Local Air Quality Management Group

Local Authorities are required to review and assess air quality and where there are air quality issues, work towards achieving the objectives through development and implementation of an Action Plan. Defra and the Devolved Administrations have produced technical and policy guidance for local air quality management as well as practice guidance notes. The UK LAQM webpages provide additional information on all aspects of LAQM including reporting, tools for assessment, action planning, helpdesk details and more.

This group provides details on some of the tools available to assist with Local Air Quality Management and allows users to review them, adding to the user experience. Tools for LAQM can be considered to assist with three distinct phases of the process: 

• Justify: tool helps assess emissions or air quality impacts
• Engage: tool assists with communication of cost benefit analysis and obtaining buy-in from decision makers;  and 
• Deliver: tool assists with the implementation of measures.  

Tool descriptions contain references to these three categories where possible to give the user an idea of when they may be most helpful.

Users of the tools should also consider impacts of measures and developments on carbon emissions and noise and should seek win- win policies wherever possible. These tools are also widely used for assessment of air quality for the purpose of Development Control. Tools to assess impacts on carbon are available through this website.

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Function Simple estimate (9)Provides approximate environmental impacts using basic input data
Detailed annual assessment (3)Provides comprehensive single year estimates using detailed input data
Monitoring and reporting (6)Keeping track of trends over long time periods
Scenario analysis (2)What if analysis of potential actions
Guidance, guidelines and data resource (2)Guidance and other reference material used for Environmental Accounting

Sector Buildings: Individual (3)Emissions arising from the construction, design and operation of residential, business and organisations buildings
Buildings: Group of (1)Environmental impacts from all buildings across a local area, community or region
Transport: Individual (5)Journeys undertaken by an individual vehicle
Transport: Road links (5)Provides air quality emissions for all vehicles travelling along a specific road
Transport: Strategic (3)Local, regional or national transport models or strategies (including rail, ports and airports)
Industry (3)The tool specifically focuses on power generation. industrial combustion, processes and manufacturing
Agriculture & forestry (1)Rearing of animals, forestry, farm activities and land use
Covers a wide range (2)

Target Group Environmental policy officers (16)Researcher, air quality / climate change officer, environmental consultants
Planner / Policy Maker (6)Spatial planning and Local, National or International Policy development
Transport Strategist (4)Person in charge of transport policy
Fleet Manager (1)Manager of a number of vehicles under the same ownership
Industry manager (1)Managers of industrial combustion, industrial processes and power generation operations
Individuals (1)Single person or household
Community groups (2)People living in a district with shared interests

Scope Direct emissions from site/area/activities (10)Direct emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the reporting entity (Scope 1)
Indirect emissions from electricity use (2)Emissions that are a consequence of the activities of the reporting entity, but occur at sources owned or controlled by another organisation (e.g. emissions incurred from electricity use) (Scope 2)
Emissions from all sources (2)Includes direct and indirect emissions

Impacts Assessed Carbon Emissions and Energy (7)Carbon dioxide and / or energy is estimated
Air Pollution Emissions (16)Air quality pollutants (such as NOx, PM10 and SO2), heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants
Waste (1)Quantification of waste arisings, recycling opportunities and waste management options

Methodology UK: Defra GHG CRG (6)Company Reporting Guidelines: helps organisations measure and report on their GHG emissions
UK GHGI/NAEI (6)Provides emission factors and methodologies from the UK emission inventory
EEA/EMEP Guidebook (2)Provides guidance on estimating air pollutant emissions

Where can the tool be used? UK (15)

Emission Factors Toolkit for Vehicle Emissions
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

The EFT allows the user to calculate vehicle emissions for multiple road links based on vehicle fleet composition traffic speeds and road type. The EFT makes use of the Emission Factors published by

Highways Agency Design Manual for Roads and Bridges

This is a simple screening tool for road traffic emissions. The tool was designed to be used for air quality assessments of road schemes multi-modal studies and by local authorities carrying out their

Biomass calculator
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

The tool is an Excel spreadsheet which reproduces the graphs for biomass burning published in LAQM.TG(09). The use of biomass to generate energy has potentially significant benefits for the reduction

NI 185 Tool for calculation of CO2 Emissions from Organisations incorporating tool for NI 194: Air quality
developed by Defra

The tool was developed to assist local authorities in the calculation of CO2 emissions from their estates and operations in accordance with the reporting requirements of National Indicator 185. The

EXEMPT Model- Dealing with cold start emissions

The EXEMPT Model is in two parts; both parts are an evolution of the previous TRAMAQ3 EXEMPT Model 4. The models can be used as simple tools for assessing the effects of certain types of developments

Travelfootprint

The Travelfootprint tool assesses the impacts of the main modes of passenger travel in the UK. The analysis includes an assessment of the environmental impacts associated with the fuel cycle (primary

Low Emission Strategies

There are three components to the toolkit: Technology Guidance: To compare low emission vehicle technologies - on an individual vehicle basis. Fleet Tool: This allows a user to calculate the emissions

NOx to NO2 calculator
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

This calculator allows NO2 concentrations to be derived from NOx wherever NOx is predicted by modelling emissions from roads. The calculator can also be used to calculate the road component of NOx from

NO2 fall off with distance
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

This tool is part of a suite of tools developed for Local Air Quality assessments. It estimates the annual mean nitrogen dioxide concentrations at one distance from a road using measurements made

Year adjustment factors
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

The Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) technical guidance (TG09) provides factors for predicting pollutant concentrations in future years. Please note that the NO2 factors have since been updated and

Stack height calculator
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

This spreadsheet tool (also known as the Supplementary Assistance spreadsheet for stack height calculation) estimates the chimney height required for sulphur dioxide emissions from small boilers. A report

Damage cost calculator

The tool provides a step by step template to easily calculate the estimated monetary value (Net Present Value) of the air quality impacts of a tested policy. The tool uses the methodology as set out in

PERAT

PERAT was designed to be a simple tool for use by property developers and the local authority which will enable them to assess the emissions of the development they are replacing with the aim of enabling

Local bias adjustment factors
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

Many Local Authorities are now carrying out diffusion tube co-location studies. A spreadsheet has been developed to assist diffusion tube users in calculating the precision and accuracy of their results

National bias adjustment factors
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

A database of bias adjustment factors determined from Local Authority co-location studies throughout the UK has been collated by the Local Air Quality Management Helpdesk. Using orthogonal regression

Industrial Nomograms
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

MS Excel spreadsheets which reproduce the graphs published in LAQM.TG(09).

TEMPRO
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

This website provides the National Trip End Model (NTEM) forecasts and the TEMPRO software. These are used for transport planning purposes. The forecasts include population employment households by

Annual Average Daily Traffic Flows
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

This website provides Annual Average Daily Flow (AADF) and traffic data for every junction-to-junction link on the 'A' road and motorway network in Great Britain. It enables the user to search view

Background maps
developed by Defra LAQM support helpdesk

These background maps are provided to assist UK Local Authorities with their Review and Assessment of air quality where local monitoring data is not available. Background concentrations are provided