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LAQM Review and Assessment

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The second round of the local authority review and assessment of air quality started this year.  The final Guidance, TG(03), was released at the end of January, and sets out the approach to be taken.  The review and assessment now consists of two parts:  an Updating and Screening Assessment is to be carried out by all authorities; and, where a risk is identified of exceeding an air quality objective, a Detailed Assessment must follow.

• CERC has already been involved in the updating and screening assessment for some areas, and is well equipped to undertake any detailed assessment work required.

• In the previous round, CERC was involved in studies for many local authorities and CERC's air quality model ADMS was used in well over half of all studies requiring air quality modelling.

• New versions of CERC's ADMS-Urban and the emission inventory toolkit EMIT have been released to coincide with the start of the second round of review and assessment.  The new versions of this software are fully compatible with the new DMRB emission factors.

Updating and Screening Assessment

As the first part of the review and assessment process, all local authorities in the UK are required to conduct an updating and screening assessment ('USA') of the air quality in their area, which was due for completion by the end of May.

The 'USA' is intended to identify significant changes that may have occurred since the last Review and Assessment, which might lead to a risk of the air quality objectives being exceeded.  These might include new monitoring data, revised objectives or new or increased emission sources.  All seven pollutants should be covered by the assessment: carbon monoxide; benzene; 1,3-butadiene; lead; sulphur dioxide; nitrogen dioxide; and particulate matter PM₁₀.

The assessment is to be based on the use of the checklists to be provided on the Review and Assessment web site, along with support from the available tools and Helpdesk services.  These will be used to identify significant changes requiring further consideration.  Where such changes are identified, screening or other tools are applied to determine whether or not there is sufficient risk of exceedence of the objective.  Finally, a conclusion is reached as to whether a detailed assessment is required for each pollutant.

Detailed Assessment

As described in TG(03), the detailed assessment should provide an accurate assessment of the likelihood of an air quality objective being exceeded at locations with relevant exposure.  This should be sufficiently detailed to allow the designation or amendment of any necessary air quality management areas (AQMAs).  This assessment should include the use of 'quality assured monitoring and validated modelling to determine current and future pollutant concentrations in areas where there is significant risk of exceeding an air quality objective'.  In practice the model of choice in the previous round was CERC's ADMS-Urban.  For further details of our software, please see our software web pages.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss assisting you with your second round of review and assessment work.  We would also be pleased to discuss any other air quality requirements you may have, such as the compilation of emissions inventories and/or air quality modelling.  For further information, please call Sarah Wilkinson on +44 (0)1223 357773 or e-mail us.