksmono, N.S., Dorfman, P., Burnet, F., Gibbs, D.C., Longhurst, J. W. S., Weitkamp, E. (In press) Enhancing consultation practices on Air Quality Management in local authorities. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.

Olowoporoku, A. O., Hayes, E. T., Leksmono, N. S., Longhurst, J. W. S. & Parkhurst, G. (In press) A longitudinal study of the links between Local Air Quality Management and Local Transport Planning policy processes in England. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.

Rose presents at 'CATCH' project Climate Change and Travel Behaviour meeting

Rose was invited to give a presentation at the CATCH (Carbon Aware Travel CHoice) Interest Group meeting on 'Climate Change and Travel Behaviour', in Brussels on 17th-18th February.

Rose's presentation was titled 'Evaluation methods for CO2', covering methodologies for estimating carbon dioxide emissions from transport at the city scale. The presentation can be downloaded here.

CATCH is a project with the ultimate aim to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of the urban transport sector by encouraging carbon-friendly travel choices. The CATCH project will develop an online knowledge platform primarily aimed at decision-makers, but also for citizens, businesses, planners, and other mobility stakeholders in cities. More information can be found on the CATCH project website at http://www.carbonaware.eu/

The meeting was hosted by Polis, a network of European Cities and regions which promotes, supports and advocates innovation in local transport. More information can be found on their website http://www.polis-online.org/

Low Carbon Cities

Professor Jim Longhurst is contributing to South Africa's moves towards a low carbon future. He has been invited by the Academy of Science of South Africa to serve on its high-profile Consensus Panel for Low Carbon Cities. The Panel held its first meeting in Pretoria, South Africa in February. The panel consists of international experts, including Professor Longhurst, together with experts from South Africa. During the next 18 months the panel will address mitigation and adaptation measures appropriate to South Africa, and to make recommendations based on evidence to support the national government's commitment to transition to a low-carbon economy. Professor Robin Crewe, President of the Academy of Science of South Africa said "Professor Longhurst has been invited to serve on this panel because of his expertise in the field." At the first meeting of the panel Jim presented a paper entitled 'Low Carbon Initiatives in British Cities'.

Tim begins placement at Department for Energy and Climate Change

Tim Chatterton has just been awarded a prestigious placement fellowship working with the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The Fellowship is in partnership with the Research Councils Energy Programme (ESRC and EPSRC) and DECC.

The aim of the Fellowship is to provide social science input regarding the energy behaviour of individuals and communities into the policy development process in DECC in order to help enable ‘the public’ to more readily take up ‘low-carbon’ patterns of behaviour. Climate benefits of adopting low-carbon behaviour are not clearly experienced by individuals, families and other groups in the UK, as the majority of climate impacts will occur in other parts of the world, some time in the future. However, evidence suggests that many elements of low-carbon lifestyles can be seen to have direct ancillary benefits to those adopting them (such as economic or health benefits). The successful development of policies to encourage climate orientated behaviour change is likely to have to rely on being able to ‘sell’ these policies to the public on the basis of these direct ancillary benefits, in addition or alternatively to making a moral case for altruistic behaviour change.

The Air Quality Management Resource Centre has worked closely with Defra and the Devolved Administrations, and with Local Authorities in order to shape air quality policy in the UK over the last decade. This, along with Tim’s work as Chair of the UK Public Health Association’s Special Interest Group on Health and Sustainable Environments, will help him to bring a wide range of policy experience into DECC to address the issue of behaviour change.

If you are involved in any research in this area, Tim would be very interested to hear from you. Please send him a short description of your work at t.chatterton@uwe.ac.uk

Simon wins first prize for ‘best student poster’ at the second GWR Research Symposium

Jim and Simon attended the second Great Western Research Symposium 2020 Vision. I can see clearly now? held at Hewlett Packard in Bristol on 20th January. The symposium explored the contribution of the GWR research portfolio to life in 2020. Jim was invited present a plenary paper, entitled “2020 Vision. A green and pleasant land?”

The symposium was well attended by students funded by GWR, many of whom contributed a poster on their research. Congratulations to Simon, whose poster entitled “Opportunities, barriers and challenges for co-managed air pollution and carbon emissions in South West England” was judged the best in the symposium. Simon’s poster will be available soon on the GWR website. If you can’t wait until then, you can always find the poster and other outputs from his research on his research web page at http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/simon.html. Go check it out!

NEW Emission Factor Toolkit, NOx to NO2 calculator, background maps and future-year projection factors

A number of changes have recently been made to the Local Air Quality Management tools available on the air quality archive website (www.airquality.co.uk). The new tools should be used for new work. If work has already been started using the old set of tools, it is not necessary to go back and repeat the work unless the local authority believes that this would be appropriate. So long as models have been appropriately verified against local measurements, the updates to the tools should not invalidate work already carried out, even though precise results would be different. The changes are as follows:

1) The Emission Factor Toolkit (EFT) has been updated to use the DfTs latest vehicle emission factors (published in 2009). This allows modellers to calculate vehicular emissions in line with the latest predictions. It is possible for users to incorporate the emissions that they calculate using the EFT into most dispersion models (but not screening tools such as DMRB).
2) The NOx to NO2 calculator has been updated. These changes take account of more recent predictions of oxidant levels across the UK and also use revised default values for primary NO2 (fNO2) (as shown within the spreadsheet).
3) The national maps of background air pollutant concentrations have been updated to take account of more recent emissions predictions and updated methods. A short report describing the principal changes between the two sets of maps is included on the website along with the maps.
4) The sector-removal tool for calculating sector-adjusted background nitrogen dioxide concentrations has been updated following changes to the background mapping methodology.
5) The future-year projection factors for roadside monitoring data contained in Box 2.1 of LAQM.TG(09) have been updated.

All of these tools can only be applied to data from the year 2008 onward. An FAQ on modelling conditions prior to 2008 will follow soon.
If local authorities require any help or clarification they should contact the Review and Assessment Helpdesk on 0117 32 83668 or aqm-review@uwe.ac.uk.

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