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The Upper Hunter Valley is a major coal mining area in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Due to the ongoing increase in mining activities, PM10 (air-borne particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 micrometres) pollution has become a major air quality concern in local communities. The present study was initiated to quantitatively examine the spatial and temporal variability of PM10 pollution in the region. An earlier paper of this study identified two air quality subregions in the valley. This paper aims to provide a holistic summarisation of the relationships between elevated PM10 pollution in two subregions and the local- and synoptic-scale meteorological conditions for spring and summer, when PM10 pollution is relatively high. A catalogue of twelve synoptic types and a set of six local meteorological patterns were quantitatively derived and linked to each other using the self-organising map (SOM) technique. The complex meteorology–air pollution relationships were visualised and interpreted on the SOM planes for two representative locations. It was found that the influence of local meteorological patterns differed significantly for mean PM10 levels vs. the occurrence of elevated pollution events and between air quality subregions. In contrast, synoptic types showed generally similar relationships with mean vs. elevated PM10 pollution in the valley. Two local meteorological patterns, the hot–dry–northwesterly wind conditions and the hot–dry–calm conditions, were found to be the most PM10 pollution conducive in the valley when combined with a set of synoptic counterparts. These synoptic types are featured with the influence of an eastward migrating continental high-pressure system and westerly troughs, or a ridge extending northwest towards coastal northern NSW or southern Queensland from the Tasman Sea. The method and results can be used in air quality research for other locations of NSW, or similar regions elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For air quality and health professionals it is clear that air pollution is a serious concern and that air quality in many locations globally must be understood and controlled to minimise its devastating impacts. The widespread understanding of air pollution impacts relies on identifying key information to be communicated which should be relevant, impactful and easily understood. This includes air quality index, health impacts and typical exposure levels. This information must be communicated effectively to the public and decision makers - the method of communication (i.e. technical web-based reports versus newspapers) and format of content (i.e. graphicalbased or written) are key considerations. The control of impacts also relies on effective communication - behavioural changes can be influenced by achieving widespread awareness and education. We are not currently observing significant changes towards air pollution reductions, suggesting effective communication is not being achieved and must be a focus for air quality professionals. This paper explores methods which are being used globally to effectively communicate implications of air pollution on human health and how these may be implemented in Australia. This paper also details how low-cost particle sensors can be used to establish relevant and relatable pollution exposure levels - data is presented for a case study completed in South Australia, providing an understanding of peak and average PM2.5 concentrations recorded at specific times and locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous hectares of land are destroyed by wildfires every year, causing harm to the environment, the economy, and the ecology. More than fifty million acres have burned in several states as a result of recent forest fires in the Western United States and Australia. According to scientific predictions, as the climate warms and dries, wildfires will become more intense and frequent, as well as more dangerous. These unavoidable catastrophes emphasize how important early wildfire detection and prevention are. The energy management system described in this paper uses an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) with air quality sensors (AQSs) to monitor spot fires before they spread. The goal was to develop an efficient autonomous patrolling system that detects early wildfires while maximizing the battery life of the UAS to cover broad areas. The UAS will send real-time data (sensor readings, thermal imaging, etc.) to a nearby base station (BS) when a wildfire is discovered. An optimization model was developed to minimize the total amount of energy used by the UAS while maintaining the required levels of data quality. Finally, the simulations showed the performance of the proposed solution under different stability conditions and for different minimum data rate types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is accountable for various long-term and short-term respiratory diseases and even deaths. Air pollution is normally associated with a decreasing life expectancy. Governments have been implementing strategies to improve air quality. However, natural events have always played an important role in the concentration of air pollutants. In Australia, the lockdown period followed the Black Summer of 2019–2020 and coincided with the season of prescribed burns. This paper investigates the changes in the concentration of criteria pollutants such as particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and sulphur dioxide. The air quality data for the lockdown period in 2020 was compared with the pre-lockdown period in 2020 and with corresponding periods of previous years from 2016 to 2019. The results were also compared with the post-lockdown scenario of 2020 and 2021 to understand how the concentration levels changed due to behavioural changes and a lack of background events. The results revealed that the COVID-19 restrictions had some impact on the concentration of pollutants; however, the location of monitoring stations played an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambient PM2.5 (particles less than 2.5 μm in diameter) is monitored in many countries including Australia. Occasionally PM2.5 instruments may report negative measurements, although in realty the ambient air can never contain negative amounts of particles. Some negative readings are caused by instrument faults or procedural errors, thus can be simply invalidated from air quality reporting. There are occasions, however, when negative readings occur due to other factors including technological or procedural limitations. Treatment of such negative data requires consideration of factors such as measurement uncertainty, instrument noise and risk for significant bias in air quality reporting. There is very limited documentation on handling negative PM2.5 data in the literature. This paper demonstrates how a threshold is determined for controlling negative hourly PM2.5 readings in the New South Wales (NSW) air quality data system. The investigation involved a review of thresholds used in different data systems and an assessment of instrument measurement uncertainties, zero air test data and impacts on key reporting statistics when applying different thresholds to historical datasets. The results show that a threshold of −10.0 μg/m3 appears optimal for controlling negative PM2.5 data in public reporting. This choice is consistent with the measurement uncertainty estimates and the zero air test data statistics calculated for the NSW Air Quality Monitoring Network, and is expected not to have significant impacts on key compliance reporting statistics such as data availability and annual average pollution levels. The analysis can be useful for air quality monitoring in other Australian jurisdictions or wider context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From September 2019 to February 2020 fires destroyed dwellings, towns and killed farm animals and wildlife in much of eastern Australia. While the threat and experiences of fire differed, smoke became a quotidian experience for millions of people not in direct danger from flames. The disjuncture between the Australian bushfire summer existing within much longer histories of air, respiration and smoke in cities and the experiences of smoke being new to many people highlights important issues relating to nomenclature, boundaries and urban imaginaries. Developing a more-than-urban political ecology of smoke, this paper concludes that understanding smoke as part of atmospheres within which humans live and breathe is necessary to support the integrated management of land, water, air and the living entities in and beyond a particular area or country. A more-than-urban political ecology of smoke will assist people to view themselves and their welfare as being connected with what happens on spaces that are physically distant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As urban populations increase, the need for more efficient and less-polluting