Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Abstract
This paper is concerned with the development of a theoretical perspective on air quality
management and the establishment of a series of theoretical principles of air quality
management. In common with a number of other advanced nations the UK is embarked upon
a programme to improve air quality. This paper reviews and assesses the theoretical
underpinnings of air quality management and within this context considers the effectiveness of
the UK programme. It considers the management principles introduced by the Environment Act,
1995, and examines some of the anticipated difficulties of implementing and practising air
quality management in the U.K.
Introduction
Recent works by the authors have developed the theoretical perspective on air
quality management and have started the process of identification and
codification of the principles of air quality management [1,5,7,8,9].
The four key principles of air quality management are emissions, impacts, cost
- benefit analysis and controls. These are established and expressed within a
scientific evaluatory context. Thus, air quality management is concerned with
the emission and impact of air pollutants released from human sources. The
effect of the release is scientifically evaluated to determine effects based
standards which provide a high degree of protection. Human health and
environmental protection standards which result are implemented by action
targeted at sources identified in a cost - benefit analysis. The cost of control
must be met by the polluter. The application of the principles is dynamic
allowing feedback via the scientific evaluation stage to influence the standards
setting and cost - benefit analysis stages of the process.
There are several distinct strategies for the control of air quality which can be
used in isolation or as package to provide a response to national or regional
requirements and philosophies [4]. The general concept of air quality
management is one that has been developing over recent years although there
is no universally agreed definition of local air quality management in use in
relation to the United Kingdom. Several definitioms have been offered; Laxen
[10] considers local air quality management to be "the application of a
systematic approach to the control of air quality issues". A fuller definition
would need to incorporate aspects of integration, co-operation and
communication in a system designed to consider air quality in a holistic way.
It may be argued that the definition of the US State Implementation Plan (SIP)
as "ongoing documents which provide a regulatory framework for each state to
demonstrate to the federal government that they are on a path to attaining and
maintaining the national ambient air quality standards" [11] comes closest to
a definition of air quality management in a procedural sense. Griffin [11] sees
air quality management as comprising five continuous steps; definition;
planning; control; implementation; and evaluation. Air quality management,
however defined, is a relatively new concept for European states and it is
Transactions on Ecology and the Environment vol 15, © 1997 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541
therefore, important to explore the differences between the theory and the
practice of a nation state, especially at the local scale.
Whilst air quality management can be, and is, applied at the level of the nation
state, the spatial scale at which the issues are most acute is that of the
municipality or local authority. Hence, the application of air quality
management needs to be responsive to local factors, flexible so as to allow
modifications due to new knowledge about emissions or concentrations yet
structured so as to provide a suitable framework within which all groups
concerned with, and influencing air quality, can co-exist. Such plans require the
involvement of agencies at a number of levels including those at the local level.
These plans should enable local decision makers to choose the combination of
measures appropriate to local circumstances. This would enable a desirable
level of air quality to be achieved which would be within the requirements of
regional, national and international regulations and plans. Air quality
management at the local scale would thus ideally be a tier of a regional plan
which is in turn part of a national plan. Air quality management plans can be
tailored to the requirements of a local area, as with the US SIP system [12].
Within this framework the following basic elements can be included: emissions;
modelling and monitoring. In addition, air quality management provides
opportunities for setting local air quality targets or guidelines, new possibilities
for public information and education and new mechanisms for the integration
of a wide range of local and national policies. A further essential component
of air quality management is the set of procedures for dealing with the
occasional occurrence of very poor air quality. The operation of a successful
air quality management system requires a set of mutually agreed goals and a
shared vision amongst the various agencies involved. A theoretical framework
and its guiding principles is set out in Table 1.
Nation states like the U.K. have responded to the contemporary air quality
problems by examining the potential of new systems for air quality control. As
early as 1990, the Government [13] introduced the basis for a new direction
for air quality control. This was intended to build upon the existing
Transactions on Ecology and the Environment vol 15, © 1997 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541
The Act sets a range of new responsibilities for local government. Firstly,
they will be required to carry out periodic reviews of air quality to include both
current and projected future levels of air quality. These reviews will be assessed
in relation to a number of national AQSs within which air quality must
maintained. Where an area does not, or is not likely to, achieve these
standards, local authorities are required to create Air Quality Management
Areas (AQMAs) and develop an action plan as a means by which air quality
will be brought within the national standards.
Planning and Air Quality Management The air quality plan must be an agreed procedure by which
air quality goals are progressively achieved across a specified time period. This period is, by necessity, long
term. The long timescale means that the land use and transport plans can be integrated within an air quality
management framework and the projected outcomes of the land use and transport plans tested within its
framework. Air quality management becomes a means for integrating and testing alternatives and for
reconciling economic development, land use and transport policies with air quality goals.
Sources [ 1,5,8,9]
The practice of urban air quality management in the U.K. will be linked
to the land use development plans prepared under the various Town and
Country Planning Acts and to the transport policy and programme package
process [8]. Whilst national policy measures, such as vehicle emissions,
economic instruments and emission standards will contribute to the attainment
of an AQS the main effort to improve air quality in an area of poor air quality
at risk of breaching air quality standards will come from the local level through
the designation of an air quality management area.
Conclusions
References
1. Longhurst, J.W.S., Lindley, S.J., Watson, A.F.R. & Conlan, D.E. The
introduction of local air quality management in the United Kingdom. A review
and theoretical framework. Atmospheric Environment, 1996, 30 (23) 3975-
3985 .
2. Elsom, D. M. & Longhurst, J.W.S. Assessment of the first phase of the
U.K. national air quality strategy. In Tirabassi, T., Power, H. & Brebbia, C.
(Eds) Air Pollution V CMP, Southampton, 1997.
3. H.M. Government The United Kingdom National Air Quality Strategy CM
3587, The Stationery Office, London, 1997
4. Elsom, D.M. Atmospheric Pollution : A Global Problem, 2nd Edition,
Blackwell, Oxford, 1992.
5. Longhurst, J.W.S., Lindley, SJ. and Conlan, D.E. Advances in local air
quality management in the United Kingdom. In Power, H., Moussiopoulos,
N. & Brebbia, C.A., (Eds) Air Pollution Engineering and Management, Air
Pollution III Vol 2. CMP, Southampton, 1995, pp 465-475.
6. H.M. Government. The Environment Act. HMSO, London, 1995.
7. Elsom , D.M. Smog Alert: Managing Urban Air Quality Earthscan, London,
1996.
8. Longhurst, J.W.S. Transport and local air quality management in the U.K.
In Baldasano, J.M. & Sucharov, L. (Eds) Urban Transport and the Environment
//Computational Mechanics Publications, Southampton, 1996.
9. Longhurst, J.W.S. Some theoretical and practical issues associated with the
development of local air quality management in Great Britain. In Caussade,
B., Power, H. & Brebbia, C. (Eds) Air Pollution /K CMP, Southampton. 1996
pp 857 - 866.
10. Laxen, D. An Introduction to Local Air Quality Management. A supplement
to Clean Air 1993, 23, 12.
11. Griffin, R. D. Principles of Air Quality Management CRS Press, Florida,
1994 .
12. Godish, T. Air Quality 2nd Edition Lewis Publishers, Michagan, 1991.
13. H.M. Government. This Common Inheritance. Britain's Environmental
Strategy HMSO, London, 1990.
14. Department of the Environment Air Quality: Meeting the Challenge DoE,
London, 1995