Jim, Jo and Ben at the 52nd International Making Cities Livable Conference on Achieving Green, Healthy Cities

The 52nd International Making Cities Livable Conference on Achieving Green, Healthy Cities, co-sponsored by The University of Bristol and the University of the West of England, is in Bristol this week, and the AQMRC's Jim, Jo and Ben will be ensuring that air quality features prominently. Jim will be presenting under the 'Air Pollution, Urban Noise and Health' session on Thursday afternoon delivering a talk entitled Urban Air Quality in Historical Perspective - or why we fail to learn the lessons of history, in which he will expound on the need to learn from past mistakes in order to address modern air pollution problems in urban areas. Jo and Ben will be presenting in the poster session on the same afternoon, both on the theme of 'Learning from Bristol'. Jo's poster captures research undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of local air quality action planning using Bristol as a case study, while Ben will present the findings of the Bristol European Green Capital Air Quality Masterclass that we were invited to organize by Bristol City Council on behalf of the outgoing European Green Capital City, Copenhagen.



Jim, Jo & Huw at Air Pollution 2015

Last week, Jim Longhurst, Jo Barnes & Huw Brunt attended the 23rd International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution 2015 in Valencia, Spain. Jim & Jo, as conference co-chairs, presented the keynote and invited presentations respectively, while Huw presented on his PhD research on air quality management and public health. The conference was very well attended with 90+ delegates registered and a very interesting range of presentations from across the field. The conference proceedings are also now published: Longhurst, J.W.S.,   Capilla, C., Brebbia, C.A.  & Barnes, J. (Editors) (2015). Air Pollution XXIII. WIT Press, Southampton and Boston. pp466, ISBN: 978-1-84564-964-7. 

New publication

Following the recent Air Pollution 2015 conference, the proceedings have been published. Professor Jim Longhurst & Dr Jo Barnes are co-chairs and editors of this publication.

 

Longhurst, J.W.S.,   Capilla, C., Brebbia, C.A.  & Barnes, J. (Editors) (2015). Air Pollution XXIII. WIT Press, Southampton and Boston. pp. 466, ISBN: 978-1-84564-964-7.

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 publications

Peer reviewed paper
Mofoluso, F., Hill J., Chatterton T., Longhurst, J.  & Akinyede J. (2013) Residential-source emission inventory for the Niger Delta – a methodological approach. Journal of Sustainable Development.   6 (6) 98-120  ISSN 1913-9063 E-ISSN 1913-9071 On line 29/4/13

Edited volume

Longhurst, J.W.S. & Brebbia, C., (Editors 2013) Air Pollution XXI WIT Press. Southampton and Boston.  320pp ISBN: 978-1-84564-718-6 eISBN:978-1-84564-719-3

AQMRC PhD Progress

AQMRC staff have been busy supervising and examining PhDs over the recent months.

Jim recently completed his 30^th external examination of a PhD candidate when he conducted a viva at Trinity College, Dublin. Recently he has completed research degree external examiner duties for Newcastle University and Imperial College, London.

Ross Hunter completed his minor corrections to the satisfaction of the examiners. He will be awarded his PhD at the Geography and Environmental Management Graduation Ceremony to be held in Bristol cathedral in July. With the award of his PhD Ross becomes Jim’s 25^th successful research degree candidate.  

Jo Barnes and David Williams continue to make very good progress with their research and both will submit their thesis in 2014.

 

 

The Mismanagement of Air Quality - Invited Presentation, Southampton University’s Centre for Environmental Science

On December 12^th 2012 Jim Longhurst was delighted to deliver the first Christmas lecture for Southampton University’s Centre for Environmental Science. Jim took a deliberately polemical position is his talk contrasting the successful review and assessment process with the action planning process in local air quality management. He described how the review and assessment of local air quality had been successful in identifying areas of air quality objective exceedence and in so doing had delineated a new geography of air pollution. He contrasted this with the failure of the action planning process to revoke air quality management areas. He reviewed the variety of evidence from official sources indicating the scale and magnitude of the health effects arising from exposure to adverse concentrations of air pollution and asked why we had arrived at a position where the policy intent and the process of remediation were misaligned. He explored whether this was a political failing and described the situation as the mismanagement of air quality.

