Ricardo has been involved in LEZ and CAZ assessments since the first LEZ was introduced in London in 2008. In the last 3 years, we have supported many UK authorities in the robust assessment of CAZs. To do this, we used RapidAir to undertake detailed evaluation of a diverse range of mitigation scenarios on emissions and concentrations of air quality pollutants and enable the completion of detailed integrated impact assessments.
Local Air Quality Management
Ricardo has been supporting local authorities in Great Britain and Northern Ireland with their LAQM responsibilities since the LAQM system was introduced in 1995. RapidAir is routinely used by Ricardo’s team to perform detailed assessment and prioritisation of air quality measures. The unique speed and computational power of RapidAir enables local authorities to quickly run and test a vast array of scenarios in a matter of minutes – helping decision makers to quickly evaluate and identify which measures produce the best impacts with the greatest improvements in air quality.
RapidAir supported LAQM requirements for a number of authorities, enabling them to make informed decisions on measures to improve air quality.
Clean Air Zones and Low Emission Zones
The use of CAZs and LEZs as measures to reduce air pollution are becoming increasingly popular in many UK cities and are now relatively common across Europe. CAZs and LEZs are areas where access to certain sections of the vehicle fleet are regulated or restricted – typically through road charging or traffic management. Authorities considering implementing a CAZ or LEZ need to assess the potential impacts such measures could have, including the likely impact on vehicle emissions and pollutant concentrations. This will provide the authority with the confidence that the action will result in sufficient air quality improvements.
Key RapidAir outputs from CAZ studies include:
- Source apportionment
- Calculated changes in emissions and concentrations associated with each mitigation scenario.
- A range of data visualisations including contour plots.
Planning Support
RapidAir has been used to support a number of local authorities with their forecasting and transport planning requirements. This includes work completed for Fife Council to develop ambient air quality outputs to support the Council’s planning process. In addition, RapidAir software has been provided to Leicestershire County Council to support strategic and local transport planning decision making. Linking RapidAir with the Council’s strategic and microsimulation traffic modelling systems helped deliver a robust, transparent and consistent approach to the consideration of air quality impacts from traffic planning scenarios.
Ricardo air quality specialists regularly provide support to local authorities on the potential air quality impact of planning applications for infrastructure, and commercial and residential development proposals. The range of support we offer includes technical appraisal of applications, air quality modelling or re-modelling of the development proposal, development of planning support tools and expert witness support.
