INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this guidebook

This guidance book is intended for professionals concerned with the assessment and management of the air quality in their cities. This book aims to present practical guidance, based on expert knowledge and practical experience in European cities. It discusses many topics that come up when municipalities are working to improve air pollution. The paper version of the guidebook discusses topics and gives recommendations; the CD-ROM belonging to this guidebook contains in addition a set of examples of good practice. The content of the guidebook and CD-ROM are also accessible in the form of a Good Practice Database at www.integaire.org.

The role of cities in the improvement of air quality

Cities are principal actors in air pollution, both as polluters and as victims of air pollution. A large part of the population lives and works in cities, and the associated emissions of hazardous substances are brought into the air near to people. Cities have a crucial role in the implementation of national and European air quality legislation, and they have an important responsibility to protect the health of their citizens.

Important issues for city officials

For city officials to make things work, a range of often critical issues need to be addressed, ranging from governance matters to technical questions. This guidebook aims to address the most significant topics by giving explanations, recommendations and examples. These topics have been arranged under legislation, governance, assessment, planning and measures.

Cities can learn from one another

With the advent of the EU Framework Directive on ambient air quality assessment and management and its Daughter Directives, national legislation on air quality has largely been replaced by European legislation. As a result, the legal framework for cities has become increasingly similar within the European Community. Whereas cities usually communicate mainly with cities in their own country, they can now learn much by international exchange of experience.

The INTEGAIRE network

INTEGAIRE «Integrated Urban Governance and Air Quality Management in Europe» was established in March 2002 to help improve the air quality in cities by giving guidance on good practice. The network was funded by the European Fifth Framework Programme of Research as a project under Key Action «City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage». INTEGAIRE brought together ten cities, three city associations and four research institutions during a period of three years. In addition to the current guidebook addressed to cities, INTEGAIRE has also produced recommendations to the EU «Clean Air For Europe» (CAFE) Programme on policy making and recommendations to EU DG Research and the research community on research needs.

Preparation of this guidebook

The guidance in this workbook has been drafted by the members of INTEGAIRE. After identification of the topics to address, the cities have drafted the topics descriptions. They used a fixed template to ensure good accessibility for the readers: an introduction, a discussion, a recommendation or conclusion and references for further reading. In addition, the cities have brought together a considerable set of examples of good practice in air quality assessment and management. Through electronic communication and in a series of plenary INTEGAIRE meetings, the topic templates and examples were discussed and improved. The research institutes structured the process and gave support to the cities.

INTEGAIRE website

The website www.integaire.org provides information on the INTEGAIRE project. The guidebook, as well as the recommendations to CAFE and to research, can be viewed and downloaded there. The guidance is available in the form of a Good Practice Database, which can be browsed using a table of contents or searched.

Summary of the contents of the guidebook

The guidebook uses a fixed template format for the topic descriptions. The topics are arranged in four sections, which are subdivided in subsections. Each subsection contains several descriptions of topics.

Section Subsection

Governance	Geographical integration
	Participation of stakeholders
	Resources for air quality management
	Collaboration between city departments
	Tools for air quality management
	Collaboration between regions and cities
Legislation	Legislation and interpretation of directives
	Implementation of EC air quality directives
Assessment	Air quality monitoring methods Air quality assessment tools and methods
Planning and measures	Air quality strategies and action plan development
	Traffic measures
	Land use measures
	Models for planning

The guidebook also contains a set of examples of good practice. These examples can be read independently; they are usually also a clarification of certain topic descriptions.

The complete list of all topics and examples is given at the end of this guidebook.

In the text boxes below, an introduction to the four sections is given.

