LAQM Training Days 2009 - booking form available

It won’t have escaped your notice that air quality management in 2009 is set to see some changes with the imminent publication of the new Local Air Quality Management Policy and Technical Guidance and tools to facilitate report preparation and submission. To ease air quality professionals into this Review & Assessment year and help them to fully understand the implications of these changes, the Air Quality Management Resource Centre, UWE, and Air Quality Consultants Ltd will be holding a series of Training Days during March 2009. Sessions will be held throughout England (see dates and venues below) and will provide delegates with, among other things, advice on the preparation of LAQM reports (Review & Assessment Reports and Air Quality Action Plans) under the new Technical Guidance, the online USA template and the web submission tool and LAQM support tools. Please click here to access further information and the registration form.

10/3/09 Bristol (hosted by Bristol City Council)
19/3/09 Reading (hosted by the Environment Agency)
23/3/09 York (hosted by York City Council)

Further dates may be announced depending on demand. Click here to receive email notification of training sessions and other upcoming AQMRC activities and here to subscribe to the AQMRC Latest News for RSS feed updates.

The Welsh Assembly Government (10/2/2009) and the Scottish Government (13/2/2009) are also hosting LAQM training sessions in Cardiff and Edinburgh respectively. Please contact us for further information on these training sessions.

South West EP-UK & AQMRC 11th Annual Conference - date change

Scrub 26th February 2009 from your diary and add 20th March! We're back to Bristol Zoo for the 11th Annual South West Environmental Protection UK and AQMRC Conference. The theme of the conference is Environmental Indicators, where next? The conference will address local authority environmental indicators (e.g. air quality, climate change, land, noise, etc). Detail agenda to follow shortly.

Scottish Government LAQM Training Day 13th February 2009

AQMRC and Air Quality Consultants are running a Local Air Quality Management training day on behalf of the Scottish Government (for Scottish Local Authority Officers). The training events will cover updates to Technical and Policy Guidance, useful tips for undertaking Review & Assessment reports, an introduction to the Review & Assessment Online Report Submission Tool and advice for air quality action planning.

Scottish Government LAQM training day 13th February 2009 (click here for more details and registration form).

South West EP-UK & AQMRC 11th Annual Conference

***Note date change above***
Keep 26th February 2009 free in your diary! We're back to Bristol Zoo for the 11th Annual South West Environmental Protection UK and AQMRC Conference. The theme of the conference is Environmental Indicators, where next? The conference will address local authority environmental indicators (e.g. air quality, climate change, land, noise, etc). Detail agenda to follow shortly.

Sustainable Urban Transport Seminar

UWE and Bristol Environmental Technologies& Services (http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/content/Environment-Planning/Regeneration/bristol-environmental-technologies-and-services.en) Networking Seminar
 
 The presentations from this very well attended seminar held on the 17^th November are now available.  Click on the links below to see the PowerPoint presentation of Jose Marquez, Graham Parkhurst and Steve Ward.    

 

• Technologies for Sustainable Transport - Dr Jose Marquez   Egis Mobilité
  
  
• Lessons and Reflections on Recent Developments in Sustainable Urban Transport – Professor  Graham Parkhurst, UWE, Centre for Transport and Society (http://www.transport.uwe.ac.uk/)
• The UWE Travel Plan - Steve Ward

This seminar was hosted by the Faculty of Environment and Technology (http://www.uwe.ac.uk/et/) and Research, Business and Innovation (http://rbi.uwe.ac.uk/internet/Research/researchatuwe/), University of the West of England, in collaboration with Egis Mobilité

Congratulations to Mofoluso Fagbeja on passing his Progression Viva.

See Mo’s work on his research web site at http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/mofoluso.html

 

Congratulations to Dotun Olowoporoku on passing the Outline Thesis stage of his PhD.

See Dotun’s work on his research web site at http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/dotun.html

 

Congratulations to Simon Baldwin on passing the Outline Thesis stage of his PhD.

See Simon’s work on his research web site at http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/simon.html

UKPHA Launch of Climate Connections

On Tuesday 2nd December, Tim attended the launch of the UKPHA's Climate Connections programme, presenting a number of posters highlighting the work that AQMRC  and others are involved in in linking climate Change with Air Quality and other health issues.  

The posters can be viewed here:

AQ, Climate Change and Health - Why?

AQ, Climate Change and Health - How? 

 

The Climate Connection project is an initiative aimed at bringing public health work into the heart of the fight to combat climate change. The launch was chaired by Prof. David Harper from the Department of Health and included contributions from Sir Liam Donaldson (Chief Medical Officer) and Professor John Beddington (Government Chief Scientific Adviser) and was attended by senior members from all the regional public health communities.

 

Further details of the Climate Connection work can be found here: www.climateconnections.org

 

and the programme has also developed the wonderfully entertaining www.carbonaddict.org website.

Latest Newsletter of the European Federation Clean Air and Environmental Protection Associations (EFCA)

The latest EFCA (www.efca.net) newsletter is now available on-line.  This edition contains a lot of material  relating to the co-management of air quality and climate change, including an extensive report on he recent EFCA symposium in Strasbourg which should be making a real contribution to bringing the issues of air pollution and co-benefits to the climate change debating tables this week in Poznan, and next year in Copenhagen.  For further details please download the newsletter here.

 

(AQMRC, is proud to be involved in the production of the newsletter and to support the work of EFCA).

Nurul at Better Air Quality Workshop 2008

Nurul presented 2 posters at the Better Air Quality Workshop 2008 in Bangkok on 12-14 November 2008. The titles of the posters are: a) Applying lessons from local air quality management consultation to climate change, and b) The potential impact from increased use of wood-fuelled biomass to loca air quality in London: lessons to exchange with mega-cities in Asian countries. The posters were well received. The main message from the Workshop is the integration of air quality and climate change particularly in relation to transport sector!