Jim chairs international expert panel in Portugal

The Environment and Global Changes Panel of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) met in Lisbon between the 7^th and  9^th of November 2012. The international expert panel, chaired by Jim Longhurst, evaluated 341 research proposals and made recommendations for funding to FCT.  

 

FCT Panel Members

Back row, left to right: Joel Knoery, Sabine Kleinsteuber, Christian Kjær, Alastair Grant, James Longhurst, Jürgen P. Kropp, Ingvar Brandt, José Miguel Rodríguez Maroto, Vincent O'Flaherty. Front row, left to right: Matt Bentley, Mara Silva, Georgina Mace, Ariana Zeka, Maryse Labriet, Lídia Ferreira, Jose Maria Baldasano Recio, Darren Reynolds, Petros Samaras.

 

Jim Longhurst to Chair the Environment and Global Change Panel as part of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) 2012 evaluation process

The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) is the public research-funding agency which selects and distributes research funds for a wide range of scientific fields of research. FCT places high importance on the international peer-review evaluation process as a critical element to ensure credibility and quality in all its activities.   FCT has established six high-level panels of leading field scientists to take part in the 2012 evaluation process and selection of the best applications.

The Board of Directors of FCT have invited Professor Jim Longhurst to chair the Environment and Global Change panel in the 2012 evaluation process. The Environment and Global Change panel will consider some 335 proposals in four sub themes:

• Global Environmental Change

• Sustainable Management of Resources
• Environmental Technologies
• Environmental Modelling and Assessment
 

For further information on the work of FCT see http://www.fct.pt/

Academy of Science of South Africa workshop “Pathways towards a low carbon city” papers published

Papers presented at the Academy of Science of South Africa workshop “Pathways towards a low carbon city”, held at the UNFCC Conference of the Parties, Durban South Africa on 5 December 2011, are now available at  http://www.assaf.org.za/environment-energy-and-water/

• International initiatives on low carbon cities - Prof Jim Longhurst, University of the West of England
• Cities GHG emissions, inventorying and comparisons - Dr Shobhakar Dhakal, Global Carbon  Project                 
• Sustainable urban infrastructure to achieve a low carbon city – Prof Anu Ramaswami, University of Colorado Denver
• Climate change initiatives in the city of Durban – Dr Sean O’Donoghue, eThekwini Municipality
• Towards a Low Carbon City: focus on Durban – Prof Roseanne Diab,  ASSAf
• Opportunities for greening the buildings and industries – Dr Francis Yamba, University of Zambia
• Low carbon planning in cities – Prof Dave Dewar, University of Cape Town

Cop 17 ASSAf workshop

Professor Jim Longhust will be attending the ASSAf workshop Durban, December 5th 2011, Pathways towards a low carbon city next week.  He will be presenting on 'International initiatives on low carbon cities' and facilitating a workshop to discuss 'Should developing cities strive to be low carbon?'.

The agenda is now available at http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/files/ASSAf%20programme_Pathways%20towards%20LCCs_CCR%20Expo_5%20Dec.pdf.

UNFCCC CoP 17

Jim Longhurst will be attending the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties 17 meeting in Durban, South Africa.

Jim will be a member of the Academy of Science  of South Africa Delegation and will speak at the CoP side event workshop “Pathways Towards Low Carbon Cities”

Air Pollution 2011 conference

The 19th International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution 2011 held in Malta 19th-21st September was well-attended by an audience of air quality professionals and students from academia and industry. Delegates representing more than 20 countries gave a truly international feel to the conference and brought an opportunity to share a broad range of experiences and expertise. Around 40 presentations were delivered over 10 sessions over the 3-day conference covering themes of Air pollution modelling, Monitoring and measurement, Air quality management, Aerosols and particles, Economics of air pollution control, Emissions studies, Health effects and Innovative technologies.

