Air pollution and citizen science: the final conference of CAPTOR project in Milan

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On November 14-15 there will be in Milan the final conference of the project CAPTOR (Collective Awareness Platform for Tropospheric Ozone Pollution), whose aim is to establish low-cost sensor networks maintained by citizens to measure ozone pollution in dispersed areas and to stimulate collaborative solution finding.

The international conference will be the occasion for presenting the project results, and it will focus on the role of citizens as drivers of change. Within the experiences that will be presented, PREPAIR will participate at the Innovation cafè, the interactive session that wants to explore how to leverage citizen participation in air sensing for a wider social and political impact.

Read the program of the conference

Learn more about CAPTOR project

“Biomass management flow, case studies and opportunities”: a workshop

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How can we manage the biomass? What are the opportunities of a proper management?

These are some of the questions that will be discussed on Tuesday, October 30 at the workshop “Biomass management flow: case studies and opportunities”, organized within a PREPAIR action that aims at analyzing the logistics of consumption and supply of woody biomass.

The Region of Murcia, Spain, will also take place to the workshop telling about its regional experience and the participation to the project PROFORBIOMED. Some case studies about the strategic management of biomass flows will also be presented by the University of Padova.

The workshop will take place at 2 PM at the Palazzo Sistema Regionale in Milan, 5th floor, room 34, and will also be available in streaming.

For participating, either in person or videoconference, please registerat this link.

See the program of the workshop with the information for the streaming

A multi-country workshop on air quality programs and their effectiveness: PREPAIR presented at the session “Success factors of Air Quality Plans”

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The Environmental Implementation Review (EIR) has mapped for each EU Member State the main challenges in the implementation of European environmental policy and legislation as well as existing good practices and points of excellence. It came out how there is a huge potential for Member States’ environmental authorities at all levels to improve their environmental performance by learning from each other.

In order to deploy this potential the European Commission established a new tool that facilitates peer-to-peer learning between environmental authorities. The new TAIEX (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument of the European Commission)-EIR PEER 2 PEER program provides tailored support to Member States’ authorities implementing environmental policy and legislation. Staff members can benefit directly from the experience of peers in other countries and regions.

Several events have been organized and funded by TAIEX, and one of this is the “Multi-country workshop on air quality programs and their effectiveness” that will take place in Graz, Austria, on September 10-11, 2018.

Aim of this workshop is to bring together environmental authorities from various EU Member States, regions and cities in order to exchange experience and good practice to reduce air pollution. The main areas to be addressed will include particulate matter and NO2, and the success factors for effective air quality planning will also be discussed.

PRPAIR will be presented within other case studies at the session of September 12 “Success factors of Air quality Plans”.

See the Agenda

Read more about the TAIEX-EIR PEER 2 PEER

The didactic format for a multisectoral approach to the energy requalification of buildings is online

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It is now published online a didactic format realized within the project action “Near Zero Energy Buildings” and related to the energy requalification of private buildings, condominiums in particular.

The format goes together with a detailed educational program aiming at bringing different professionals to common and transversal competences about the energy requalification of condominiums. The courses will only be developed on the Italian territory and will involve different professionals dealing with energy requalification of condominiums such as building administrators,  designers, artisans and construction companies.

The aim of the initiative is to promote integration within the energy redevelopment chain of condominiums by building common languages ​​and practices able to promote and support interventions and to direct the planning and the planning of works towards the optimal achievement of consumption targets established by the client. This will be done through the training of condominium administrators, professional technicians and construction companies, providing them with adequate and homogeneous skills.

See the English version of the didactic format

PREPAIR chosen as case study at the laboratory about multi-level governance of environmental policy: the “Air” directive

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Last Friday, July 6, the second EIR (Environmental Implementation Review) laboratory was held: an in-depth study on the multilevel governance of environmental policy in the Italian regions and autonomous provinces, based on the presentation of practical cases referring to the implementation of European directives.

The laboratory was part of a cycle of European training courses organized by CINSEDO, an interregional study and documentation center, and in particular of a series dedicated to the Air Directive. PREPAIR was chosen as case study and as example of a multilevel governance on the topic of air.

The project was presented by the lead partner, Emilia Romagna Region.

See the project presentation (in Italian and English)























Communication on the use of biomass: the first survey of PREPAIR is online
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The first report of the project PREPAIR is now online: it is a survey on the communication experiences about the environmental impacts of the burning of wood biomass previously conducted in the Po basin and in Slovenia.