transport follows. Local air quality considerations are a crucial factor in the design and assessment of transport systems and infrastructure. Road tunnels play an important role in our built environment. In recent years Australia, and Sydney in particular, has seen a rise in road tunnels built in densely populated areas. Air pollution from tunnels longer than one kilometre is usually dispersed through elevated ventilation outlets which, whilst effective, often have large implications for design and operation. The venting of tunnel exhaust air from portals is common in other parts of the world, but it remains an operating restriction for several recent tunnels in NSW. For this reason, the air quality impacts of tunnel portals emissions have not been extensively assessed in Australia. The GRAL model was developed at the Graz University of Technology in 1999, with one of the main drivers for its development being the need to assess dispersion from road tunnel portals. GRAL has been used for this purpose across Europe, and now more widely. This paper summarises the results of a micro-simulation dispersion modelling study using GRAL for a small urban area. The focus of the study was to test the sensitivity of the concentrations predicted by GRAL to model configuration, inputs and assumptions. The effects of topography, receptor placement and the portal air temperature increment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia and New Zealand (NZ) domestic wood heater emissions contribute to a substantial community burden of air pollution-related illness and death. Despite increasingly stringent emission standards for wood heaters in Australia, there has been frustratingly little progress in reducing ambient air pollution from this source. In contrast, Environment Canterbury NZ, has made impressive progress driving innovation in wood heater designs to improve air quality. Interventions have included the 2014 introduction of a new performance testing standard, the Canterbury Method One (CM1) that is used to define a class of Ultra Low Emission Burners (ULEBs). CM1 testing is conducted under conditions intended to simulate typical home usage and includes the heater's start-up phase which generates a significant portion of pollutant emissions. It is primarily designed to test the performance of appliances burning softwoods, the main source of fuel in NZ. We aimed to: (1) design a protocol based on the CM1 for testing appliances burning Australian hardwoods, and (2) conduct preliminary evaluations of exiting ULEBs fuelled with hardwoods as a test-of-concept for ULEBs in Australia. The main variation was that we used a single burn phase with double the weight of wood compared with the standard CM1. We tested two certified ULEBs of different designs using our protocol. Emissions from hardwood fuels were higher than for softwoods as anticipated because the appliances we tested had been optimised for softwood combustion. However, the overall performance of both heaters was promising. Our results provide proof-ofconcept that ULEBs could potentially be optimised for hardwoods and have a place in strategies for reducing the harm from air pollution in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of how much uncertainties in CO2 fluxes over Australia can be reduced by assimilation of total-column carbon dioxide retrievals from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite instrument. We apply a four-dimensional variational data assimilation system, based around the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) transport-dispersion model. We ran a series of observing system simulation experiments to estimate posterior error statistics of optimized monthly-mean CO2 fluxes in Australia. Our assimilations were run with a horizontal grid resolution of 81 km using OCO-2 data for 2015. Based on four representative months, we find that the integrated flux uncertainty for Australia is reduced from 0.52 to 0.13 Pg C yr -1. Uncertainty reductions of up to 90 % were found at grid-point resolution over productive ecosystems. Our sensitivity experiments show that the choice of the correlation structure in the prior error covariance plays a large role in distributing information from the observations. We also found that biases in the observations would significantly impact the inverted fluxes and could contaminate the final results of the inversion. Biases in prior fluxes are generally removed by the inversion system. Biases in the boundary conditions have a significant impact on retrieved fluxes, but this can be mitigated by including boundary conditions in our retrieved parameters. In general, results from our idealized experiments suggest that flux inversions at this unusually fine scale will yield useful information on the carbon cycle at continental and finer scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An environmental health professional performs numerous job functions that have an impact on everyone's health and lifestyle. Their work is to prevent death and illness from environmentally related disease and injury. Moreover, the quality and safety of their air, food, water, and the infrastructure that supports vital environmental health services are one of the indicators separated many developed countries from undeveloped countries. This paper, environmental health professional in developed countries including the United State of America, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia were discussed. It was revealed that the Registration of Environmental Health Specialist/Sanitarians is a process that certifies the applicant has been found by the certifying body of each state/country to meet the qualifications to protect environmental health. The result of these reviews indicates that competencies of Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) of all selected developed countries are focused on facility and system inspections and compliance and enforcement of environmental health laws. Moreover, risk assessment and management, investigation, monitor and control, and promoting environmental and public health awareness are appeared in some countries. Thus, the experiences in selected developed countries for certification of Environmental Health Specialist or sanitarian could be used as a guideline for environmental health professional development in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significant health impacts and costs for poor indoor air quality (IAQ) are likely to be comparable if not worse than those already demonstrated for outdoor air quality. Recent assessments have placed household air pollution as the 8th largest Global Burden of Disease risk (HEI 2018) and WHO reported that "in 2012 around 7 million people died - one in eight of total global deaths - as a result of air pollution exposure. In this paper we show that these assessments while well accepted, are based a relatively small number of IAQ studies and small sample numbers. In general, there is a lack of knowledge on the sources and personal exposures to indoor air pollutants compared to outdoors. We conclude that that exposure and health risk from poor IAQ needs to be addressed similar to that of outdoor air quality. NZ and Australia need an organisation or group of organisations to take a larger responsibility or lead on IAQ. ■ To implement or coordinate monitoring programs for homes, workplaces and public buildings to determine what other issues there are and how widespread they extend. ■ To develop policies, best practice guides, indoor air quality standards and an education program for how we live in our homes/work places and public buildings to improve our collective nation's indoor air quality and our health/productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is a long-term key partner of China in coal trading, which is famous for high-quality coal and its price advantage. However, affected by the evolution of international political and economic situation, China has issued a coal ban on Australian coal since the end of 2020. The potential environmental consequences of this coal ban remain unclear. So, this paper quantifies the ban's impact on air pollution, human health and climate change by simulating the emission difference between the port scenario (simulating the emissions due to Australian coal import under business as usual) and the mine scenario (simulating the emissions due to domestic coal mining that converted from import share of Australian coal), and monetizes the losses into economic costs for direct comparison. The results illustrate the emission of SO 2 , VOCs and GHG in mine scenario grows up to 102, 12 and 6 times the amount of that in port scenario, mainly deriving from coal mining process in the North China Plain and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. It shows that the potential alternative of replacing import with mining leads to PM 2.5 pollution exacerbation and O 3 pollution abatement, which causes 148 (95 % CI: 101–183) non-communicable diseases and respiratory disease-related deaths in total. As for