air quality management
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Air Quality Management. Dr. Wesam Al Madhoun. Air Quality Management?. What is AQM, Why is Needed. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Dr. Wesam Al Madhoun
•Designing and implementing methods and technologies
for tracking changes in pollutant emissions, pollutant
concentrations, and human health and welfare outcomes
to document and ultimately improve the effectiveness of
air pollution mitigation activities.
•The aforementioned contributions of science and
technology are made through monitoring, analysis,
research, and development.
What is air quality management?
Air quality management (AQM) refers to all the activities
a regulatory authority undertakes to make sure that the
air we breathe is safe, both outdoors and indoors.
•The AQM process is the system of understanding the
sources that contribute to pollution in the air and the health
and environmental effects of the pollutants, and then taking
steps to reduce or control the sources to reach or maintain
agreed upon target pollution levels in the air.
•These levels may vary from country to country, but the
overall system for planning, assessing, characterizing,
mitigating, and implementing control strategies is similar.
•AQM is generally handled at the national government
level, regional and local governments, industry, and the
public , all have important roles to play in this system.
•Each AQM activity is related to the others. It is also
important to recognize that the entire AQM process is
dynamic - there is a continuous review and assessment of
standards and strategies based on their effectiveness and
new research on health and environmental effects.
Air Quality Goal Settings
Emission Inventory
Monitoring
Control Strategies
Legistlation, Regulation & Implementation
Compliance & Enforcement
Public Involvement
Air Quality Modeling
Human & Environmental Assessment
Integrated Air Quality Management SystemIntegrated Air Quality Management System
Institutional mechanism: Local, regional, national,
global
Assessment of air quality
Monitoring
Emission inventory
Source apportionment
Air pollution Exposure and damage
Evaluation of control strategies.
Development of AQM integrated strategy action
plan
Strong implementation
• Mitigate potentially harmful ambient concentrations of six “criteria” pollutants: carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone , particulate matter (PM), and lead.
• Limit sources of exposure to hazardous air pollutants - HAPs.
• Protect and improve visibility in wilderness areas and national parks.
• Reduce emissions of substances that cause acid deposition,
specifically sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
• Curb use of chemicals that have the potential to deplete the stratospheric ozone layer.
Criteria PollutantsCriteria PollutantsU.S. EPA uses six "criteria pollutants" as indicators of air quality, and has established for each of them a National Ambient Air Quality Standards:
Particulate matter
Ground-level ozone
Nitrogen dioxide
Carbon monoxide
Sulfur dioxide
Lead
When an area does not meet the air quality standard for
one of the criteria pollutants, it may be defined as non-
attainment (especially for ozone, carbon monoxide, and
some particulate matter).
Non-attainment classifications may be used to specify what
air pollution reduction measures an area must adopt, and
when the area must reach attainment.
• A control strategy is a set of discrete and specific
measures identified and implemented to achieve
reductions in air pollution.
• These measures may vary by source type, such as
stationary or mobile, as well as by the pollutant that is
being targeted.
• The purpose of these measures is to achieve the air
quality standard or goal. Costs and benefits are
assessed in the development of the control strategy.
• Control strategy development - How to determine the best
approach to provide the emission reductions necessary to achieve
the air quality goal.
• Three primary considerations in designing an effective control
strategy are:
(1) Environmental:Environmental: factors such as equipment locations, ambient
air quality conditions, adequate utilities (i.e., water for scrubbers),
legal requirements, noise levels, and the contribution of the control
system as a pollutant;
(2) Engineering:Engineering: factors such as contaminant characteristics
(abrasiveness, toxicity, etc.), gas stream characteristics, and
performance characteristics of the control system; and
(3) Economic:Economic: factors such as capital cost, operating costs, equipment
maintenance, and the lifetime of the equipment.
Pollution prevention should also be considered (eliminating pollution
emissions at the source, substituting toxic raw materials, alternative
processes, …)
• Controls should cover stationary, mobile, and area
sources.
• Utilize reasonably available control technology.
• For mobile sources, examples include tighter emission
controls for vehicles and low-sulfur fuel standards.
• For major stationary sources apply permits for
emission limits (new vs existing(.
•The basic types of emission control technology are
mechanical collectors, wet scrubbers, bag houses,
electrostatic precipitators, combustion systems (thermal
oxidizers), condensers, absorbers, adsorbers, and
biological degradation.
•Selection should be based environmental, engineering, and economic considerations.
•First steps in air quality management process - focus on obvious sources of air pollution and the quickest means of control.
• More sophisticated innovative and comprehensive strategies (emissions trading, banking, and emissions caps) can be incorporated as a further refinement as the strategy continues.
•Local and regional control measures are both necessary for a successful strategy.
•Successful control strategies are usually adopted into a regulatory program with implementation deadlines and mechanisms for enforcement.
•The goal for all control strategies is to achieve real and measurable emission reductions.
• Sources of emission, represented in various emission
inventories for industrial, commercial, or domestic
sources and the transportation system, as well as land-
use related sources (biogenic emissions of VOCs,
particulate matter from soils and street surfaces).
• Monitoring system observing ambient air quality and
historical trends with emphasis on the peak values that
may exceed regulatory standards.
• Dispersion and transformation processes, driven by
emissions, meteorology, and local topography, that
translate emissions into the ambient concentrations,
represented by air quality simulation models.
