Air pollution impacts on sensitive habitats and ecosystems are a significant issue in Northern Ireland. The Air Quality and Biodiversity unit in NIEA’s Natural Environment Division is working to help tackle the issue and has collaborated with JNCC to develop a new digital all-in-one air pollution assessment tool, UK APAS, the UK Air Pollution Assessment System.

Dr Barry McAuley from the team explains why this exciting technology has the potential to make changes for the better by helping to reduce emissions and impacts on nearby protected sites whilst also improving the planning applications process.

Air Pollution Assessment Tool

There is a network of protected sites in Northern Ireland, such as peatlands and species-rich grasslands, and in NIEA we have a duty to improve and protect their condition. Doing so supports everything from biodiversity to climate change to human health. This is why when developments like farm buildings or new road schemes are proposed, there needs to be an air pollution impact assessment. However, at present, air quality assessment systems across the UK are standalone, complex and inconsistent. There are many different modelling tools used, and relevant information is held by many different sources. This creates complications for applicants, developers and government authorities, and slows down the whole process.

To address this issue, NIEA staff have been working closely with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) on developing a new all-in-one air pollution assessment tool (if you didn’t know, JNCC is the public body that advises the UK Government and devolved administrations on UK-wide and international nature conservation). The UK Air Pollution Assessment System (UK APAS) is the new air pollution assessment tool which will help us to protect the environment, save time and money and help reduce planning backlogs. JNCC is leading on the UK APAS project, which has been jointly funded by DAERA, Defra and other UK environment agencies. JNCC were on hand to help NIEA colleagues demonstrate the tool and its features at a recent seminar. UK APAS is based on a similar, successful Dutch government air pollution assessment model. It will provide detailed air dispersion modelling for calculating aerial emissions, give detailed information on habitats and background pollution levels, as well as up-to-date emissions data.

Using the tool, developers and applicants will be able to find out, in detail, how much ammonia or nitrogen oxide will be emitted from their development proposal, as well as be able to visualise the dispersion of these pollutants in the air and deposition on protected sites.  The air quality assessment process will be easier, quicker and cheaper for applicants using UK APAS, and it will benefit DAERA and NIEA in considering air quality assessments in planning applications.  It will provide a central database of planning and permitting decisions relating to air pollution impacts on ecosystems.

Another exciting feature of UK APAS is that it will allow applicants to model different mitigation measures at the planning stage. This will allow applicants to see how they can reduce emissions and impacts on nearby protected sites, something which will benefit the environment and support sustainable growth of the agriculture sector here in Northern Ireland.

You can find more information on UK APAS at https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/articles/uk-air-pollution-assessment-system-apas-integrated-air-quality-assessment-tool

 

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