GHG, the emission of BC in transportation process and fugitive methane in coal mining process contribute to an impressive effect on warming potential with few quantities, which is worth noting in control process. In total, the environmental deterioration resulted in an economic loss of approximately 934 million yuan. The undiminished demand for high-quality industrial coal as well as growing carbon tax could make the economic value of the coal ban's environmental consequences more considerable in the near future. This research emphasizes the contradiction between economic development and environmental improvement caused by excessive dependence on coal and addresses a critical knowledge gap in assessing the ban's environmental impact by economic value. The result directly demonstrates the environmental consequences of the potential mining-replacing-import alternative and helps better understand environmental influences on the Chinese government's decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Australian meteorological observers started using the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) weather coding system in the 1950s. This system is still in use around the world today. However, observing and recording the weather in an organized and systematic manner had been ongoing for over 100 years prior to the adoption of this coding system, and much like Australia, most countries will have historical meteorological records. In this paper we compare the wind erosion of two of the greatest droughts in Australian recorded history; the World War II (WWII) Drought (1937-1945) and the Millennium Drought (2001-2009). To do this we analysed previously unavailable meteorological observer records from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (ABM). Wind erosion records, mostly in long-hand written form, were translated to the modern WMO coding system for the WWII Drought and compared with the wind erosion of Australia's recently-ended Millennium Drought, one of the longest and harshest on record. We quantify wind erosion using Dust Event Days (DED) and a modified version of a published Dust Storm Index (DSI) to show that wind erosion during the WWII Drought was up to 4.6 times higher than during the Millennium Drought. This study has international significance because it demonstrates a methodology for tracking changes in wind erosion over the past 75 years based on observer records available in every country with a history of organized weather observation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme biomass burning (BB) events, such as those seen during the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, are becoming more frequent and intense with climate change. Ground-based observations of these events can provide useful information on the macro- and micro-physical properties of the plumes, but these observations are sparse, especially in regions which are at risk of intense bushfire events. Satellite observations of extreme BB events provide a unique perspective, with the newest generation of geostationary imagers, such as the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI), observing entire continents at moderate spatial and high temporal resolution. However, current passive satellite retrieval methods struggle to capture the high values of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) seen during these BB events. Accurate retrievals are necessary for global and regional studies of shortwave radiation, air quality modelling and numerical weather prediction. To address these issues, the Optimal Retrieval of Aerosol and Cloud (ORAC) algorithm has used AHI data to measure extreme BB plumes from the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season. The sensitivity of the retrieval to the assumed optical properties of BB plumes is explored by comparing retrieved AOT with AERONET L1.5 data over the AERONET site at Tumbarumba, New South Wales, between 1 December 2019 00:00 UTC to 3 January 2020 00:00 UTC. The study shows that for AOT values > 2, the sensitivity to assumed optical properties is substantial. The ORAC retrievals and AERONET data are compared against the JAXA Aerosol Retrieval Product (ARP), MODIS Deep Blue over land, MODIS MAIAC, SLSTR SYN and VIIRS Deep Blue products. The comparison shows the ORAC retrieval significantly improves coverage of optically thick plumes relative to the JAXA ARP, with approximately twice as many pixels retrieved and peak retrieved AOT values 1.4 higher than the JAXA ARP. The ORAC retrievals have accuracy scores between 0.742–0.744 compared to the values of 0.718–0.833 for the polar-orbiting satellite products, despite successfully retrieving approximately 28 times as many pixels over the study period as the most successful polar-orbiting satellite product. The AHI and MODIS satellite products are compared for three case studies covering a range of BB plumes over Australia. The results show good agreement between all products for plumes with AOT values ≤ 2. For extreme BB plumes, the ORAC retrieval finds values of AOT > 15, significantly higher than those seen in events classified as extreme by previous studies although with high uncertainty. A combination of hard limits in the retrieval algorithms and misclassification of BB plumes as cloud prevent the JAXA and MODIS products from returning AOT values significantly greater than 5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Accurate estimation of particulate emissions is fundamental to assessing the air quality risks posed by existing and proposed open cut black coal mines. The currently available emission estimation techniques are based on a limited range of empirical studies, and the need for additional research and development of activity and region specific particulate emission estimation methods has been recognised. This paper presents the results of empirical testing of particulate emission rates for open area surfaces in open cut black coal mines in three Australian regions. The emission rates are provided for specific wind speeds, thus allowing adjustment of emission rates for prevailing meteorology in these regions. The influence of surface watering as a control technique is also considered. Particulate emission rates are presented for a range of coal mining sources, and for specific wind speeds. Comparison of the emission rates with the existing published research confirms the emission rates are consistent with current approaches. This research significantly expands our current understanding by presenting emission rates for a range of open area sources, for specific wind speeds and surface watering controls. This more detailed emission estimation dataset provides for adjustments to default particulate emission rates to allow site specific data to be integrated into emissions estimation. This will result in more accurate emissions estimates for existing and future projects and reduce the potential for significant over- or under-estimation of particulate emissions from surface sources in open cut coal mines. Graphical abstract Image Highlights • Particulate emission rates from open cut coal mines were experimentally challenged. • Results enable regional adjustments of emission rates for prevailing meteorology. • The influence of surface watering as emission control technique was also considered. • More accurate emission estimates for existing and future projects will be possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new framework of algebraic equivalence relations between time series and new distance metrics between them, then applies these to investigate the Australian "Black Summer" bushfire season of 2019–2020. First, we introduce a general framework for defining equivalence between time series, heuristically intended to be equivalent if they differ only up to noise. Our first specific implementation is based on using change point algorithms and comparing statistical quantities such as mean or variance in stationary segments. We thus derive the existence of such equivalence relations on the space of time series, such that the quotient spaces can be equipped with a metrizable topology. Next, we illustrate specifically how to define and compute such distances among a collection of time series and perform clustering and additional analysis thereon. Then, we apply these insights to analyze air quality data across New South Wales, Australia, during the 2019–2020 bushfires. There, we investigate structural similarity with respect to this data and identify locations that were impacted anonymously by the fires relative to their location. This may have implications regarding the appropriate management of resources to avoid gaps in the defense against future fires. • A flexible framework of equivalence relations between time series is introduced. • We define and investigate new metrics via theoretical propositions and simulation. • Collections of time series may be analyzed in a cross-contextual setting. • We study air quality data across New South Wales during the 2019–2020 bushfires. • We reveal anomalous locations