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Managing urban air
quality presents a huge challenge and one which will only be met if a holistic
approach is taken to address all the factors which contribute to air quality,
social, economic and environmental issues. Whilst thinking about air quality in
isolation may cause many people no more than a small worry or concern, thinking
about the causes of air pollution and their relationships to our lives in the
city is more likely to lead us to more productive thinking about solutions. One
of the tasks for the Environment Administration is to think of the air quality
in new building areas and in the cities when new houses/roads are built.
Dispersion models are an important tool for physical planning. Both for real
time and for forecast. One rather cheap and trustful method is to calculate
“what if” scenarios. The use of energy at home, the importance of transport to
life in an urban environment, the industry and service activity which powers
the city economy, all contribute to local air quality and are all entwined with
the general health and well being of the city. Air Quality management must be
an integral part of how we think about issues such as transport and health, and
not a separate, obscure and optional part of policy and planning. Today many
cities in Europe use dispersion calculation programmes to estimates the
level of air quality and relate it to the directives.
If the level of the
pollution is too high, action must be taken, many of the actions are connected
to people’s opinion and perception and the actions can sometimes be difficult
to carry out. Perhaps the greatest way to change the public’s perception on air
quality, and therefore their actions, are awareness programmes. Such programmes
must be carefully presented and must seek the active involvement of a wide
variety of players if it is to succeed. Air quality managers should be seeking
the public's opinion on: whether they want, or even need the data; what are the
best descriptors; how frequently they want the data; why are the episodes
happening; and what effects they will have. Awareness and education projects
bring along a wide variety of issues and resources needs. Once past the stage
of giving out air pollution levels, the next step for the local authority is to
involve communities in examining why air pollution exists and, crucially, what
is being done to relieve it. The final and most difficult stage is addressing
what both the public and industry need to do, and to get these ideas into
action.
Air quality Modelling is the main
theme of the Modelling issues. Topics on land use, transport, industrial and
residential modelling techniques describe the various elements of the modelling
chains representing the effects of human activities on the environment and
health. Covered aspects are emissions sources, air pollution models, population
exposure models, impacts on population health and monuments. |