Tim is Heat@UWE HotHouse Low Carbon Champion

On Thursday 13^th January, Tim was invited to the HEAT@UWE Hot House event http://www.uwe.ac.uk/research/heat/events/hothouse.shtml to act as “Low-Carbon Futures Champion”. 

 

Unable to restrain himself, he also got involved in the development of the research concepts and the project that his team came up with (Greening Building Cultures – developed with Cities Research Centre, the WHO Collaborating Centre on Healthy Cities and the Construction and Property Research Centre) came first in the electronic voting. 

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.

AQMRC welcomes international delegates to LAQM training session

This Friday (14th January) the AQMRC will be holding the next in their successful series of Air Quality and Carbon Management CPD courses: Introduction to Local Air Quality Management. Registered delegates include local authorities in the UK, but also three delegates from the Osun State Environmental Protection Agency in Nigeria. There are still places available; if you would like to attend, please register your details online. Further information about this, and other sessions in the series, is available on the training pages of the AQMRC website.

Rhondda site visit

Jo Barnes will be visiting Rhondda, South Wales, this week to attend an initial meeting and site visit for the Detailed/Further Assessment that AQMRC was recently awarded by Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council.

Dube Aerotropolis site visit

Dr Enda Hayes and Rose Bailey, from the AQMRC, and their colleague in the Department for Geography and Environmental Management, Dr Chad Staddon, are visiting the site of the Dube Aerotropolis near Durban this week. AQMRC has been appointed to assist Dube Tradeport and Tongaat Hulett Developments to prepare a Framework for Sustainability to input into the preparation of the Dube Aerotropolis Regional Development Strategy. This initial site visit will enable the team to see for themselves the scope of the project and allow them to initiate baseline calculations to assist in creating this major new low-carbon development.

AQMRC leading on the Environmental Technologies iNet

AQMRC is playing a leading role in a major new initiative to support the low carbon high skills future of the South West economy. The Environmental Technologies iNet, led by UWE, is a three-year, £2 million project assisting environmental goods and services businesses in the South West to innovate their products and services faster, improve their competitiveness and market awareness, and engage with a range of routes to market. ERDF will fund c£1 million, the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) will provide c. £500,000 match funding, with a further £500,000 match coming from the delivery partners: UWE, University of Bristol, University of Exeter, RegenSW and Bristol City Council. The project will target 250 high growth potential environmental technology and services SMEs and provide them each with a customised programme of business assistance, primarily focusing on four subsectors of renewable energy, waste management, sustainable transport and sustainable construction. The iNet will address many of the disconnects hampering the development of these subsectors including the fragmented relationships between the companies, agencies and universities; the inefficiencies in knowledge and technology transfer; the slow sharing of best practice and business intelligence and the poor connection to international markets for investors, customers and partners. The iNet will create a focal point for the sector, directly supporting businesses, facilitating the linkages between ideas, technology, expertise and commercialisation, and improving international connectivity. Prof Jim Longhurst led the Environmental iNet bid and is the UWE project manager, and Dr Enda Hayes has been seconded on a part-time basis to the iNet as the Business Support Manager.

Mo attends GIS training in Germany

Mofoluso recently visited Infoterra, located in Immenstaad, Germany. The visit provided opportunity for hands-on experience with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Satellite Image Processing and Applications, with specific emphasis on applications to emissions monitoring and inventorying. High resolution TerraSAR-X images were used to identify point, line and area sources of air pollutants within the Niger Delta. Emission stacks were also identified from the satellite images. The techniques of estimating stack heights from TerraSAR-X was demonstrated. This is particularly useful for data gathering over cloudy and inaccessible regions. The experience will form an invaluable asset to his PhD research, especially in the area of data gathering, identifying sources of emissions for emissions inventorying, and estimating stack heights useful for dispersion modelling. Click here to access Mo’s research page.

Dotun’s PhD graduation ceremony

Congratulations to Dotun Olowoporoku who received his PhD award at the UWE 2010 Award Ceremony on 17th November 2010 held in Bristol Cathedral. Dotun was also the 2010 recipient of the Dr Nurul Leksmono Prize for the most outstanding international PhD thesis on the subject of air quality, carbon management or environmental management. The Prize was instituted for UWE international students in memory of former AQMRC Research Fellow, the late Dr Nurul Leksmono. Dotun is pictured here reflecting wistfully on his three year studentship. Click here to access Dotun’s research page.

Rhondda bid success

AQMRC have recently been awarded a 15-month contract with Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council to undertake a Detailed and Further Assessment at Glyncoch, near Pontypridd. AQMRC is pleased to collaborate with Enviro Technology Ltd and Advance Environmental to assist RCTCBC with the monitoring, modelling and source apportionment of PM10 in this prestigious project. Jo Barnes will project manage this exciting new activity of AQMRC.

