WeCount on the BBC

AQMRC’s latest project, WeCount, was covered by the BBC website recently. The project is a 2 years citizen science initiative that seeks to engage citizens to count local transport using a low cost sensor and use that data to start a new dialogue on issues such as traffic planning, air pollution, active travel, road safety etc. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51123760

 

Paper on the implementation on the WFD in England and Scotland

Laura’s paper on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive has been accepted for publication in Water. The paper “Implementing the Water Framework Directive and Tackling Diffuse Pollution from Agriculture: Lessons from England and Scotland” explores how national governance arrangements either facilitated or hindered the adoption of stricter policies with regards to the delivery of agricultural and water policies on the ground in England and Scotland.  

 

 

CADTIME presented at the 2019 Royal Geographical Society Conference

Laura presented preliminary findings from the CADTIME project at the 2019 Royal Geographical Society Conference in London earlier in August. The presentation focussed on how geography and socio-economic status together influence the way air pollution and is experienced by citizens. The event was well attended and the presentation generated a good discussion on how to incorporate environmental justice issues in policymaking.

 

Dr Laura De Vito

Research Fellow: Air Quality Management Resource Centre

 

Faculty of Environment and Technology

University of the West of England

Coldharbour Lane

Bristol, BS16 1QY

Tel. 0117 32 85011

 

 

AQMRC research showcased on RTE

AQMRC research, in collaboration with University College Dublin, on ammonia and its impacts on Natura 2000 sites in Ireland will be showcased on the RTE television programme, Ear to the Ground. Dr David Kelleghan (UCD) will be discussing the work of the AmmoniaN2K project and the ammonia monitoring that has been undertaken in some sensitive bog habitats. The programme is to be shown on Thursday 19^th February 2019 at 7pm on RTE1.

AQMRC supporting the Environment Agency

AQMRC are supporting the Environment Agency to undertake a strategic review of the UK’s air quality monitoring network and explore how that network might evolve in the future. Dr Ben Williams is currently on secondment within the EA and is working alongside EA, University of York and Kings College London colleagues to build baseline evidence and enable UK air quality practitioners to have their say on the future network. Supported by Enda Hayes and Jo Barnes, the secondment is expected to run for approximately 12 months.

AQMRC represented at the Met Office Workshop

Enda Hayes and Jim Longhurst were invited to attend and present at the Met Office / UKRI workshop to inform the development of the Strategic Priorities Fund Clean Air Project. Run over three days in Exeter (6^th – 8^th February 2019), the event brought academics and practitioners from a number of backgrounds together to share their understanding of the challenges facing the system of air quality management and explore how the Strategic Priorities Fund could close these gaps.

ClairCity presented at the Scottish Government Annual Seminar

Enda was invited to present at the Scottish Government Annual Air Pollution Seminar organised by Ricardo (Edinburgh – 12^th February 2019). The event was well attended with over 85 registered delegates and covers a range of interesting topics from communication, to low cost sensors, to remote sensing for tail-pipe emission testing. Enda presented on the lessons learned from the ClairCity project on how to communicate air quality and carbon issues/solutions to the public and also drew from some of the findings from the Urban-ID and Upstream projects.

New paper on bioaerosol monitoring

Check out our new paper on Scoping studies to establish the capability and utility of a real-time bioaerosol sensor to characterise emissions from environmental sources published in Science of The Total Environment with our EndotoxII Project partners from Cranfield, Open University, Plymouth, Public Health England and the Environment Agency. The EndotoxII Project, funded by NERC (NE/M01163/1), is investigating the monitoring, modelling and public health impact of bioaerosols emissions from biowaste and intensive agricultural facilities. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718330845

 

 

Laura De Vito presents at the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen

Dr Laura De Vito (Air Quality Management Resource Centre) was at the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen to present the results of a project on the links between socioeconomic status and exposure to air and noise pollution. The project, led by Dr Jo Barnes (AQMRC) and in partnership with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and Trinomics, assessed the latest evidence and state of knowledge regarding the role of socioeconomic factors in determining exposure, susceptibility and vulnerability to air pollution and noise. The results of the project contributed to inform the EEA’s Knowledge Innovation Actions and the debate about environmental justice in Europe.

 

Supporting the Eden Project's Invisible Worlds Expo

AQMRC are very excited to have had the opportunity to support the development of the Eden Project's Invisible World Exhibition. The permanent exhibition, which is due to open on 25th May 2018, aims to reveal a world beyond our senses: too big, too small, too fast, too slow, too far away in space and time. Enda Hayes @ AQMRC has been helping colleagues at Eden to ensure that narrative on the 'Pollution and Solutions' section of the exhibition is scientifically robust and relevant.

Tim presents new work on sustainability of new housing developments at AAG

On Tuesday 10th April, Tim gave a presentation at the 2018 meeting of the American Associati9n of Geographers looking at the energy performance of new housing developments in the UK.

The presentation clearly exposes the issue that whilst we are improving the electricity and gas consumption of new housing, the new developments appear to be significantly driving up car use.