with respect to pollution data and geographic location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, around 640,000 non-road diesel engines (NRDEs) were in use in Australia, with a projected stock of one million units by the mid-2040s. There are no Australian regulations to limit emissions from NRDEs, and Australia has not fully benefitted from legislation elsewhere. All engines (and equipment) are imported, but the uptake of the most recent technologies has been low. The locations of NRDEs in Australia and their patterns of activity are also poorly understood. This analysis involved the development of a whole-of-Australia impact pathway modelling approach for NRDEs, focussing on PM2.5 and NO2. It defined the NRDE stock and spatial distributions of emissions, air quality and health outcomes in a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario for the period 2018 to 2063, as well as three emission management scenarios. The NONROAD model formed the basis of a bottom-up calculation of emissions for the scenarios. This covered 27 equipment types, with a breakdown by power, emission standard and age. The bottom-up results were calibrated using ABS diesel statistics, and various methods were employed to allocate emissions spatially. The CSIRO Chemical Transport Model (C-CTM) was then used to simulate air pollution across Australia without NRDEs. The C-CTM predictions were refined using satellite land-use regression, followed by perturbation for NRDE emissions. The impacts of the NRDE perturbation on health - as years of life lost (YLL) - were estimated using a life table approach, including a cessation lag structure. In 2018 NRDEs were responsible for up to 15% of anthropogenic NOX emissions, and up to 5% of anthropogenic PM2.5 emissions in Australia. The annual YLL for NRDE-related NO2 and PM2.5 concentrations equated to around 9% of the total YLL for all anthropogenic NO2 and PM2.5. Over the full time period of the analysis, the management scenarios reduced YLL by between 6% and 27%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In 2019–2020, Australia had a particularly bad bushfire season which resulted in large numbers of people and animals being exposed to smoke haze for several weeks. We conducted a literature review to examine the evidence for effects of prolonged exposure to bushfire smoke on cattle. There was general agreement that small airborne particulate matter in smoke is the substance most likely to cause problems. There was indirect evidence about effects on cattle caused by other types of pollution containing particulate matter. We found little evidence to support severe effects on cattle. This may be because cattle do not tend to suffer from the co-morbidities that, in the human population, seem to be made worse by smoke and pollution. However, small changes to death rates or disease that is not severe may go unreported, so further study is warranted. In 2019–2020, a particularly bad bushfire season in Australia resulted in cattle being exposed to prolonged periods of smoke haze and reduced air quality. Bushfire smoke contains many harmful pollutants, and impacts on regions far from the fire front, with smoke haze persisting for weeks. Particulate matter (PM) is one of the major components of bushfire smoke known to have a negative impact on human health. However, little has been reported about the potential effects that bushfire smoke has on cattle exposed to smoke haze for extended periods. We explored the current literature to investigate evidence for likely effects on cattle from prolonged exposure to smoke generated from bushfires in Australia. We conducted a search for papers related to the impacts of smoke on cattle. Initial searching returned no relevant articles through either CAB Direct or PubMed databases, whilst Google Scholar provided a small number of results. The search was then expanded to look at two sub-questions: the type of pollution that is found in bushfire smoke, and the reported effects of both humans and cattle being exposed to these types of pollutants. The primary mechanism for damage due to bushfire smoke is due to small airborne particulate matter (PM). Although evidence demonstrates that PM from bushfire smoke has a measurable impact on both human mortality and cardiorespiratory morbidities, there is little evidence regarding the impact of chronic bushfire smoke exposure in cattle. We hypothesize that cattle are not severely affected by chronic exposure to smoke haze, as evidenced by the lack of reports. This may be because cattle do not tend to suffer from the co-morbidities that, in the human population, seem to be made worse by smoke and pollution. Further, small changes to background mortality rates or transient morbidity may also go unreported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emission of black carbon (BC) particles, which cause atmospheric warming by affecting radiation budget in the atmosphere, is the result of an incomplete combustion process of organic materials. The recent wildfire event during the summer 2019–2020 in south-eastern Australia was unprecedented in scale. The wildfires lasted for nearly 3 months over large areas of the two most populated states of New South Wales and Victoria. This study on the emission and dispersion of BC emitted from the biomass burnings of the wildfires using the Weather Research Forecast–Chemistry (WRF–Chem) model aims to determine the extent of BC spatial dispersion and ground concentration distribution and the effect of BC on air quality and radiative transfer at the top of the atmosphere, the atmosphere and on the ground. The predicted aerosol concentration and AOD are compared with the observed data using the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) aethalometer and air quality network and remote sensing data. The BC concentration as predicted from the WRF–Chem model, is in general, less than the observed data as measured using the aethalometer monitoring network, but the spatial pattern corresponds well, and the correlation is relatively high. The total BC emission into the atmosphere during the event and the effect on radiation budget were also estimated. This study shows that the summer 2019–2020 wildfires affect not only the air quality and health impact on the east coast of Australia but also short-term weather in the region via aerosol interactions with radiation and clouds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoke pollution from landscape fires is a major health problem, but it is difficult to predict the impact of any particular fire. For example, smoke plumes can be mapped using remote sensing, but we do not know how the smoke is distributed in the air-column. Prescribed burning involves the deliberate introduction of smoke to human communities but the amount, composition, and distribution of the pollution may be different to wildfires. We examined whether mapped plumes produced high levels of particulate pollution (PM2.5) at permanent air quality monitors and factors that influenced those levels. We mapped 1237 plumes, all those observed in 17 years of MODIS imagery over New South Wales, Australia, but this was only ~20% of known fires. Prescribed burn plumes tended to occur over more populated areas than wildfires. Only 18% of wildfire plumes and 4% of prescribed burn plumes passed over a monitor (n = 115). A minority of plumes caused a detectable increase in PM2.5: prescribed burn plumes caused an air quality exceedance for 33% of observations in the daytime and 11% at night, wildfire plumes caused exceedances for 48% and 22% of observations in the day and night-time, respectively. Thus, most plumes remained aloft (did not reach the surface). Statistical modelling revealed that wind speed, temperature, and mixing height influenced whether a plume caused an exceedance, and there was a difference between prescribed and wild fires. In particular, in wind speeds below 1 kmhr−1, exceedance was almost certain in prescribed burns. This information will be useful for planning prescribed burning, preparing warnings, and improving our ability to predict smoke impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildfires and hazard reduction burns produce smoke that contains pollutants including particulate matter. Particulate matter less than 2.5 µ m in diameter (PM 2.5) is harmful to human health, potentially causing cardiovascular and respiratory issues that can lead to premature deaths. PM 2.5 levels depend on environmental conditions, fire behaviour and smoke dispersal patterns. Fire management agencies need to understand and predict PM 2.5 levels associated with a particular fire so that pollution warnings can be sent to communities and/or hazard reduction burns can be timed to avoid the worst conditions for PM 2.5 pollution. We modelled PM 2.5 , measured at air quality stations in New South Wales (Australia) from ∼ 1400 d when individual fires were burning near air quality stations, as a function of fire and weather variables. Using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite hotspots, we