Under the Environment Agency’s horizon scanning program, AQC and CERC were commissioned to review the prospects for Monitoring, Modelling and Integration (MMI), with the report being published on 14 December.
The purpose of the project was to assess what assessment techniques, tools and methods are currently available to the EA for assessing air quality, and identify any novel or emerging techniques that might enhance how the Agency carries out air quality assessments. The project provided an auditable framework for future Agency-funded research and a clear rationale for new studies and research topics.
As part of the project’s development, we held a series of workshops with leading individuals at the forefront of air quality monitoring, modelling and integration fields. These were used to create a long list of methods that might be suitable for the Agency, which were then narrowed down alongside a project steering committee comprising experts from within the Agency. This resulted in a shortlist of 21 methods that could be suitable for the Agency, with each method subject to a high-level literature review, focussing on the method’s availability, practicality and usefulness in the context of the Agency’s current and future needs.
A parallel project, looking at the drivers and changes in the scientific and policy landscape likely to impact on the Agency’s work in the medium to long term was led by Aether ltd, with the report published at the same time. Both projects were undertaken through the AQC-led consortium on the Defra RDE Framework.
Further details, including the methodology, literature reviews and main findings of the project are available in the report, which is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/options-for-air-quality-research-monitoring-modelling-and-integration
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