Managing and accurately measuring the success of efforts to combat air pollution can be a daunting task in the absence of high-quality localised data. Furthermore, a lack of awareness about the detrimental effects of poor air quality in vulnerable areas can hinder progress toward achieving clean air objectives.
At TRANSPORT Smart Class, London & South East England 2023, we were delighted to welcome back Nick Ruxton-Boyle – an expert in transportation and the environment and the Director of Environment at Marston Holdings and Vortex – to delve into how air quality monitoring can address these challenges. His presentation underscored the importance of monitoring environmental outcomes both before and after project delivery to validate their effectiveness.
Drawing insights from recent case studies, Nick discussed how local governments and businesses can leverage real-time data to inform their clean air plans and strategies. This data-driven approach will support the development and implementation of environmental policies and interventions aimed at improving air quality and climate resilience, benefiting the health of individuals and the planet.
With support from Ella Patel (Product Owner and Technical Presales Consultant at Vortex), Nick subsequently hosted deeper dive roundtable sessions with each table of delegates.
Summary of presentation highlights:
- The Human Challenge – 7 million premature deaths annually; 4th most deadly health risk worldwide; 9 out of 10 outdoor air pollution deaths are in LMICs; 570,000 deaths of children under 5 per year; $8.1 trillion in annual global health costs; 6.1% reduction in global GDP; Shortens global average life expectancy by 2.2 years; Global crop yield losses of between 3-16%; 1.2 billion work days globally lost each year;
- The Planetary Challenge – Last 9 years warmest of record;
- The Maturity of Data in Transport – Almost everything we we do across the sector can be digitised; Where is your data going, what are you doing with it? Raw data has very little value, data combined, contextualised and visualised is priceless; Data literacy will be the most important skill in the workforce by 2030; How much data does my operation and/or supplier produce? Exabytes, Zettabytes, Yottabytes, Brontobytes, Geobytes?
- Hyperlocal Pollution Monitoring;
- Pollution Data – Air Quality Portal and Air Quality Index examples;
- Cardiff Case Study – Supporting Cardiff Council’s ambitious project with forty-seven air quality monitors installed across four Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA) and twenty-six school locations in the Welsh capital; Contextualising the AQ data;
- Glasgow Case Study – Glasgow first Scottish city to go live with 2nd phase of LEZ, enforcing against more vehicles; GCC have launched online tool charting change in NO2 levels; Bus phase saw shift from 19% engines Euro 6 to 100%, indicated to have been the factor driving the reported decrease in NO2 along key corridors;
- London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Case Study – Daily air quality summary; Daily vehicle alerts and comparison; Clean Air Neighbourhood Trial data;
- Take aways – Demand more from your supply chain; Get yourself carbon and data literate; Review your own carbon footprint; Think global, act local; Find your data, visualise it and make it work for you etc
If you meet our regular delegate qualification criteria but were unable to join us at Greencoat Place Conference Centre, London, for the live in-person event on October 17th, CLICK HERE and complete the short “Download form” (located at the bottom of the post) to receive a unique link enabling free access to the presentation video recordings and slides (including the film footage and slides from Nick’s initial presentation).
Those qualifying to receive the rich presentation content from this event include commissioning, procurement, trialling, partnering and policy leads, senior influencers, strategic decision makers and planners from local authorities (e.g. city, borough, metropolitan, district and county councils); public transport operators; regional transport partnerships, sub-regional transport bodies, combined authorities, integrated transport authorities and passenger transport executives; highways authorities and road operators; government and supporting national transport agencies; fleet operators, parking operators, prime contractors etc.