identified days when one fire was burning within 150 km of at least 1 of 48 air quality stations. We extracted ERA5 gridded weather data and daily active fire area estimates from the hotspots for our modelling. We created random forest models for afternoon, night and morning PM 2.5 levels to understand drivers of and predict PM 2.5. Fire area and boundary layer height were important predictors across the models, with temperature, wind speed and relative humidity also being important. There was a strong increase in PM 2.5 with decreasing distance, with a sharp increase when the fire was within 20 km. The models improve our understanding of the drivers of PM 2.5 from individual fires and demonstrate a promising approach to PM 2.5 model development. However, although the models predicted well overall, there were several large under-predictions of PM 2.5 that mean further model development would be required for the models to be deployed operationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concludes a series of brief papers in which we have presented and discussed the development of a new high resolution model for Australia and New Zealand. We show in this paper that the information generated by a high resolution model can be used in various ways. It can be used in its own right (e.g. emission inventory) or it can be fed into local air quality dispersion models to carry out, for example, "hot spot" analysis and impact assessment of traffic management measures. This would provide more accurate predictions than a screening model, and would be important in cases where sensitivity is required. Examples include cases where predicted air quality is close to guideline values (e.g. at critical locations such as a new residential area near a busy highway) or cases where policy measures are likely to cause relatively small impacts on emissions and fuel consumption (e.g. specific traffic management measures such as dynamic speed limits, traffic signal coordination, metering signals). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a summary of the key findings of the special issue of Atmosphere on Air Quality in New South Wales and discusses the implications of the work for policy makers and individuals. This special edition presents new air quality research in Australia undertaken by (or in association with) the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes hub, which is funded by the National Environmental Science Program on behalf of the Australian Government's Department of the Environment and Energy. Air pollution in Australian cities is generally low, with typical concentrations of key pollutants at much lower levels than experienced in comparable cities in many other parts of the world. Australian cities do experience occasional exceedances in ozone and PM2.5 (above air pollution guidelines), as well as extreme pollution events, often as a result of bushfires, dust storms, or heatwaves. Even in the absence of extreme events, natural emissions play a significant role in influencing the Australian urban environment, due to the remoteness from large regional anthropogenic emission sources. By studying air quality in Australia, we can gain a greater understanding of the underlying atmospheric chemistry and health risks in less polluted atmospheric environments, and the health benefits of continued reduction in air pollution. These conditions may be representative of future air quality scenarios for parts of the Northern Hemisphere, as legislation and cleaner technologies reduce anthropogenic air pollution in European, American, and Asian cities. However, in many instances, current legislation regarding emissions in Australia is significantly more lax than in other developed countries, making Australia vulnerable to worsening air pollution in association with future population growth. The need to avoid complacency is highlighted by recent epidemiological research, reporting associations between air pollution and adverse health outcomes even at air pollutant concentrations that are lower than Australia's national air quality standards. Improving air quality is expected to improve health outcomes at any pollution level, with specific benefits projected for reductions in long-term exposure to average PM2.5 concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to use remote sensing to measure on-road emissions and to examine the impact and usefulness of additional measurement devices at three sites. Supplementing remote sensing device (RSD) equipment with additional equipment increased the capture rate by almost 10%. Post-processing of raw data is essential to obtain useful and accurate information. A method is presented to identify vehicles with excessive emission levels (high emitters). First, an anomaly detection method is applied, followed by identification of cold start operating conditions using infrared vehicle profiles. Using this method, 0.6% of the vehicles in the full (enhanced) RSD data were identified as high emitters, of which 35% are likely in cold start mode where emissions typically stabilize to low hot running emission levels within a few minutes. Analysis of NOx RSD data confirms that poor real-world NOx performance of Euro 4/5 light-duty diesel vehicles observed around the world is also evident in Australian measurements. This research suggests that the continued dieselisation in Australia, in particular under the current Euro 5 emission standards and the more stringent NO2 air quality criteria expected in 2020 and 2025, could potentially result in local air quality issues near busy roads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particulate matter (PM) or particle pollution include the tiny particles of dust and fly ash particles are expelled from coal-burning power plants. Coal combustion is an extremely prevalent source of air pollution, and resulting PM has substantial impacts on human health, especially in industrial zones. This paper aims to design a novel hybrid deep learning framework based on long short-term memory (LSTM) integrated with a two-stage data filtering technique to accurately predict the air quality indices (i.e., PM 2.5 and PM 10) in a chosen study region 'Miles Airport, Queensland,' that meets the needs of the coal seam gas industry in Australia. The data used to construct the novel hybrid two-stage data filtering technique based on LSTM comprising of six meteorological parameters (i.e., wind direction, wind speed, air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, and rainfall) and two environmental factors (i.e., ozone and total suspended particulate). In the first stage, two robust feature selection methods, namely, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) and the classification and regression tree (CART) approach, were adopted to explore the most significant predictors. Then in the second stage, the best subset regression (BSR) technique is utilized to determine the best subsets input combinations i.e., C1, C2, and C3 based on several particular metrics. The three BSR-based input combinations were employed in the LSTM model to estimate the PM 2.5 and PM 10. Furthermore, to validate the main hybrid framework, two advanced machine learning (ML) methods (i.e., LightGBM and ridge kernel regression (KRR)) and two traditional ML methods (i.e., Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP)) were hybridized with the multi-level data filtering strategy by examining the optimal input combinations. Several statistical metrics, graphical tools, and diagnostic analyses evaluated the hybrid models. The outcomes of the PM 2.5 simulation based on 2375 data samples showed that the LSTM-C3 containing all the selected predictors yielded the most promising accuracy, followed by the LightGBM-C3 and MLP-C3 models. On the other hand, the simulation of PM 10 distribution demonstrated that the LSTM-C3 was superior to other models, followed by the KRR-C3 and LightGBM-C3 models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambient ultrafine particle number concentrations (PNC) have inhomogeneous spatio-temporal distributions and depend on a number of different urban factors, including background conditions and distant sources. This paper quantitatively compares exposure to ambient ultrafine particles at urban schools in two cities in developed countries, with high insolation climatic conditions, namely Brisbane (Australia) and Barcelona (Spain). The analysis used comprehensive indoor and outdoor air quality measurements at 25 schools in Brisbane and 39 schools in Barcelona. PNC modes were analysed with respect to ambient temperature, land use and urban characteristics, combined with the measured elemental carbon concentrations, NO x (Brisbane) and NO 2 (Barcelona). The trends and modes of the quantified weekday average daily cycles of ambient PNC exhibited significant differences between the two cities. PNC increases were observed during traffic rush hours in both cases. However, the mid-day peak was dominant in Brisbane schools and had the highest contribution to total PNC for both indoors and outdoors. In