A common strategy for the Air quality of the Po basin. Online the proceedings of the 1st Prepair Midterm conference

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Last 11th of July, the Regional governments of the Po Basin together with the Autonomous Province of Trento met in Milan hosted by Regione Lombardia, for the first Midterm conference of LIFE Prepair Project.

The conference was the occasion to present the achievements of the first two project years and to take the stock of the situation on common strategies and future perspective regarding air quality in the critical context of the Po basin.

In the presence of Wilhelmus De Wilt as a representative of the European Commission, the participants to the 1st Midterm conference – among them the regional ministers Raffaele Cattaneo of Lombardia, Paola Gazzolo of Emilia Romagna, Matteo Marnati of Piemonte – discussed what has been done so far and the future perspective taking into account the recent signature of the protocl for air quality signed by the italian regional governments and the national ministry of environment at the Clean Air Dialogue in Turin, nearly a month ago.

The morning was dedicated  to present the advancement of the actions and the achievements of Prepair project. The project activities helped making clear that reducing the emission of pollutants by 40% in the Po basin is feasable, given the fast implementation of the action already planned and the use of new advanced technologies.

Among the results it was presented the first survey on the perception of air quality for the Po Basin.

An informal Networking session took place during lunch break with the participation of some of the projects part of the Prepair Network.

The afternoon section was more oriented to the perspectives and political strategies that were discussed in a round table by the representatives of the Po basin local governments and project partners.

Go to the speakers’ slides

Go to the video summary of the day (in italian)

Go to the video interviews (in italian)

Go to the gallery

 

 

“Citizen and air quality”. Survey’s results available

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The first survey on the citizens’ perception of the Air quality at Po Basin level.

On Thursday, July the 11th, at the Testori Auditorium in Milan, within the international conference “The Po basin together for the quality of air”, Marco Ottolenghi of Art-ER presented the results of “Citizen and Air Quality”, The first survey on the citizens’ perception of the Air quality at Po Basin level. The survey was carried out within the activities of Prepair project, ART-ER was responsible for the action.

The survey start from the fact that over 23 million people (40% of the population in Italy) live in the regions of the Po valley basin and over 50% of the Italian GDP is produced here. The atmospheric emissions in this basin are thus significant. However they are lower than the European Union average and in line with those of the most advanced countries, if compared to GDP or the number of inhabitants. This is a sign that the technological standards and management practices are among the most advanced.

Despite this, the orographic conformation and the particular meteorological and climatic conditions of the basin make the dispersion of pollutants particularly difficult, with above threshold values for dust, nitrogen oxides and ozone.

Atmospheric pollution in this area of Italy goes beyond local boundaries and requires a supra-regional approach- Integrated and coordinated measures need to be introduced over a vast area in order to reduce emissions and thus obtain a decrease of pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere.

“Valuta l’aria”‘s Survey (evaluate the air) inteded to investigate on the perception and awareness of citizens regarding the Air quality issue with a focus on the factors perceived as the main cause of air pollutions.

How do citizens in the Po Basin perceive this problem? Are they aware that many actions to improve air quality are closely linked to their lifestyle? How willing are they to change their habits? And above, how can local authorities get them to change these habits?

These are some of the questions covered by the survey which took place from 23 November 2018 to 10 January  2019 and aroused great interest in the entire area of the Po basin.  A total of 7,331 citizens voluntarily filled in the questionnaire. All 42 cities (provincial capitals) in the basin were involved, where a total of 6.5 million inhabitants live.

The results of the survey are avilable here:

Executive summary

Full report (italian)

Slides of the conference “The Po Basin Together for the Quality of Air”

  1. The EU perspective on how to address air quality in the coming years, De Wilt, European Commission DG Environment
  2.  The National Framework and the Protocol for the Quality of Air signed in the Clean Air Dialogue, Romeo, Ministero dell’Ambiene e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare
  3.  the project LIFE-IP PREPAIR Po Regions Engaged to Policies of Air (EN), Raffaelli, Regione Emilia-Romagna
  4. A common emission dataset for the Po Basin Area, Marongiu, ARPA Lombardia
  5. A web-based platform for monitoring Air Quality Plans, Tanzillo, ART-ER
  6. What future for the air quality in the Po Basin Area? A scenario based perspective, Stortini, ARPAE Emilia-Romagna
  7. The Data Sharing Portal, Cattani, ARPAE Emilia-Romagna
  8. Estimating and reducing the ammonia emission in agricolture: The BAT-Tool
    software (IT)    ,     Balboni, Regione Emilia-Romagna
  9. Opportunities and risks of burning woody biomass for domestic heating, Suppa, Regione Lombardia
  10. Action in promotion of Cycling Mobility, Lapi, Fondazione Lombardia Ambiente
  11. Toransition toward electric mobility in Venetian laguna: the contribution of the Boat registry for the port inspectors (IT), Zanin, Regione Veneto
  12. Air quality and sustainable mobility … at school (IT), Rossi, Comune di Bologna
  13. Energy efficiency for buildings: the importance of training for technicians and
    public officers(EN)    ,     De Biasi, Provincia Autonoma di Trento
  14. The Perception of citizens on Air Quality in Po Basin Area, Marco Ottolenghi, ART-ER
  15. The Prepaired! Actions in the schools, Vito, Fondazione Lombardia Ambiente
  16. Synergies and Complementarities among funds in the next Programming Period, Happaerts, European Commission, DG REGIO
  17. The Po Valley: results, scenarios and actions for air quality and the Po basin Agreements, Gurrieri, Regione Lombardia
  18. Air Quality management in the Po valley: the lesson learned by the Prepair project, Deserti, Regione Emilia-Romagna