AQMRC article published in Atmospheric Environment

The AQMRC are pleased to announce the publication of their paper, "The development of effects-based air quality management regimes", in the forthcoming issue of Atmospheric Environment. The article may be accessed via the journal website www.elsevier.com/locate/atmosenv.

Longhurst, J.W.S., Irwin, J.G, Chatterton, T.J., Hayes, E.T., Leksmono, N.S. and Symons, J.K., (2009). The development of effects-based air quality management regimes, Atmospheric Environment, 43, 64-78. [doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2008.09.050]

AQMRC Air Quality and Climate Change Seminars

This morning saw the first of a series of Monday morning seminars presented by the Air Quality Management Resource Centre's staff and PhD students. Professor Jim Longhurst entertained a packed auditorium with his take on 'Air quality in historical perspective', reflecting on lessons that may be learnt and the length of time it takes to learn them!

The next seminar on 15th December will be given by Dr Tim Chatterton, who will be speaking on 'South Africa's National Framework on air quality' and exploring UWE's role in an exemplar of integrated environmental governance.

Further details are available on this seminar schedule. If you are interested in attending this or any of the future seminars (or just fancy a free croissant and coffee!) please notify aqmrc@uwe.ac.uk in advance.

Simon and Jim present at first annual GWR Research Symposium

Professor Jim Longhurst and PhD student Simon Baldwin gave presentations to a large audience at 'Future Imperfect': the first annual Great Western Research Symposium. Simon presented in the Sustainability Workshop on the opportunities and barriers to the 'Integration of air quality and climate change at a regional and local governance level'.  He also presented a poster on the same subject during the lunchtime interval.  Jim, speaking in the main Plenary Session, had the slightly more challenging task of discussing 'Major environmental challenges and responses' in which he examined some of the major environmental issues of current and future generations.

Nurul attends Better Air Quality Workshop 2008

Nurul will be presenting 2 posters at the Better Air Quality Workshop 2008, which will be held in Bangkok on 12-14 November 2008. The workshop theme is "Air Quality and Climate Change: scaling up win-win solutions for Asia," representing two important trends that are shaping the future direction of urban air quality management in Asia. Nurul will share the experience of local authorities on Local Air Quality Management consultation to Asian colleagues and the transferability of the research outcomes to other locally based environmental management issues. The posters are entitled "Applying lessons from local air quality management consultation to climate change" and "The potential impact from increased use of wood-fuelled biomass to local air quality in London: lessons to exchange with mega-cities in Asian countries.

Sustainable Urban Transport Seminar

Sustainable Urban Transport:Bristol Environmental Technologies& Services (BETS) Networking Seminar

Date: Monday, 17 November, 2008
Time: 17:30 - 19:45
Venue: Street Café, Frenchay Campus, BS16 1QY
Cost: Free of charge

Programme:
1730: Registration and light refreshments1800: Welcome - Professor James Longhurst, Co-Director, Institute for Sustainability, Health and Environment
1810: Technologies for Sustainable Transport - Dr Jose Marquez and Martin Volny, Egis Mobilité
1830: Lessons and Reflections on Recent Developments in Sustainable Urban Transport - Dr Graham Parkhurst, UWE
1850: The UWE Travel Plan - Steve Ward
1910: Thanks and Close - Professor James Longhurst, Co-Director, Institute for Sustainability, Health and Environment
1915: Networking
1945: Close

This event is hosted by the Faculty of Environment and Technology and Research, Business and Innovation, University of the West of England, in collaboration with Egis Mobilité.
You can register for the event here
Or for further information, please contact:Tel 0117 32 82808Email rbi@uwe.ac.uk

Defra LAQM TG08 consultation meeting

Consultation responses to the new LAQM Technical Guidance were reviewed and appraised at a meeting of air quality consultants and government representatives at the Defra offices in London last week. Around 25 in-depth responses were gratefully received and the points raised were laboriously discussed and debated to create a useful and workable set of guidance for local government. The document will be reworked and completed over the next couple of months with a provisional deadline for publication before Christmas. Join the Review and Assesment mailing list to receive email notification of further updates on LAQM Guidance.

EP-UK: 'Local Action on Air Quality and Climate Change'

Environmental Protection UK held their training event: Local Action on Air Quality and Climate Change at the Aston Business Centre in Birmingham last Wednesday. The sell-out meeting was attended by Jo Barnes, on behalf of the AQMRC, and included a range of interesting speakers from central and local government, consultancies, industry and lobbyists. Presentations are available from the EP-UK website http://www.environmental-protection.org.uk/events/details/?id=1234.

Interreg IV - PARM

Jo Barnes represented the AQMRC last week at a meeting of potential western UK partners of a major new INTERREG IV project: Partuculates Air Rives Manche (PARM). The multi-million euro investigation links air quality experts in northern France and southern England to monitor particulates (PM10 and PM2.5) and disseminate data, best practice and public awareness materials. Other potential western partners include the Air Quality Unit at Cornwall College, Cornwall Council, Teignbridge District Council, Torbay District Council, Weymouth & Portland District Council and Plymouth City Council. The eastern contingent are represented by EP-UK, Sussex Air Quality Partnership and Kent District Council. The project bid will be submitted in February 2009, so watch this space for further information...

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Visitors click here to see the latest global distribution of interest in our work. Please drop us a line if you were one of our global visitors and tell us what you liked (or didn't!) about our site. Email aqmrc@uwe.ac.uk.