GOVERNANCE

Cities are often seen as areas that are tightly defined by their administrative boundaries, rather than as part of a wider city-region with multidimensional links with their hinterland and particularly with the surrounding rural areas. This perception is reflected in the way cities are managed. Potential reciprocal benefits do not always materialize due to political and administrative obstacles and the fragmentation of competencies. This concept is emphasised in the subsection on geographical integration. At the same time, governments are more and more concerned to provide clean air for all and the improvement of air quality clearly is a cooperative process, requiring concerted action of all stakeholders (subsection on public participation).

A difficult aspect to cover concerns the resources available in the field of air quality, which is one of the main factors that controls the ability of a municipal authority to implement successful measures aimed at improving air quality for their citizens. Although not all measures need be heavily resourced financially to be effective, the political will for dealing with air quality can itself be treated as a resource. There is, therefore, a very wide range of resources which are desirable for air quality management and they will vary depending on what aspects are being carried out.

As sustainable development is about simultaneous pursuit of economic competitiveness, social cohesion and environmental sustainability, it can only be achieved through an integrated approach to policy development in a way that different policy sectors are harmonised and follow a common goal (sectoral integration).

As a result of internal markets and increasing globalisation, single government levels are the increasingly unable to deal with planning issues on their own. Increasing interdependencies exist among all levels of government and targeted actions at different levels require overall aims, orientation and commitment. These topics on vertical integration will also define the objectives, although the difficulty remains on how to translate them into policies and practice, especially at regional and local levels, taking into account diverse local conditions.

The subsection tools deals with the lack of harmonized data and practices in order to guide urban planning teams, politicians and managers to the desired direction. Urban planning is managed by experts, usually assigned by politicians, who apply individual practices according to their experience and the local circumstances.

LEGISLATION

EU policy on air quality aims to implement appropriate instruments to improve the quality of the air. The air quality Directives of the European Commission prescribe how air quality should be assessed in a way that covers the entire EU territory, in terms that are sometimes general and sometimes specific, how the assessment should be reported to the Commission as well as to the public and when reduction plans should be developed to reduce the pollutant concentrations where they are too high (subsection on Implementation of EC Air Quality Directives).

The requirements on air quality assessment include provisions on measuring and modelling current air pollution. The articles on air quality management include requirements to reduce concentrations already now in areas where it can be expected that future limit values will be exceeded. When the limit values or other thresholds values are in force, it is mandatory to develop action plans when there is a risk of exceedance.

The Air Quality Directives specify various reporting requirements. The directives address the national level, but in many Member States this responsibility is partly passed through to the region and local level. There are regular reports to be sent about the air quality and about measures to improve air quality. A purpose of the reports is that Member States learn from each other, and so it is the policy of the Commission to publish the results of the reports.

The EU Air Quality Directives state that sharing information on air quality with the public is essential, especially for sensitive people, such as those suffering from respiratory diseases. The Directives also state that the public shall be kept informed about plans and programmes drawn up for reduction of the air pollution levels. Within Member States, the responsibility for public information is partly put on the shoulders of the local authorities.

Concerning the challenges of implementation faced by urban areas include the development of air quality strategies and action plans at the local level, as well as issues concerning the monitoring of air quality. Compliance, application, implementation and enforcement of these measures are crucial to improve the quality of our air and to achieve a high level of environmental protection in general (subsection legislation and interpretation of directives).

ASSESSMENT

The first step in any structured activity to work with the air quality is to assess the present situation regarding the air pollution concentrations, and at what level they are compared to air quality limit values, as well as compared to guidelines from for example the World Health Organization. The assessment involves first and foremost to measure the air pollution concentrations. Assessment techniques also include the use of air pollution models (mathematical physics based techniques to calculate the pollution concentrations based upon data on emissions, meteorology (e.g. wind) etc). Assessment methods like modelling are also necessary in order to predict what the future air quality might be, on the basis of projected development of the city and its population, the technological developments of vehicles, industrial processes, etc.

The section on air pollution assessment has two main subsections: about measurements and monitoring, and about more general assessment methodologies. The guidance in the topic descriptions is to a large extent based upon the requirements to monitoring and assessment that are set out in the EU Air Quality Directives.