IIT Visit

AQMRC were delighted to welcome esteemed colleagues from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi and Madras. Professor Mukesh Khare (IITD) and Dr Shiva Nagendra (IITM) met with AQMRC’s Jo Barnes and Dr Dotun Olowoporoku (pictured) to discuss development of an air quality management framework for cities in India. Professor Longhurst said “This is a very exciting opportunity to progress our links with colleagues in India and to share our experiences gained of managing air quality in the UK.” This project builds upon a long standing cooperation between AQMRC and IITD and will see AQMRC staff attend a seminar in Delhi in February 2011.

AQMRC CPD training success continues

Following the success of this year’s Air Quality and Carbon Management CPD courses, AQMRC is pleased to announce that the training opportunities will continue into 2011. The next session will be Introduction to Local Air Quality Management on 14th January followed by Introduction to Carbon Management on 8th February. The full schedule of courses is available on the AQMRC website and you can book your place online. Book three or more courses to receive 15% discount!

Sue Duffy – the legacy of a legend!!

Sue finally called time on her UWE career and officially retired on the 8th of December 2010 after working as the AQMRC Administrator for the last five years. Sue will be truly missed by her AQMRC colleagues but also, as illustrated by the exceptionally large turnout at her leaving party, by everyone within FET. Sue was not just our administrator but also our organiser, conscience, agony aunt, epic tea and coffee maker, surrogate mother and willing partner in mischief!! Sue is a remarkable lady, colleague and friend who will be missed by all. Sue is pictured here receiving one of her leaving presents of art materials to kick-start her new career as a world-famous artist!

AQMRC chosen to provide support to Dube Aerotropolis, Durban, South Africa in developing a Framework for Sustainability

AQMRC has been appointed to assist Dube Tradeport and Tongaat Hulett Developments to prepare a Framework for Sustainability as input into the preparation of the Dube Aerotropolis Regional Development Strategy. This exciting multi-disciplinary project brings together many Faculty of Environment and Technology colleagues including Dr Enda Hayes (Project Manager), Prof Jim Longhurst, Dr Tim Chatterton, Ms Jo Barnes and Ms Rose Bailey from AQMRC, other ISHE colleagues including Dr Sarah Hills, Dr Ian Smith, Dr Chad Staddon and Dr Nevil Quinn and external expertise from Visiting Research Fellow Dr Mark Everard. The project team will advise on sustainable development guidelines for the land use and infrastructural framework in the vicinity of the King Shaka International Airport, while supporting the client’s vision of working towards carbon and water neutrality for the area. The Dube Aerotropolis covers a radius of approximately 15 km around the recently opened King Shaka International Airport within the KwaDukuza Municipality north of the city of Durban. AQMRC will provide specialist advice on carbon emissions and management in the Aerotropolis area. This project builds on AQMRC experience in air and carbon management in Africa, including the Low Carbon Consensus Panel study for the Academy of Science of South Africa and the National Framework for Air Quality for the South African Government.

IAPSC

On the 13th December, Tim chaired the winter IAPSC conference in Birmingham. Presentations included the traditional Defra Update spot (this time presented by Defra AQ newbie Neil Hamilton) as well as sessions on Communicating the Air Quality Problem, Vehicle Emissions and Local Authority Case Studies on LAQM.

EPSRC sandpit

From the 6th to 10th December, Tim attended an RCUK Energy Programme Sandpit Event on “Transport Behaviours, Habits and Practices” in Bath, with 20 other researchers from a range of different subjects ranging from Transport Studies, to Geography, Sociology, Economics and Digital Design. Over the five days the researchers worked to come up with a range of proposals for novel research into the transport problem.

West London Freight Project

West London Air Quality Group Freight project

Tim giving talk to Walker Institute at Reading University

On Wednesday 24th November, Tim will be giving a seminar about his Fellowship in DECC to members of the Walker Institute at Reading University.

Tim called to give evidence to House of Lords

Tim has been called to the House of Lords to give evidence to the Science and Technology Committee who are currently undertaking a inquiry into the use of behaviour change interventions as a means of achieving government policy goals. http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/science-and-technology-committee/inquiries/behaviour/

He will be giving evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday 23^rd November.

Introduction to Air Pollution training day success

Attendees at last Friday's 'Introduction to Air Pollution' training day reported very positive feedback, commenting that the course gave "a very good introduction" and "both the food and venue were of a high quality". The course covered, sources and effects of air pollution, chemistry and meteorology.

This was just one of a series of one-day IAQM and IES accredited CPD courses run by the Air Quality Management Resource Centre at UWE, Bristol. Further details of other courses in the series are available on the AQMRC website. Click here to register your interest or book online. Book three or more courses and get 15% discount!

Please note that the next session will be Introduction to Local Air Quality Management on 14th January (Introduction to Carbon Management has been postponed to 8th February).

Enda invited to present to the Air Quality Expert Group

Enda was invited to present at a special Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG) evidence session  in Port Talbot on the 15^th November 2010. Enda’s presentation gave AQEG an overview of the findings and recommendations of the 2009 study “An Independent Review of Monitoring Measures Undertaken in Neath Port Talbot in respect to PM10”.