Air Quality Assessment

What is Air Quality?

The term ‘air quality’ describes how polluted the air is, in both indoor and outdoor environments. There are many different types of pollutants which impact air quality, including pollen, pathogens, mould spores, dusts, smoke and airborne chemicals from combustion. The effects of air pollution and poor air quality are wide-ranging. For example, an office with too high concentrations of carbon dioxide can result in increased worker fatigue and a reduction in productivity. The presence of hazardous pollutants in the air can cause symptoms such as dizziness, eye irritation and lung damage. Furthermore, long-term exposure to air pollution is linked to many chronic health conditions such as Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease. Some pollutants are defined as having “no safe level” and as such, air quality assessments are essential to manage public health risk and deliver clean air for all.

What is an Air Quality Assessment?

An Air Quality Assessment is a document which evaluates how air quality will change or will impact a project or proposal. Air Quality Assessments generally focus on evaluating a proposal or project’s adherence to national and international air quality standards and guidelines. Air quality assessments are generally divided into outdoor, or ambient air quality assessments, and Indoor Air Quality Assessments. They are also often called Air Quality Statements, Air Quality Surveys, Air Quality Risk Assessments, Air Quality Impact Assessments.

In the UK, the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010, and subsequent amendments, regulate the concentrations of major pollutants in outdoor air in the UK, setting Air Quality Standards (upper limits for pollution concentrations) for particulate matter (PM₁₀ & PM_2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), ozone (O₃), carbon monoxide (CO) and lead (Pb). These regulations seek to minimise the public’s exposure to air pollution by requiring ambient concentrations to be within legally binding limits. Outdoor air quality assessments evaluate whether these Air Quality Standards are met at a particular location, and whether a new pollution source might significantly increase the risk that the Air Quality Standards are exceeded elsewhere.

In the UK, there are no air quality standards applicable to all indoor environments and as indoor environments tend to be more complex, the reasons for requiring Indoor Air Quality Assessments are varied. However common reasons include overcoming ‘sick building syndrome‘, promoting productivity and gaining credits associated with certification schemes such as LEED, BREEAM and WELL.

Greenavon are experts in the assessment of outdoor air quality and indoor air quality, and provides a range of air quality services to clients across the UK, including air quality monitoring and dispersion modelling assessments.

Air Quality Assessments for Planning

Air Quality Assessments are often required to support planning applications where a proposal might cause significant changes in traffic flows or if they are located in Air Quality Management Areas. Air Quality Management Areas are locations of known poor air quality where the national air quality standards are exceeded. These are often located in urban areas, next to busy roads. Air Quality Assessments must consider whether a proposal would expose future users to unacceptable air quality, cause impacts at existing locations such as schools and hospitals and suggest design solutions, where appropriate.

Air Quality Assessments are generally required to support planning applications across the UK, where any of these common criteria are met:

• A development is classified as major (more than 10 dwellings, or 1000m² of commercial floorspace).
• A residential development is located within an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA), or next to a busy road.
• A residential development is proposed in London.
• A new point sources of air pollution is proposed. This could include furnaces which require prior notification to local authorities; biomass boilers or biomass-fuelled Combined Heat and Power plant (CHP).
• There is potential adverse effects on biodiversity, especially where it would affect sites designated for their biodiversity value (e.g. Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC)).
• The construction phase of the development may release significant quantities of dust, including during earthworks and demolition.
• A new bus station is proposed.
• Where a development will significantly increase traffic flows, increasing congestion and influencing driving speeds, or cause the redistribution of existing traffic.
• Intensive agricultural uses (chicken farming, or pig farming) are proposed.
• A road realignment, or new junction is proposed.
• Where underground car parks with extraction systems are proposed.

All Greenavon’s Air Quality Assessments are undertaken in line with best practice Institute of Air Quality Management guidance. For each proposal, we review its size, consider local planning policy and guidance and undertake a baseline air quality assessment to suggest an appropriate scope of work. For smaller projects in areas of good air quality, Simple Air Quality Assessments, or Screening Air Quality Assessments are often all that is required. These types of assessment use existing data sources such as freely available monitoring data provided by local authorities to assess a scheme’s impact on, and sensitivity to, air pollution. For larger proposals where there are potentially significant increases in local traffic flows, or those in air quality management areas, Detailed Air Quality Assessments involving dispersion modelling are usually required. Detailed dispersion models are used to predict pollution concentrations at specific locations.

Regardless, all air quality assessments suitable for planning must include a thorough review of baseline air quality, an assessment of the construction phase and the operational phase, via screening, monitoring or modelling, and a recommendation of mitigation to minimise emissions. Further detail of some of the methods we use to assess air quality during the construction and operational phases of a development are set out below.

