Abstract for presentation at 14th IUAPPA World Congress

Reviewing a Decade of Local Air Quality Management Experience in the UK: Some Lessons for Regulation and Practice

  • Prof James Longhurst, University of the West of England, United Kingdom
  • Dr Tim Chatterton, University of the West of England, United Kingdom
  • Enda Hayes, University of the West of England, United Kingdom
  • Dr Nurul Leksmono, University of the West of England, United Kingdom
  • Johanna Symons, University of the West of England, United Kingdom

    • The Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) framework in the UK is an effects-based, risk management process designed to provide a dynamic solution to public health issues associated with elevated concentrations of specific air pollutants. Local Authorities are required to identify those areas in which air quality objectives will be exceeded and to declare these locations as Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA). Following this a Local Authority must develop an Air Quality Action Plan in order to achieve the objectives through mitigation and management measures. The first round of the review and assessment process concluded in 2001 with some 119 Local Authorities declaring AQMAs. At the end of Round 2 (2004), some 192 Local Authorities had declared AQMAs and by August 2006, several months into Round 3 the total had risen to 197 and is expected to rise yet further still. These AQMAs have principally been declared for nitrogen dioxide, with a significant number of particulate matter and sulphur dioxide declarations (one Local Authority has declared an AQMA for benzene).
    Air quality management in the UK is dynamic and subject to continuing review to reflect developments in European legislation, technological and scientific advances, improved dispersion modelling techniques and an increasingly better understanding of the socio-economic issues involved. Whilst the process of LAQM, described in this abstract, has been developed for the UK, the generic elements of the process are applicable to other countries challenged by air pollution problems which require both national and local action to resolve them.

    Conference Organiser - ICMS Pty Ltd