Environmental Monitoring Strategy – Ambient Air

1,71
MB

44
stron

6574
ID Environment Agency

2000
rok

Contents 17

Introduction . 1

General aspects of ambient air quality monitoring . 1

The need for a monitoring strategy. 2

Survey objectives and monitoring strategy . 3

Survey objectives and monitoring strategy . 3

Review of existing information 5

Existing monitoring data and ancillary information . 5

UK automatic monitoring networks . 5

UK non-automatic monitoring networks 5

Environment Agency episode protocol . 5

UK review groups . 7

Targeting the pollutant 8

Different Phases . 8

Total and speciated measurements 8

Further chemical or physical characterisation 8

Media other than air 8

Which species to measure. 8

When to sample, how long to sample for, and how many samples to take. 9

General considerations . 9

Continuous or intermittent sampling . 9

The averaging period 9

Duration of the sampling programme . 11

How to measure 12

Sampling approach . 12

Choice of measuring method 12

Meteorological data 17

Other information 17

Accompanying measurements and supplementary data. 17

Where to sample . 18

General guidelines 18

Sampling site requirements 18

Site location guidelines . 19

General location guidelines 19

Topographical considerations . 19

Number of sampling locations 19

Pilot surveys . 19

Site location guidelines for particular objectives . 20

Controlled emissions from elevated sources 20

Fugitive emissions 20

Controlled and fugitive emissions . 20

Assessment of the impact of an individual emission source. 21

Monitoring for verification of dispersion models 22

Monitoring to establish frequency of peak levels from discrete sources 22

Monitoring within area sources . 23

Assessment of health risks . 23

Data handling 24

Analysis of results and reporting 25

Presenting the raw data 25

Summarising data . 25

Frequency distributions. 26

Measures of central tendency. 27

Geographical summaries 28

Time-series plots 29

Use of meteorological data . 30

Interpretation of data. 31

Characterisation of episodes 31

Report content and structure 31

Quality control and quality assurance 32

Quality control . 32

Quality assurance . 32

References. 33

Appendix A: List of abbreviations. 34

Appendix B: Computer dispersion modelling 35

B1 Use of dispersion models in design of monitoring programmes 35

B2 Basic description of dispersion models . 35

B3 Effects of buildings and topography 35

B4 Specific model applications . 36

B5 Accuracy of dispersion models and guidance on their use 37

B6 References 38