Barcelona, the contribution from traffic was highest for ambient PNC, while the mid-day peak had a slightly higher contribution for indoor concentrations. Analysis of the relationships between PNC and land use characteristics in Barcelona schools showed a moderate correlation with the percentage of road network area and an anti-correlation with the percentage of green area. No statistically significant correlations were found for Brisbane. Overall, despite many similarities between the two cities, school-based exposure patterns were different. The main source of ambient PNC at schools was shown to be traffic in Barcelona and mid-day new particle formation in Brisbane. The mid-day PNC peak in Brisbane could have been driven by the combined effect of background and meteorological conditions, as well as other local/distant sources. The results have implications for urban development, especially in terms of air quality mitigation and management at schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an integrated analysis of the costs and benefits of carefully constructed scenarios for the electrification of transport in Australia. Scenarios were constructed to responsively meet increased electricity demand, whilst maximising emission reduction, household finances and public health benefits. The scenarios bundle several technologies, including charging infrastructure, electric vehicles, home battery systems, and renewable energy. The fastest, mission-style, adoption scenario can reduce emissions by 9% of the 2030 carbon budget and reduce the loss of life by 24,000 by 2042. In all scenarios, government expenditure is dwarfed by the estimated public benefits, and households are nearly always better off in the medium to long term. Demonstrating the feasibility and advantages of surface transportation electrification in Australia, which presents cross-sections of rural and urban infrastructure, traffic and a large, socially and politically diverse population, provides broadly applicable evidence of the feasibility of electrification in other jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More timely and accurate air quality forecasting could contribute to better public health protection and air pollution prevention. Particulates are a significant indicator for measuring the degree of air pollution. This paper reports on research to model an early warning tool for coarse particulates when assessing the impact of the 12 satellite-derived and ground-based meteorological pollutants out of 30 pollutants considered using hourly Australian data from January 2018–December 2020. A one-dimensional convolutional neural network (CNN) was integrated with a one-directional fully gated recurrent unit (GRU) to forecast consecutive hours' air quality. The CNN model acts as a spatial feature extractor, whereas the new generation GRU makes it computationally efficient. The resultant hybrid ' CNN-GRU' is then comprehensively benchmarked outperforming an ensemble of six other deep learning models. The proposed model's efficacy is indicated at the four most air polluted Australian postcodes in the testing phase. A detailed error analysis with visual and statistical metrics for air quality forecasting ascertains the proposed model's countermeasure to reduce harm and loss. The practical tool is immensely beneficial and can be widely deployed to the regions of public health concern where air pollution is a significant hazard. [Display omitted] • A novel early warning hybrid PM10 forecasting framework designed for Australia. • 30 satellite and ground-based meteorological pollutants were considered with 7 modeling approaches. • CNN integrated with GRU outperformed the other models. • Early warning AI model show potential in the health, environment sector, and decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important precursors to the formation of ozone and fine particulate matter, the two pollutants of most concern in Sydney, Australia. Despite this importance, there are very few published measurements of ambient VOC concentrations in Australia. In this paper, we present mole fractions of several important VOCs measured during the campaign known as MUMBA (Measurements of Urban, Marine and Biogenic Air) in the Australian city of Wollongong (34°S). We particularly focus on measurements made during periods when clean marine air impacted the measurement site and on VOCs of biogenic origin. Typical unpolluted marine air mole fractions during austral summer 2012-2013 at latitude 34°S were established for CO2 (391.0 ± 0.6 ppm), CH4 (1760.1 ± 0.4 ppb), N2O (325.04 ± 0.08 ppb), CO (52.4 ± 1.7 ppb), O3 (20.5 ± 1.1 ppb), acetaldehyde (190 ± 40 ppt), acetone (260 ± 30 ppt), dimethyl sulphide (50 ± 10 ppt), benzene (20 ± 10 ppt), toluene (30 ± 20 ppt), C8H10 aromatics (23 ± 6 ppt) and C9H12 aromatics (36 ± 7 ppt). The MUMBA site was frequently influenced by VOCs of biogenic origin from a nearby strip of forested parkland to the east due to the dominant north-easterly afternoon sea breeze. VOCs from the more distant densely forested escarpment to the west also impacted the site, especially during two days of extreme heat and strong westerly winds. The relative amounts of different biogenic VOCs observed for these two biomes differed, with much larger increases of isoprene than of monoterpenes or methanol during the hot westerly winds from the escarpment than with cooler winds from the east. However, whether this was due to different vegetation types or was solely the result of the extreme temperatures is not entirely clear. We conclude that the clean marine air and biogenic signatures measured during the MUMBA campaign provide useful information about the typical abundance of several key VOCs and can be used to constrain chemical transport model simulations of the atmosphere in this poorly sampled region of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution and associated human exposure are important research areas in Greater Sydney, Australia. Several field campaigns were conducted to characterize the pollution sources and their impacts on ambient air quality including the Sydney Particle Study Stages 1 and 2 (SPS1 and SPS2), and the Measurements of Urban, Marine, and Biogenic Air (MUMBA). In this work, the Weather Research and Forecasting model with chemistry (WRF/Chem) and the coupled WRF/Chem with the Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS) (WRF/Chem-ROMS) are applied during these field campaigns to assess the models' capability in reproducing atmospheric observations. The model simulations are performed over quadruple-nested domains at grid resolutions of 81-, 27-, 9-, and 3-km over Australia, an area in southeastern Australia, an area in New South Wales, and the Greater Sydney area, respectively. A comprehensive model evaluation is conducted using surface observations from these field campaigns, satellite retrievals, and other data. This paper evaluates the performance of WRF/Chem-ROMS and its sensitivity to spatial grid resolutions. The model generally performs well at 3-, 9-, and 27-km resolutions for sea-surface temperature and boundary layer meteorology in terms of performance statistics, seasonality, and daily variation. Moderate biases occur for temperature at 2-m and wind speed at 10-m in the mornings and evenings due to the inaccurate representation of the nocturnal boundary layer and surface heat fluxes. Larger underpredictions occur for total precipitation due to the limitations of the cloud microphysics scheme or cumulus parameterization. The model performs well at 3-, 9-, and 27-km resolutions for surface O3 in terms of statistics, spatial distributions, and diurnal and daily variations. The model underpredicts PM2.5 and PM10 during SPS1 and MUMBA but overpredicts PM2.5 and underpredicts PM10 during SPS2. These biases are attributed to inaccurate meteorology, precursor emissions, insufficient SO2 conversion to sulfate, inadequate dispersion at finer grid resolutions, and underprediction in secondary organic aerosol. The model gives moderate biases for net shortwave radiation and cloud condensation nuclei but large biases for other radiative and cloud variables. The performance of aerosol optical depth and latent/sensible heat flux varies for different simulation periods. Among all variables evaluated, wind speed at 10-m, precipitation, surface concentrations of CO, NO, NO2, SO2, O3, PM2.5, and PM10, aerosol optical depth, cloud optical thickness, cloud condensation nuclei, and column NO2 show moderate-to-strong sensitivity to spatial grid resolutions. The use of finer grid resolutions (3- or 9-km) can generally improve the performance for those variables. While the performance for most of these variables is consistent with that over the U.S. and East Asia, several differences along with future work are identified to pinpoint reasons for such differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildfires and controlled hazard reduction burns produce smoke that contains pollutants including particulate 45 matter. Particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5) is