Whilst the requirements for air quality assessments are largely consistent across the UK. There are several local authorities with particular requirements. In London, for example, development must demonstrate compliance with air quality neutral and the air quality positive policy. Air quality assessments are often called air quality surveys, air quality statements and air quality reports by local planning authorities.

Air Quality Assessment Services

Greenavon provides a comprehensive suite of services relating to air quality assessment, including for both planning and environmental permitting purposes. Our air quality assessment services include the provision of:

• Air Quality Monitoring: including the use of diffusion tubes, low-cost sensors, and dust monitoring using MCERTS certified particulate monitors, dust deposition gauges and sticky pads.
• Air Quality Modelling: including the modelling of road and industrial sources using next generation air dispersion software, such as ADMS and ADMS-Roads.
• Air Quality Mitigation: including the provision of air quality mitigation statements and other similar documents (low emission strategies and emissions mitigation statements), in line with various local guidance documents.
• Local Air Quality Management: we can support local authorities with the production of Air Quality Annual Status Reports and Air Quality Action Plans.
• Indoor Air Quality: we can help you access BREEAM (HEA 02 and POL 02), WELL and LEED credits, as well as occupational exposure testing.
• Environmental Permitting Applications: we can provide modelling and consultancy support for environmental permit applications.
• Air Quality Neutral Assessment: All developments are required to provide an air quality neutral assessment; however, some minor development can follow a simplified assessment procedure.
• Air Quality Positive Statements: Major developments in London are required to demonstrate how air quality influenced design through the provision of an air quality positive statement.
• Construction Environmental Management Plans and Dust Management Plans: These plans are often required to discharge planning conditions, and require the provision of construction dust risk assessments.
• Ecological Air Quality Impact Assessments: Major development and agricultural proposals often require an air quality assessment of the potential impact on statutory ecological receptors, often as a part of a Habitat Regulation Assessment. A variety of tools, including dispersion modelling and SCAIL assessments can be used to assess potential impacts.
• Emission Inventories: Greenavon can provide calculations of a project’s NO_X, PM₁₀ and other pollutant emissions, over an annual period. These values are often required on the planning application form for development in London.

What is an Air Quality Statement?

An Air Quality Statement is a concise Air Quality Assessment for low risk and minor development. They are sometimes called Qualitative Air Quality Assessments, or Screening Air Quality Assessments. In some London boroughs Air Quality Statements are also called Air Quality Management Plans, or air quality strategies.

An Air Quality Statement assesses whether a proposal adheres to local and national planning policy, using existing information and simple screening criterion. The new London Plan requires all development in London to provide an Air Quality Statement demonstrating that they are Air Quality Neutral, and not in an area of unacceptable air quality.

Without a document explaining how a proposal adheres to local and London planning policy, there is a serious risk of planning refusal. Greenavon specialised in providing cost-effective Air Quality Statements for minor development across London, evaluating whether a development adheres to best practice and local policy, and where necessary, recommending additional mitigation or design changes.

How Greenavon can help?

Greenavon has significant expertise in providing air quality consultancy services for a wide range of public and private sector clients. Our accredited consultants are members of the Institute of Air Quality Management (IAQM), the professional body for air quality consultants.

All our Air Quality Assessments are undertaken in line with best practice guidance, including from the IAQM, Defra and the Environment Agency. For a free consultation, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Where We Work?

North Yorkshire │ Lincolnshire │ Cumbria│ Devon │ Norfolk │ Northumberland │ Somerset │ Suffolk │ Hampshire│ Kent│ Essex│ Cornwall │ Shropshire │ Wiltshire│ Cambridgeshire │ Gloucestershire │ Lancashire │ Staffordshire│ County Durham │ Dorset │ Derbyshire│ Oxfordshire │ East Riding of Yorkshire │ Northamptonshire │ Cheshire│ Herefordshire│ Nottinghamshire │ Leicestershire │ West Yorkshire │ West Sussex│ Warwickshire │ Buckinghamshire │ Eat Sussex │ Worcestershire │ Surrey│ Hertfordshire │ Greater London │ South Yorkshire │ Greater Manchester│ Berkshire│ Bedfordshire │ West Midlands │ Merseyside │ Tyne and Wear │ Rutland │ Isle of Wight │ Bristol│ City of London │Gwent South Glamorgan │ Mid Glamorgan │ West Glamorgan│ Dyfed│ Powys│ Gwynedd │ Clwyd│ Scotland │ Northern Ireland│