• Impact assessment, which translates the ambient
concentrations into costs in a general sense (e.g., in
terms of public health and environmental damage.(
• Control strategies which basically attempt to limit emissions,
relocate them, or mitigate impacts where that is possible, with
fuel quality constraints, end of pipe technologies, or temporary
traffic restrictions being of the more noticeable instruments .
• Communication tasks including various levels of regular
reports, event driven warnings such as smog alarms, as well as
the continuous information of the public on ambient air quality.
(1)Determine priority pollutants - based on health effects
and the severity of the air quality problem.
(2) Identify control measures. For specific source
categories, choose the appropriate controls.
(3)Incorporate the control measures into a plan - written plan
with implementation dates to formalize the strategy. It is
important to adopt a regulatory program and include it in
the plan so that control measures will be enforceable.
(4) Involve the public. As with the other management activities
related to the AQM process, it is critical to contact the
regulated community and other affected parties, as the
public should be consulted as part of the strategy
development process. This early consultation reduces later
challenges and streamlines implementation.
•Air quality modeling is the necessary substitute/supplement for air quality monitoring.
•Models can be used to predict the impacts from a potential emitter.
•Models can be applied for the simulation of ambient pollution concentrations under different policy options.
• Air Quality modeling is the mathematical prediction of ambient concentrations of air pollution, based on measured inputs.
How do I do air quality modeling?
•The choice of model depends on a combination of the available data and the needs of the researcher (see U.S. EPA's detailed recommendations).
•Models can be used to determine the relative contributions from different sources as a tool for tracking trends, monitoring compliance, and making policy decisions.
•Modeling for air quality management purposes typically falls into two broad categories: dispersion modeling and receptor-based modeling (
• Determining how various pollutants may impacts human
health and the environment requires input from a range of
disciplines, such as toxicology, public health, health
sciences and epidemiology.
• Effects directly on human health can include increases
in the risk of death or increases in adverse health effect.
Adverse health effects: acute effects (headaches or eye
irritation), and chronic effects (asthma).
• Environmental effects, including those causing
indirect damages to humans (aesthetic damages,
problems of odor, noise, and poor visibility, productivity
of farmland, forests, and commercial fisheries(.
• Environmental effects also encompass damages
associated with preserving, protecting, and improving
the quality of ecological resources.
• Another aspect of human and environmental
assessment is risk assessment.
•Risk assessment is the scientific process of evaluating
adverse effects and is usually geographically limited,
though the defined geography can vary tremendously,
for example local, regional and global.
Legislation, Regulation & ImplementationLegislation, Regulation & Implementation
RegulationRegulation - - regulations are developed by a governing
authority and usually provide more specific information
for how the broad legislative objectives will be met.
ImplementationImplementation - The process of developing detailed
plans, procedures and mechanisms needed to ensure
legislative and regulatory requirements are achieved.
• Compliance involves actions and programs designed to
ensure the environmental laws of the land are followed.
• Enforcement is focused on those situations when the
law is not followed to ensure a rapid return to
compliance with these laws.
• Compliance and enforcement are very complex issues,
involving different aspects of a country's legal and policy
framework.
• As such, there is no clear cut method for establishing a
program.
• Compliance Inspections are a key element of a
compliance program.
• Ambient Monitoring is the systematic, long-term
assessment of pollutant levels by measuring the
quantity and types of certain pollutants in the
surrounding, outdoor air.
• Emissions Measurement is the process of monitoring
particulate and gaseous emissions from a specific
source.
Ambient Air Monitoring and Emissions MeasurementAmbient Air Monitoring and Emissions Measurement
Air quality monitoring is carried out to:
assess the extent of pollution,
ensure compliance with national legislation,
evaluate control options, and,
provide data for air quality modeling.
There are a number of different methods to
measure any given pollutant, varying in
complexity, reliability, and detail of data.
These range from:
simple passive sampling techniques, to,
highly sophisticated remote sensing devices.
A monitoring strategy should
carefully examine the options to
determine which methodology is most
appropriate, taking into account
initial investment costs, operating
costs, reliability of systems, and ease
of operation.
• The locations for monitoring stations depend on the
purpose of the monitoring.
• Most monitoring networks are designed with human
health objectives in mind, and monitoring stations are
therefore established in population centers.
• Many governments (local, regional or national) give
specific guidelines on where to monitor within these
areas - next to busy roads, in city center locations, or at
a location of particular concern (e.g., a school,
hospital).
• Background monitoring stations are also established,
to act as a "control" when determining source
apportionment.
•An emissions inventory is a database that lists, by
source, the amount of air pollutants emitted into the
atmosphere of a community during a given time
period.
• Emission inventories are used to help determine
significant sources of air pollutants, establish emission
trends over time, target regulatory actions, and estimate
air quality through computer dispersion modeling.
• An emission inventory includes estimates of the
emissions from various pollution sources in a specific
geographical area.
• Methods for calculating the emissions inventories may
include: continuous monitoring to measure actual
emissions; extrapolating the results from short-term
source emissions tests; and using published emission
factors (US AP-42).
• Emission factors may be used to estimate emissions. In most cases, these factors are simply averages of all available data of acceptable quality, and are generally assumed to be representative of long-term averages for all facilities in the source category.
• Variations in the conditions at a given facility, such as the raw materials used, temperature of combustion, and emission controls, can significantly effect the emissions at an individual location.
• Whenever possible, the development of local emission factors is highly desirable.