harmful to human health, potentially causing cardiovascular and respiratory issues that can lead to premature deaths. PM2.5 levels depend on environmental conditions, fire behaviour and smoke dispersal patterns. It is important for forest-fire management agencies to understand and predict PM2.5 levels associated with a particular fire, so that pollution warnings can be sent to communities and/or hazard reduction burns can be timed to avoid the worst conditions for PM2.5 pollution. We modelled PM2.5, measured at air quality stations in NSW Australia, from 1500 historical individual fires as a function of fire and weather variables. Using VIIRS satellite hotspots, we identified days where one fire was burning within 150 km of one of 48 air quality station. We extracted ERA5 gridded weather data and fire area estimates from the hotspots for our modelling. We created random forest models for afternoon, night and morning PM2.5 to understand drivers of and predict PM2.5. Fire area and boundary layer height were important predictors across the models, with temperature, wind speed and relative humidity also important. There was a strong increase in PM2.5 modelled with decreasing distance, with a sharp increase when the fire was within 15 km. The models improve understanding of drivers of PM2.5 from individual fires and demonstrate a promising approach to PM2.5 model development. However, although the models predicted well overall, there were several large under-predictions of PM2.5 that mean further model development would be required for the models to be deployed operationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lead is a persistent pollutant and the subject of many environmental studies, yet, in Australia, the extent of atmospheric lead emissions from the use of leaded petrol is unquantified. This paper details the first comprehensive account of leaded petrol sales and its lead concentrations over the 70 years of use in Australia. The resulting atmospheric lead emissions are calculated to provide the most complete understanding of the volume of lead released to the Australian continent from the consumption of leaded petrol. Atmospheric emissions of lead to the entire Australian continent from leaded petrol are calculated to total 240,510 tonnes over seven decades of use, peaking at 7869 tonnes in 1974. Total emissions for individual states and territories range from 1745 to 67,893 tonnes, with New South Wales responsible for the largest emissions. The effect of regulations on allowable concentrations of tetraethyl-lead additives are observed in the reduction of lead emissions in New South Wales and Victoria. The consequences to human health and the environment of leaded petrol consumption in Australia's populous cities are examined against historical air quality data and blood lead levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sydney Metro is the biggest project of Australia's public transport, which was designed to provide passengers with more trains and faster services. This project was first implemented in 2017 and is planned to be completed in 2024. As presented, the project is currently in the construction stage located on the ground stations of the Sydney Trains Bankstown line (T3). Based on this stage, several construction activities will generate air pollutants, which will affect the air quality around construction areas. Moreover, it might cause health problems to people around there and also the passengers who usually take the train on the T3 line. However, there is no specific data for air quality inside the train that may be affected by the construction from each area. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the air quality inside the train carriage of all related stations from the T3 line. A sampling campaign was conducted over 3 months to analyze particulate matter (PM) concentration, the main indoor pollutants including formaldehyde (HCHO) and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC). The results of the T3 line were analyzed and compared to Airport & South line (T8) that were not affected by the project's construction. The results of this study indicate that Sydney Metro construction activities insignificantly affected the air quality inside the train. Average PM2.5 and PM10 inside the train of T3 line in the daytime were slightly higher than in the nighttime. The differences in PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations from these periods were around 6.8 μg/m3 and 12.1 μg/m3, respectively. The PM concentrations inside the train from the T3 line were slightly higher than the T8 line. However, these concentrations were still lower than those recommended by the national air quality standards. For HCHO and TVOC, the average HCHO and TVOC concentrations were less than the recommendation criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we present a pre-operational forecasting assimilation system of different types of aerosols. This system has been developed within the chemistry-transport model of Météo-France, MOCAGE, and uses the assimilation of the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) onboard both Terra and Aqua. It is based on the AOD assimilation system within the MOCAGE model. It operates on a daily basis with a global configuration of 1 ∘ × 1 ∘ (longitude × latitude). The motivation of such a development is the capability to predict and anticipate extreme events and their impacts on the air quality and the aviation safety in the case of a huge volcanic eruption. The validation of the pre-operational system outputs has been done in terms of AOD compared against the global AERONET observations within two complete years (January 2018–December 2019). The comparison between both datasets shows that the correlation between the MODIS assimilated outputs and AERONET over the whole period of study is 0.77, whereas the biases and the RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) are 0.006 and 0.135, respectively. The ability of the pre-operational system to predict extreme events in near real time such as the desert dust transport and the propagation of the biomass burning was tested and evaluated. We particularly presented and documented the desert dust outbreak which occurred over Greece in late March 2018 as well as the wildfire event which happened on Australia between July 2019 and February 2020. We only presented these two events, but globally the assimilation chain has shown that it is capable of predicting desert dust events and biomass burning aerosols which happen all over the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is increasingly acknowledged that the quality of, and/or lack of, exposure data are often a weakness in studies examining links between air quality and health, In this paper we review studies of air pollution and health in Australia and New Zealand and assess the quality of exposure data used. There have been over 80 peer reviewed published studies looking at air quality and health in Australia and New Zealand. Of these, over 30 have looked overtly at health endpoints0 and more than 20 more have referred to health and/or exposure in some way. We conclude that the measures of exposure used in most of these studies are not great indicators of exposure. However, studies in this part of the world are no different to studies around the world where exposure estimates are also often weak. We suggest that as scientists we must acknowledge and accept this weakness while also agreeing that we can and must strive to develop better exposure estimates that account for intra-urban variability in pollution levels, personal mobility, and the importance of micro-environments in personal pollution exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent acknowledgement of the sensitivity of air quality to changes in climate has initiated a closer examination of the relationships between meteorology and air quality. This paper presents the estimated response of daily air pollutant concentrations in Melbourne, Australia to local-scale meteorology. The meteorological-pollutant relationships have been assessed after controlling for long-term trends, seasonality, weekly emissions, spatial variation, and temporal persistence using the framework of generalized additive models (GAMs). Overall, results found that the aggregate impact of meteorological variables in the models explained 26.3% of the variance in O3, 21.1% in PM10, and 26.7% in NO2. This indicates that meteorology – at the local-scale, is a relatively strong driver of air quality in Melbourne. Analysis of partial residuals plots found that changes in temperature, particularly when above 35 °C, resulted in the strongest positive response for O3 (150%), PM10 (150%) and NO2 (120%). Other variables (boundary layer height, winds, water vapor pressure, radiation, precipitation, and mean sea-level pressure) displayed some importance for one or more of the pollutants, but their impact in the models was less pronounced. In sum, we provide results that form a solid foundation for understanding the