Tim invited to Indian Institute of Technology - Madras

Whilst in India, Tim has been invited to spend 3 days at the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai. Tim will be giving two departmental lectures presenting UWE's work on Air Quality, and Energy and Climate Change. He will also be spending time with lecturers, researchers and students from a number of research groups in the Department of Civil Engineering in order to develop a better understanding of air quality and climate change policies in India, and particularly how these interact with the rapid development pathway of the country.

Historical Climate Records Workshop

Tim is currently attending an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded workshop on historical climate change records hosted by the Centre for Contemporary Studies at the Indian Institute for Science in Bangalore.

The interdisciplinary workshop is bringing together researchers from history, the social sciences and arts, and climate science to try and develop a strategy for the digitisation and dissemination of the British Library's 9 miles of records from the India Office.

As many contemporary climate and weather records do not extend back far beyond 1850 - measurements and observations taken by sea-farers, plantation owners, botanical surveyors, medics, and other 'characters' from the 17th and 18th centuries can provide access to otherwise unavailable information climatic conditions around the globe. However, the arts, humanities and social sciences need to play a vital role in determining the contexts in which the measurements were made, and therefore there likely accuracy, as well as finding a wider set of uses for them beyond their use in historical climate reconstructions

Tim Speaking at Bristol University

Tim has been invited to give a presentation on Tuesday 22nd February at Bristol University as part of the BUST (Bristol Uni. Sustainability Team) "Climate of Change" seminar series.

Other people presenting in the series include Tony Juniper (ex-Friends of the Earth), Peter Harper (Centre for Alternative Technology) and Malcolm Sheppard (Sustrans).

For more details see http://bust.2rail.com/content/speakerseries2011

AQMRC win ECO-Stars Evaluation Contract

AQMRC have been awarded a contract to undertake the evaluation of South Yorkshire’s Eco-Stars (Efficient and Cleaner Operations) Fleet Recognition Scheme

The scheme was set up by the South Yorkshire Local Transport Plan partners supported by Travel South Yorkshire and NHS Barnsley. The scheme was formally launched on 20^th January 2009 with the aim of improving air quality.

The ECO Stars Fleet Recognition Scheme is a free, voluntary scheme designed to provide recognition, guidance and advice to operators of goods vehicles, buses and coaches across South Yorkshire. ECO Stars rates individual vehicles and the fleet’s overall road transport operation using star rating criteria, to recognise levels of operational and environmental performance. Each member signing up to the scheme receives a tailor-made ‘Road Map’ specific for their organisation, detailing suggested actions to help improve their environmental performance.

By the end of 2010, members of the ECO Stars Scheme were operating about 5,000 vehicles in and around South Yorkshire.

19th International Conference on Air Pollution 2011 - abstracts due

The 19th International Conference on Air Pollution 2011, organised by Wessex Institute of Technology, UK and sponsored by WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, will be held on 19th-21st September 2011 in Malta.

View the conference website, which has full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/air2011rem3.html

Presenters will be invited to submit an extended version of their paper to the International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, edited by the Wessex Institute.

Abstract Submission
Submit an abstract via the conference website: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/air2011rem3.html or contact the Conference Secretariat below.
Conference Topics
• Air pollution modelling
• Air quality management
• Urban air management
• Emissions studies
• Monitoring and measuring
• Global and regional studies
• Aerosols and particles
• Climate change and air pollution
• Indoor air pollution
• Pollution prevention
• Economics of air pollution control
• Innovative technologies
• Emission reduction strategies
• Health effects
• Natural emissions

Conference Secretariat
Claire Shiell, Conference Coordinator, Air Pollution 2011
Wessex Institute of Technology, Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst
Southampton, SO40 7AA
Telephone: 44 (0) 238 029 3223 Fax: 44 (0) 238 029 2853
Email: cshiell@wessex.ac.uk

Tim giving keynote presentation at workshop in Delhi

Tim is currently representing AQMRC at a UKIERI (UK-India Education and Research Initiative) workshop on Transport, Land Use Strategies and Technology Interventions for

Urban Air Quality Management hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi.  Tim will be giving a keynote presentation on “Successes and Failures of Air Quality Management in Europe:  What lessons can be learnt?” as well as leading a workshop on Air Quality Action Planning.

 

Whilst in India, he will also be attending meetings with the British Council, RCUK, the Central Pollution Control Board and Delhi Traffic Police.

Tim selected for Climate Change Workshop in Bangalore

Tim has been selected by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to attend a Workshop on South Asian Historical Records and Climate, at the Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore on 4^th and 5^th March.

 

The Workshop will be based around the recent release of records from the India Office by the British Library.  Climatic conditions in India were systematically recorded in the form of official meteorological observations in India from the nineteenth century, though records exist for the earlier period in the form of ships’ logs or the daily weather records kept by missionaries. The India Office Records contain information on instruments and methods of observation; observatory operations including meteorological observations, tidal observations, magnetic operations, astronomical observations (general observations, transits, eclipses and star studies); rainfall; ozone; extreme weather events (including hurricanes, storms, floods and cyclones).

 

The aims of this workshop are to:

·       Bring together academics from a range of disciplines , and curators of collections, from South Asia and the UK;

·       Share knowledge of relevant sources in the British Library and in India, in both libraries and archives;

·       Discuss the nature of the contextual material available and approaches for its interrogation;

·       Recommend sources in India and the British Library for enquiry to support research collaborations;

·       Develop interdisciplinary research collaborations based on the sources identified in India and the BL, including those listed in Science and the changing environment in India 1780-1920: a guide to sources in the India Office Records.

 

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

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!