Chatterton, T. (2018) Sustainable developments? Assessing the direct energy (building and vehicles) consumption of new housing developments in the United Kingdom using social and structural benchmarking. In: American Association of Geography Annual Meeting 2018, New Orleans, Louisiana, 9-14 April 2018. Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/35704/1/Tim%20Chatterton%20-%20AAG2018%20Sustainable%20Developments%20%28Circulation%29.pdf

New UK Centre on Energy Demand announced

Tim is Co-Investigator on a new £19.5 million research centre funded by the EPSRC and ESRC that has been announced today.

The  UK Centre for Research on Energy Demand (UKCRED) brings together a world-leading and multi-disciplinary group of over 40 academics at 13 institutions across the UK, and will be led by the RCUK Energy Demand Research Champion, Professor Nick Eyre, at the University of Oxford.

 

The centre will develop and deliver internationally leading research, focusing on energy demand from a systemic, socio-technical perspective.

 

https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/newukcentreforresearchonenergydemandannouncedbyepsrcandesrc/

 

 

 

Tim gives kick-off plenary presentation at Air Quality 2018 Conference

On Monday 12^th March, Tim gave the introductory plenary presentation at the 2018 Air Quality: Science and Application conference in Barcelona.  The talk, “Putting People at the Heart of Air Quality Management”, based around the work of the ClairCity (www.ClairCity.eu), MOT (www.MoOTproject.net) and Disruption (www.DisruptionProject.net/ www.fleximobility.solutions) posed challenges to the scientific air pollution community to work view air pollution as a social problem as well as ether an environmental one.

 

A copy of the one-page abstract and slides is available from the link below:

Chatterton, T., Hayes, E., Barnes, J., De Vito, L., Boushel, C., Husby, T., Ivanova, O., Csobod, E., Szuppinger, P. and Heves, G. (2018) Putting people at the heart of air quality management. In: Air Quality 2018: Science and Application, Barcelona, Spain, 12-16 March 2018. Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/35484

Tim Gives Masterclass on Planning and Air Quality

On 20^th January, Tim presented at a Developer Masterclass on “Air quality and its impact on planning and development”.

The event was hosted by TLT and Peter Brett Associates and held at the TLT offices in Bristol.  Tim presented alongside Graham Harker, the Air Quality Team Leader at PBA.

 

Tim talking to DEFRA, NCAS and TSUG

On the morning of 17th January, Tim will be present in work from ClairCity, Disruption and the MOT project to a DEFRA policy workshop coordinated by the National Centre for Atmospheric Science. The invited presentation will deal with developing a more social approach to air quality management.

In the afternoon, he we be presenting work from the MOT project to the Transport Statistics User Group at TfL.  This presentation will look at the spatial and temporal diffusion of hybrid and electric vehicles in Great Britain.

For more info on these projects see:

ClairCity www.ClairCity.EU

MOT www.MOTproject.net

Disruption www.Fleximobility.Solutions

TIm on Plenary Panel Session about AQ at UTSG 2018 Annual Conference

On Thursday 4th January, Tim will be participating on a plenary panel discussion on 'Tackling Air Pollution in the UK – what more should we be doing?' At the 50th Universities Transport Study Group Snnual Conference in London.

Enda presents ClairCity at IAPSC

Enda was invited to present at the Investigation of Air Pollution Standing Conference (IAPSC) on the ClairCity Project (4^th December 2017). Presenting to a room full of local authority officers, academics and air quality/environmental consultants, the ClairCity project was well received with a number of questions raised regarding public engagement and how to involve ‘hard-to-reach’ communities. A number of local authorities expressed an interest in becoming associated partners and learning more from the Bristol case study and wider ClairCity experience.

Enda speaking at Horizon 2020 Information Day

Enda was invited by EASME at the European Commission to Brussels to speak at a Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 5 Information Day on Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th November 2017. Enda will be speaking about the experience of putting together the consortium and proposal for the ClairCity Project (www.claircity.eu).

MOT project Outreach and Impact

Today, Tim will be attending the “Data, driven” event at the RAC Foundation to present work from UWE’s Motor vehicle Ownership and Trends in the UK (MOT) project www.MOTproject.net, alongside project colleagues Prof. Jillian Anable, Dr Sally Cairns and Prof. Eddie Wilson.

 

The event is launching a new report from the project that has been commissioned by the RAC Foundation.  The report, MOToring along: The lives of cars seen through licensing and test data, presents a vibrant and colourful look at some of the huge range of information and knowledge that the project has extracted from the MOT vehicle test data recent.y released by the Department for Transport (who were also project partners).   This event marks a soft launch of the report, prior to its full public launch next week.

 

In addition to today’s event at the RAC Foundation, Tim, Sally and Eddie also attended a workshop yesterday at the Department of Transport to provide support on the government’s work to use the MOT dataset to produce offical vehicle mileage statistics.

 

 

Tim invited to DfT Foresight Roundtable

On 28th September, Tim will be an invited participant at the DfT foresight Roundtable event in London on the Future of Mobility.

The Foresight Future of Mobility project aims to answer the question: 'What opportunities could the transport system of the future provide, and what are the implications for government and society?' The project has strong engagement with policymakers across government, with the aim of informing policy to make best use of new technologies with the potential to transform the UK transport landscape. The project has identified sustainability as an important driver of change in this area. The purpose of the roundtable is to explore the opportunities for innovation to deliver improved outcomes from the transport system, the barriers to implementation of these opportunities, and possible actions that can be taken to overcome these barriers. It forms part of a series of roundtables addressing other key areas of interest to the project.