The conference was co-chaired by Professor Jim Longhurst who gave an invited keynote presentation introducing new research the AQMRC are undertaking working 'towards a new framework for air quality management in Nigeria'. Jo Barnes also gave a presentation, which critically described the UK policy on air quality management since the introduction of first national Air Quality Strategy 14 years ago and 'assessed the potential for local action to meet EU limit values' based on previous experience and in the context of evolving related policies.

A call for papers has been announced for the 2012 Air Pollution conference which will be run back-to-back with Urban Transport 2012 in A Coruna, Spain next May. Further details are available on the Wessex Institute website.

Jim and Jo attending Air Pollution 2011

Jim and Jo are both attending the 19th International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution 2011 in Malta this week. Jim will be co-chairing the confernce and presenting a keynote address entitled 'Towards a new framework for air quality management in Nigeria', Jo will be presenting 'Assessing the potential for local action to achieve EU limit values'. The papers will be available in the conference proceedings book published by WIT Press.

Academy of Science of South Africa Low Carbon Consensus Panel report published

The Academy of Science of South Africa Low Carbon Consensus Panel has now published their report Towards a Low Carbon City. AQMRC Director Jim Longhurst served on the panel and the full report can accessed at http://www.assaf.org.za/2011/08/durban-on-a-pathway-towards-a-low-carbon-city/

Full reference details are as follows:

Academy of Science of South Africa (2011) Towards a Low Carbon City. Focus on Durban. Report of the ASSAf Consensus Study on Low Carbon Cities. ASSAf, Pretoria, South Africa. pp263 ISBN 97809869835-4-2

Jim and Dotun to present at the Seminar on Air Quality and Carbon Management in Nigeria

Drawing on the experience and expertise of AQMRC in undertaking similar framework for the South African Government, this seminar, hosted by the Faculty of Science, University of Lagos, will facilitate discussion towards a shift in policy, practice and governance of air quality and carbon management in Nigeria. It will also build on the existing strategic partnership between the University of Lagos and the University of the West of England, Bristol in creating more research collaborations and funding opportunities towards environmental policy development.

Date: Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Time: 10.30-16.00
Venue: Faculty of Science, Board Room, University of Lagos, Akoka, Nigeria

New publication

Another new publication from the AQMRC:

M.J. Ross-Jones & J.W.S. Longhurst, Managing Air Quality at the Local Level: a case study. Int. J. Sus. Dev. Plann. Vol. 5, No. 3 (2010) 223–237.

Jim to Co- Chair Air Pollution 2011

Jim Longhurst again will be the co-chair for the 19th International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution “Air Pollution 2011” which is to be held in Malta from the 19th – 21st September 2011. Jim will also co-edit the conference hardback book that will be published to coincide with the start of the conference.

The call for papers is available at http://www.wessex.ac.uk/11-conferences/airpollution-2011.html

Further details about the conference are available from the Claire Shiell at the address below
Claire Shiell
Conference Secretariat,
Air Pollution 2011
Wessex Institute of Technology,
Ashurst Lodge,
Ashurst,
Southampton, SO40 7AA
Tel: 44 (0) 238 0293223
Fax: 44 (0) 238 0292853
cshiell@wessex.ac.uk

Low Carbon Cities Consensus Panel. Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)

Jim has recently returned from a visit to South Africa (3-9th October) where he attended the second meeting of the Academy of Science of South Africa’s Low Carbon Cities Consensus Panel. As part of his contribution to the work of the Panel, Jim and AQMRC colleagues prepared a review of carbon management plans and strategies that are being implemented in European capital cities. The overall goal of the ASSAf study is to identify key areas of intervention that would position the city of Durban on a pathway towards a low carbon future. The study has been commissioned by the Environmental Management Unit of the eThekwini Municipality (City of Durban) and the panel is led by the Executive Officer of ASSAf, Prof Roseanne Diab. The study is financially supported by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) See http://www.assaf.co.za/?page_id=998 for further details.