Welcome back, Nicky

AQMRC is delighted to announce that Dr Nicky Woodfield will be working with AQMRC on a range of projects in the next year.

Nicky was the first appointment to AQMRC back in 1997 and as well as coordinating the work of the Centre studied part time for a PhD which was awarded in 2004. Her thesis was entitled Conflict and consensus in spatial and temporal designations of Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) to secure air quality objectives in Great Britain and her research led to a large number of papers and conference presentations. The staff in AQMRC look forward to working with Nicky on a range of LAQM projects.

Farewell and Good Luck, Nurul

After 8 years in Bristol, first as a PhD student and then as a Research Fellow, AQMRC has bid farewell to Dr Nurul Leksmono. Nurul has returned to her home city of Jakarta, Indonesia to work for the environmental consultancy ERM. We wish Nurul well in this the next part of her career and we look forward to the opportunity for collaborating on some interesting and challenging new projects.

Nurul first joined AQMRC in 2001 to study for a PhD funded by the Environment Agency. Her PhD 'Sustainable, proportionate and cost-effective action plans to deliver air quality objectives within AQMAs' explored the relationship between the LAQM and the IPPC regimes and focused on the application of the above principles within the development of air quality action plans. Her PhD was supervised by Jimi Irwin, Katy Ling and Jim Longhurst.

Following the award of her PhD Nurul worked on a range of AQMRC projects including the ESRC 'Science in Society' project 'Consultation as Science Communication' (see http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/esrc/), the ESRC Impact project 'Mediating Consultation: Private Sector Consultancies Engagement in Local Air Quality Management Consultation' (see http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/Mediating_Consultation.html) as well as providing technical and policy support for AQMRC activities including the Defra Review and Assessment contract and a wide range of LAQM projects.

Everyone in AQMRC will miss Nurul greatly, and wish her all the best.

LAQM Guidance and tools now available

The LAQM Policy Guidance (England only); Practice Guidance (England only) and Technical Guidance (all of the UK) have been launched today (19th February 2009) in electronic format (hard copy to follow). New support tools are also now available and the Report Submission Website is now live. These documents and support tools can all be accessed at the links below:

LAQM Policy Guidance (England only): http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/airquality/local/guidance/pdf/laqm-policy-guidance-part4.pdf.
LAQM Technical Guidance (all of the UK): http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/airquality/local/guidance/pdf/tech-guidance-laqm-tg-09.pdf.
LAQM Technical Guidance Support Tools: http://laburnum.aeat.co.uk/archive/laqm/tools.php.

These documents and links for the LAQM Practice Guidance (England only) are also available on the LAQM Guidance pages of the Defra website: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/airquality/local/guidance/index.htm.

Report Submission Website: http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/la_report_admin/logon.php. Further information and login details, etc, will be sent out next week.

The Review and Assessment website FAQs will be updated tomorrow.

Bookmark these links and happy reading!

Rose and Mofoluso's abstracts accepted for RGS-IBG Conference

Rose and Mofoluso have both had abstracts accepted for presentation at the forthcoming RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum mid-term conference, at the University of Plymouth on 7th March. The conference provides an opportunity for postgraduates working on aspects of geography to present their research, and also to participate in workshops addressing aspects of postgraduate development. More information on the conference can be found here.

Celebrating 10,000 subscribers - Science for Environment Policy goes from strength to strength

Now with 10,000 subscribers, Science for Environment Policy plays a key role in disseminating cutting edge, policy-relevant research findings in the environmental sciences. The news alert service is edited by the Science Communication Unit at the University of the West of England on behalf of the European Commission. It was first launched in January 2006 and quickly attracted a considerable number of subscriptions from old Member States of the EU. Recently, these figures have been buoyed by a notable and important increase in subscribers from new EU Member States.

Doubravka Nedvedova of the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic, the service’s 10,000th subscriber, said: “Being from the Czech Republic, I was delighted to find a service that directly addresses a number of the environmental problems we face both nationally and across the EU. It is very helpful to have such clearly written and relevant information delivered directly to my inbox.”

Brought to you FREE by DG Environment of the European Commission, this information service brings policy-relevant research findings in the following areas direct to the subscriber’s email inbox:

Agriculture
Air pollution
Biodiversity
Biotechnology
Chemicals
Climate Change & Energy
Environment and Health
Environmental Information Services
Environment Technologies
Forests
Land use Marine Ecosystem
Natural Hazards
Noise
Risk Assessment
Soil
Sustainable Consumption and Production
Sustainable Development and Policy Assessment
Sustainable Mobility
Urban Environment
Waste Water

The service is weekly and covers recently published studies. The articles are written in easy-to-read, non-scientific English specifically to allow non-scientists and non-native speakers of English easy access to the latest scientific research.
To subscribe to the service, send an email to sfep@uwe.ac.uk with the message line: 'subscribe-SfEP' or visit the news alert website at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/research_alert_en.htm
For more information please contact:

Emma Weitkamp, Managing Editor
Tel +44 (0) 117 32 82081
Emma.weitkamp@uwe.ac.uk

Or Michelle Kilfoyle, Production Editor
Tel +44 (0) 117 32 83913
Michelle.kilfoyle@uwe.ac.uk

Air Quality Management Resource Centre are very pleased to be working with SCU on this project.

Rose lectures at University of Iceland

Rose has just returned from giving three lectures at the University of Iceland, from 7th - 10th February. These included lectures on carbon management and carbon footprinting, for Masters students taking a course on 'Sustainable Futures', and a lecture on her research as a case study of carbon management, for Environmental Engineering Undergraduates. The lectures can be downloaded on her research page.