The subsection on monitoring methods includes topics describing how to design urban air quality monitoring networks, how to locate monitoring stations and descriptions of measurement and monitoring methods.

• Air quality monitoring is potentially a very expensive activity, both in terms of investment in equipment, and in terms of manpower for their operation and maintenance. Thus, a few monitoring stations are usually established, which are supposed to reflect and represent the urban air pollution situation. Thus, their location is very important.
• Descriptions are given of methods to measure the compounds SO₂, NO₂, CO, ozone, lead, PM₁₀, PM_2.5, heavy metals, benzene and PAH.
• The quality of the monitoring data is very important, so that there is a correct basis for determining the needs for measures and abatement activities. There is a topic on data quality (QA/QC) procedures.

The subsection on air quality assessment tools and methods has topics on assessment by monitoring as well as modelling, and various aspects of the air quality assessment procedure, such as:

• Separating between the local contributions to the air pollution as compared with what comes in from outside the city,
• AQ indicators, to simplify the message of “how is the air pollution in the city?”,
• Assessing the emissions,
• How to model air pollution,
• Development of future scenarios, and procedure for assessment of present and future air pollution,
• Short-term air quality forecasting (“tomorrow’s air pollution”).

PLANNING

Planning is the key action for the achievement of good air quality characteristics in nowadays urban centres. This typical activity by local administrations allows to manage short term episodes of high pollution and to limit pollutants emissions in the medium and long term, thus minimising the frequency of occurrence of such events.

Planning means to decide what to do, on various temporal and spatial scales, for reaching a desired objective. When the goal is air quality, then planning means to identify the best mix of short term actions and long term measures that makes up the optimal ‘policy’ for reducing overall pollutants emissions and, in particular, to lower the pollution levels in the areas where limit values are exceeded.

The planning activities normally include the use of software models for predicting the behaviour of the complex system on which we act: the urban environment. These models include a variety of categories and a number of alternatives within each category. Key examples of such models are traffic, emission and pollutant dispersion models.

INTEGAIRE’s best practice database includes a number of topics related to planning. These topics have been organised in a framework based on four areas of investigation:

The planning activities deal with some of the fundamental questions that the planners have to reply:

• How can we implement the air quality Action Plans requested by EC directives?
• What can be the contribution to better air quality deriving from the various planning activities performed at local level?

• What can we do in the short term for fighting against pollution episodes?
• Which measures are effective for reducing the emissions of given pollutants?

The transport related measures are among the most important measures that ‘planners can plan’ for reducing pollutants emissions given the relevance that today’s urban traffic has compared to the other sectors of activity (industry, residential areas). These measures have been categorised into four sets depending on the element of the mobility chain on which they have an impact:

• Mobility demand measures, acting on the first link of the chain i.e. the mobility users (e.g. taxation and tolling),
• Traffic management measures, impacting the performance of the transport system once the mobility choices have been made (e.g. transport telematics systems),
• Infrastructural measures, representing the ‘offer’ of mobility and representing a boundary conditions for modal choice and network performance (e.g. new motorways or tunnels),
• Vehicular measures, aiming at reduce the environmental impact of the fleet through the introduction of cleaner vehicles (e.g. electric, hybrid, hydrogen and fuel cells vehicles).

The land use related measures are of two types:

• Measures which include the change of land use, possibly in a more environmental direction (e.g. pedestrian areas, or relocation of business activities);
• Measures which – by keeping the same land use – tend to reduce the pollutant emissions from the involved sources (e.g. technical measures for reducing residential emissions and industrial emissions).

The models for planning are grouped into categories such as land use and traffic models, pollutant emission models, atmospheric dispersion models, integrated suites of models. The topic templates provided are linked to examples of applications of such models types. A large number of software tools is referenced in the various topics, and criteria of quality are also proposed for the sake of the credibility of planning analyses results.

[Back]