The survey was coordinated by Lombardy Region and realized within the communication action dedicated to the correct use of biomass; it collects and describes the most significant projects realized in the last years on the topic of the correct use of biomass and on the appliances used for domestic heating.


Starting from this survey, a communication campaign on the correct use of biomass for domestic heating will be developed and realized on the whole project’s territory by the partners involved in this action.


The survey is in Italian language with an English abstract. You can see it here.


Fitness check of the EU ambient air quality directives: a stakeholder workshop in Brussels
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The fitness check of the EU ambient air quality directives looks at their performance and evaluate their implementation: on Monday, June 18 in Brussels a stakeholder workshop is organized as part of the public consultation to undrpin this fitness check.


The purpose of a public consultation in general and the stakeholder workshop in particular is to assist in gathering evidence, to confirm the issues for the evaluation and to solicit views on the performance and implementation of the EU Ambient Air Quality Directives.


It’s expected that the stakeholder workshop will be attended by approximately 250 participants. Participants should include national, regional and local governments, environmental and other public bodies, representatives of the business and trade organisations, civil society, international organisations, academia and the research community.


Public consultation is open from 8 May 2018 until 31 July 2018: go to the public consultation and fill out the Survey


For further information about the Stakeholder workshop visit this link.


Approved a common monitoring protocol: the first result of PREPAIR monitoring actions
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Monitoring the implementation and results of air quality actions in the Po valley in a coordinated and homogeneous way is the strategic target pursued by the Italian regions and provinces of the project (Emilia Romagna, Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Valle d’Aosta, Province of Trento), which approved a common monitoring protocol to adopt experimentally at least until 2023 and to implement through a specific web application that will be developed by ERVET.


This is the first expected result of PREPAIR within the monitoring actions of air quality, preparatory to the evaluation of the relative emission impacts.


The monitoring protocol foresees a common structure of responsibilities, deadlines and monitoring indicators and the use of a web platform that will allow to report the actions and to monitor their implementation status. It will therefore be possible to evaluate and communicate the achieved results at the Po basin level. The indicators used will give a framework of the policy instruments activated and of the financial resourced used, of the impacts on the territory and of the reduction of polluting emissions.


The 427 measures already planned by the regions through their air quality plans or other plans and programs and through the Po basin agreements for the quality of air of 2013 and 2017 with the Ministry of the Environment will be monitored. These measures refer to all the impacting sectors such as mobility, industry, energy efficiency of residential buildings, biomass combustion and agriculture.


Urban air quality: two days of works in Bologna within the project iSCAPE
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On May 10 and 11 in Bologna two days of works dedicated to urban air quality are organized by ARPAE and by the University of Bologna. Topics that will be discussed are passive control systems of urban pollution, low-cost sensors for air quality, people participation to the monitoring and management of the quality of air.


The event of May 10 will last the whole day and will be entirely held in English, whereas the event of May 11 will last only half a day, will be held in Italian and will focus on the situation of Bologna.


PREPAIR will also be present at the event of May 10, at the poster sessions.


Both days are organized within the Horizon 2020 project iSCAPE, which works on integrating and advancing the control of air quality and carbon emissions in European cities in the context of climate change through the development of sustainable and passive air pollution remediation strategies, policy interventions and behavioural change initiatives.


For more information and for subscribing to the events, please visit the following websites:


Urban air quality: designing and implementing effective control strategies (May 10)


Qualità dell’aria: pianificazione e coinvolgimento dei cittadini (May 11)


 


The first outputs of PREPAIR presented in Trento
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On March 14 and 15 the second project meeting was held in Trento, Italy: about a hundred people from the Regions and the environmental agencies of the Po Basin and Slovenia participated to the meeting and defined how to guarantee the best continuation of the project.


During the two days of work, thematic meetings on the project actions and their progress were organized and the administrative as well as the communication matters were discussed in the plenary sessions. Also, the first project outputs were presented.


In particular, the dataset containing the measures for the improvement of the air quality foreseen by the regional sector plans, by the Po Basin Agreements  of 2013 and 2017 and by the project itself, and the monitoring protocol of the measures were presented. Both these outputs are preparatory for the development of the web-based monitoring platform of the measures of air quality, which will be launched by the end of August, 2018.