Rose is pleased that she managed to see some of Iceland's beautiful scenery whilst there, but isn't sorry to leave behind the sub-zero tempertures!

New LAQM training session in the south east

Due to massive demand, Air Quality Management Resource Centre, UWE, and Air Quality Consultants Ltd will be holding another LAQM Training session in the south east in addition to the previously advertised events in Bristol, Reading and York.

The new event will be held at the Hawth in Crawley on Tuesday 3rd March. Please click here to access further information and the registration form.

South West EP-UK & AQMRC 11th Annual Conference: Local Authority National Environmental Indicators – Where next?

Environmental Protection UK South West Division & Air Quality Management Resource Management Centre, UWE, are holding their 11th Annual Conference: Local Authority National Environmental Indicators – Where next? at Bristol Zoo on Friday, 20th March 2009.
Please click here for a copy of the flier and details of how to register.

Public Health publication

The journal Public Health has just published a paper jointly written by Tim Chatterton at AQMRC, with colleagues at UWE in the Centre for Transport and Society, and the British Market Research Board.  The paper provides a summary and discussion of key issues arising in research carried out by them for the Department of Transport.

 

Understanding how transport choices are affected by the environment and health: Views expressed in a study on the use of carbon calculators

T.J. Chatterton, A. Coulter, C. Musselwhite, G. Lyons and S. Clegg

doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2008.10.022  

Tim Exchanges Knowledge at IEMA

On 28th January, Tim presented the AQMRC's work in the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia to the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment's Knoledge Transfer (Exchange) Workshop.  The event, held in Oxford, was aimed at bringing the work of a range of accademic institutions to the the attention  of the practioner and business communities and was well attended by representatives from the UK Research Councils, Universities and businesses.  Further details of the meeting and presentations can be found on the IEMA website <a heref="http://www.iema.net/conferences/knowledgeexchange">here</a>.

Rose to lecture at University of Iceland, Reykjavik

Rose will be contributing to a weekend of lectures on sustainable futures, at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik. Rose will be lecturing Masters students on carbon management frameworks and accounting techniques. The lecture series has been organised by Professor Vala Ragnarsdottir, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Iceland, and one of Rose's supervisors, and will run from 6th-9th February.

Rose presents at Regional Studies Association South West Branch Conference

Rose gave a presentation on carbon management in the Bristol Region at the South West Branch of the Regional Studies Association conference at UWE on 23rd January. Rose's presentation included a review of current climate policy and emissions in the Bristol region and an overview of her research, before discussing some of the methods and challenges in emissions estimates and forecasts. Rose's presentation can be downloaded here.

Consultation on UK application for an extension to meet EU air quality limits

Defra is seeking views on the UK application to the European Commission for an extension to meet air quality targets for Particulate Matter (PM₁₀). The application for an extension will be submitted to the European Commission as soon as possible after this consultation has closed on 10 March.

 

PM₁₀ is made up of very small particles of soot and dust in the air, less than 10 micrometers in diameter (human hair ranges from 17-180 micrometers in diameter). The sources of these particles include transport, industrial plants, construction, and extremely small particles carried on the wind from neighbouring countries. There is also a small amount from natural sources, such as dust blown from Africa or sea salt.

 

Most other Member States have also reported some breaches of the EU PM₁₀ limits since they came into force in 2005: 24 out of 27 reported breaches of the limit in 2007. They will also need to apply to the European Commission for additional time.

 

Levels of PM₁₀ have been falling across the UK. However, in eight areas breaches of the PM₁₀ limit values have been reported to the European Commission since they came into force in 2005 and so additional time to meet the limits is needed.

The extension would enable current and planned measures to take effect to reduce PM₁₀ levels to within the EU limits by the extended deadline of 2011.

 

Consultation documents are available to download from the Defra website http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/air-quality/index.htm.  The deadline for responses is 10^th March 2009.

 

Rose to present at South West Branch of the Regional Studies Association conference

Rose is to present at the 1st annual conference of the South West branch of the Regional Studies Association, on Friday 23rd January. Rose will be presenting an overview of her research on carbon management in the Bristol region. The conference aims to facilitate and stimulate dialogue between policy makers and academics with an interest in England's South West region, in an attempt to identify ways to enhance and improve the working of our economy and to make the region a better place to live. More information can he found here: http://www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk/events/future.asp

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.

On Thursday 23^rd January Jim Longhurst will be speaking at the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education’s (http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/) training seminar being held at Warwick University.  Jim will speak on the subject of Research and Enterprise in Higher Education.

 

Back in November Jim Longhurst gave an invited talk on the subject of ‘Major environmental challenges and responses’  at the Great Western Research Conference  ‘Future Imperfect’. The film of Jim’s talk can now be viewed as a streamed webcast on the GWR web site at http://www.greatwesternresearch.ac.uk/FutureImperfect.php

 

Enda Hayes, Tim Chatterton and Jim Longhurst were submitted as part of the University’s submission to sub panel 32 Geography and Environmental Studies. 70% of this submission was judged as being of internationally recognised quality or internationally excellent. See the RAE web page at http://www.rae.ac.uk/ and http://www.built-environment.uwe.ac.uk/research/newsDisplayPublic.asp?NewsID=1143&rss=True

 

Promotion to Senior Research Fellow

Congratulations to Dr Enda Hayes on his well deserved promotion to Senior Research Fellow in AQMRC. Read Enda’s web page at  http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/enda.html

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.