Aviation and Pollution
In 2006, approximately 240 million passengers passed through
mainland UK airports – an increase of 30% over the past five years.
• Government forecasts predict increase to 400 million by 2020.
• Impacts on pollutants with local and global consequences must be
considered.
Important questions to ask include:
• The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) sets
international standards for smoke and certain gaseous pollutants
such as NOx for newly produced large jet engines.
• Standards and integrated policies developed through ICAOs
Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP).
• Standards came into effect 1999 – apply to engines certified after
this date.
• In addition no developments or alterations to the UK aviation
infrastructure, air operations or flight scheduling should result in a
breach of the UK Air Quality Objectives, or worsen current breaches.
– E.g. Heathrow runway
• Emissions must include direct emissions from aircraft, “air-side”
service vehicles, and surface access required for airports.
Air Quality Impacts
Step 1: Engineering and Data Understanding
• No unique pollutants attributable to aviation so really just adds to
atmospheric loading of NOx, PM, VOCs, PAHs, metals etc.
• Relative importance of aviation vs. other sources assessed using
emissions inventories which are not determined yet by a
standardised approached and are inherently uncertain.
• Overall effects are modelled:
– Emissions > Atmospheric dispersion and chemical reaction > local, regional and global concentrations > health and environmental impacts
• Problem: for PM there is mismatch between emissions which
are based on a smoke test and air quality standards which are
based on PM10/PM2.5 mass concentrations.
• Aviation lags behind other transport sectors (e.g. motor vehicle)
which have been subject to ever tightening EU emissions targets.
• Also, whilst detailed road-side studies exist for vehicle transport
impacts, runway-side or airport studies are so far limited.
• Causes difficulties in evaluating uncertain emissions data e.g. for
take-off and landing.
Decision Making Process should involve following cycle cf. air quality management system
Air Quality Management Areas
• Four local authorities in the Heathrow area have been designated AQMAs
with respect to non attainment of NO2 standards.
– Hillingdon, Hounslow, Spelthome, Slough
• This is not to say that aviation is the only source of pollution.
• BAA air quality action plan is part of overall action to improve air quality.
Assessed by appropriate performance indicators and includes:
– Increase in aircraft implementing CAEP/4 (emissions objective).
– Landing emissions charges of £1.10 per tonne NOx to incentivise
reductions (tax).
– Introduction of personal rapid transit to replace buses (traffic
management measure).
– Imposed planning conditions on further development such as
restrictions on numbers of air transport movements, car parking spaces,
production of air quality action plan (planning application
restrictions).
– Improved taxiing procedures.
– Reduction of high NOx aircraft.
– Air and landside vehicle emissions reductions.
Performance
improvements
// Take Action
- Finish your Assessment
- Start building the Problem and Solution portion of essay.
// Take Action
- Finish your Analysis
- Start building the your Essay Below
Build the Problem and Solution portion of the Assignment for submission. (The below are guidelines only, but highly recommended to make sure you are covering the most important points for the assighment.)
- Protection Mechanism: Which of the previous mechanisms do you think gives the best protection of the rights of the individual from environmental damage,
health problems or reductions in the quality of life ?.- Think about relevant examples from court cases and the regulations we have looked at.
- Standards Driving: What drives the setting of environmental standards ?
- Is it thresholds set to protect completely from damage?
- Do the costs of pollutant abatement and the current BATs have a role to play?
- Do we fully adopt the principle of acceptable risk?
- Solution: Is it true to say that we successfully enforce the polluter pays principle ?.
- Is this evenly applied across all polluting sectors?
- Is this successfully applied in private law?
- Success Story: How successful are we at achieving international standards and
regulations controlling emissions? Give examples.
Build the Problem and Solution portion of your for submission. (The below are guidelines only, but highly recommended to make sure you are covering the most important points for essay.)
- Protection Mechanism: This should be visually engaging with a strong photo and include your logo and your brand positioning statement.
- Standards Driving: Clearly define the problem that exists in the market.
- Solution: Clearly articulate how you solve the problem.
- Success Story: If it’s not obvious, you need to explain how your solution works. Keep it brief and use illustrations or photos where possible. Is it obvious what someone is purchasing? What is the actual product? Is it obvious how you would use the product? If not, describe use cases.
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