importance of local-scale meteorology as a driver of regional air pollution. Additionally, these results can be used to provide a window into how changes in climate may affect air quality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper outlines and evaluates the improvements made to CSIRO's meteorological and air pollution model TAPM between V3 released in May 2005 and the latest version (V4) that was released in October 2008. Various improvements to the model science are described, including changes to the modelled vegetation, soil, momentum fluxes and turbulence calculations. The performance of the model is summarised for several meteorological and air pollution verification datasets. The results show that it performs well for a variety of locations for predictions of meteorology and annual extreme (high) concentrations, and the consistently good performance of TAPM across a range of studies gives greater confidence in the use of the model for air pollution modelling applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prescribed fires are conducted each year across Australia for fuel management and/or ecological reasons. In some regions, during the period of intensive prescribed burning, large quantities of hazardous air contaminants may be emitted and may exceed urban air quality guidelines. The impact on community health will depend on what hazardous pollutants the population is exposed to, the levels of exposures and the potential for such exposures to cause adverse health effects among the community. The paper will discuss findings from a review- of Australian and international literature regarding implications of exposure to bushfire smoke 'air toxics' on community health. Most studies have been on large fires, whether accidental or during forest clearing activities with little to no research on community health and air toxics exposures downwind of prescribed fires. The review- has shown that the primary pollutant consistently exceeding air quality guidelines downwind of large bushfires was particulate matter, but it also highlighted that there is clearly a need to further investigate the effects of bushfire on public health. Some of the issues to be addressed include • Monitoring the seasonal exposure of communities to hazardous pollutants released during prescribed burning activities and determining major factors that influence exposure levels • Assessing the health implications of such exposures, especially in relation to existing (urban) air quality measures or by developing a bushfire air quality index as a tool for better risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor air quality poses a risk to human health, particularly to those people suffering cardiovascular illness. In this paper, we survey a range of techniques used in Australia and internationally to forecast air quality. The levels of technology used in Australia appear to be comparable to those used internationally and the accuracy of the best Australian forecast results is comparable to the best internationally. Based on this survey, we recommend that future work in Australia should be directed towards unifying the methods of displaying and reporting the forecast results. Secondly, techniques need to be developed to blend different types of forecasts using fuzzy neural network techniques. Thirdly, we need to consider the use of ensemble forecasts and model-data fusion to reduce forecast uncertainty and to provide an estimate of forecast error. The implementation of such a major program would require a nation-wide, coordinated research effort to develop new models and to provide improved methodologies of assessment of the impacts of pollution (such as directly predicting rates of mortality); to develop strategies for reduction of pollution; and to strengthen the interface between air quality science and those charged with the responsibility for air quality regulation and downstream clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of air pollution on community health is the major reason for controlling pollution emissions to the atmosphere. Improvements in air quality are believed to result in substantial reductions in health related costs. Focusing on fine particles, this paper looks at the association between air pollution and health as evidenced by outcomes of epidemiological studies of daily mortality rates and morbidity data. Exposure to very high pollutant concentrations occurred in the industrial smogs that took place up to the 1960s and the health effects were obvious and dramatic. However, can health effects still be discerned at the particle levels typical of modern urban regions? In the absence of influenza or other epidemics, the major influence on mortality rates is meteorology. This influence is poorly understood and leads to a high degree of uncertainty in demonstrating any association between air pollution and health, even with the use of sophisticated statistical techniques. Reservations are expressed about the statistical procedures which, despite their sophisticated nature, may overstate any association between health and air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring the level of pollution generated by both planned and unplanned vegetation fires is a fundamental requirement for assessing human health impacts, informing public health actions, and ensuring that regulatory requirements are met. The issue is of growing importance because of the increasing use of 'prescribed burning' - the planned setting of fires under mild weather conditions to reduce fuel loads and therefore lower fire intensities from unplanned vegetation fires. This practice often causes the pooling of smoke in airsheds and thus conflicts with air quality statutes. In this paper, we review biomass smoke monitoring practices in Australia and North America. In North America, air quality has enormous influence over planned burning and consequently there has been considerable investment and development in the monitoring of smoke emissions from fires. In Australia, the monitoring of particulate pollution has been focused on urban and industrial areas. Samplers used for this purpose may not be appropriate for measuring smoke from bushfires due to long averaging times and non-real-time data reporting. Drawing on North American approaches we suggest that Australian populations in fire prone areas would benefit from improved management of smoke pollution from both planned and unplanned fires by increased use of (a) simple local guidelines based on the visibility of landmarks, (b) portable and mobile samplers with real-time reporting of pollution levels via the internet, and (c) dissemination of smoke forecasts using predictive smoke dispersal modelling. Benefits of more temporally and spatially accurate data include (a) more appropriate tools and greater capacity to support public health responses to pollution episodes, (b) improved monitoring of planned burns, and (c) better validation of predictive dispersion models. Ultimately this will provide an appropriate knowledge-base for the development of prescribed burning policies, guidelines and practices for the overall benefit of public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting future air quality in Australian cities dominated by eucalypt emissions requires an understanding of their emission potentials in a warmer climate. Here we measure the temperature response in isoprene emissions from saplings of four different Eucalyptus species grown under current and future average summertime temperature conditions. The future conditions represent a 2050 climate under Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5, with average daytime temperatures of 294.5 K. Ramping the temperature from 293 to 328 K resulted in these eucalypts emitting isoprene at temperatures 4–9 K higher than the default maximum emission temperature in the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN). New basal emission rate measurements were obtained at the standard conditions of 303 K leaf temperature and 1000 µmol m -2 s -1 photosynthetically active radiation and converted into landscape emission factors. We applied the eucalypt temperature responses and emission factors to Australian trees within MEGAN and ran the CSIRO Chemical Transport Model for three summertime campaigns in Australia. Compared to the default model, the new temperature responses resulted in less isoprene emission in the morning and more during hot afternoons, improving the statistical fit of modelled to observed ambient isoprene. Compared to current conditions, an additional 2 ppb of isoprene is predicted in 2050, causing hourly increases up to 21 ppb of ozone and 24-hourly increases of 0.4 µgm-3 of aerosol in Sydney. A 550 ppm CO2 atmosphere in 2050 mitigates these peak Sydney ozone mixing ratios by 4 ppb. Nevertheless, these forecasted increases in ozone are up to one-fifth of the hourly Australian air quality limit, suggesting that anthropogenic NOx should be further reduced to maintain healthy air quality in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]