#Dieselgate and the importance of monitoring
News from the LAQN

The VW emissions rigging scandal is a watershed moment for air pollution, catapulting the issue of urban air quality and diesel emissions into headlines around the world.

The Environmental Research Group at King's is unique in the UK, housing both a monitoring and modelling team that work collaboratively on research into trends and sources of pollution in the capital. This collaboration allows model runs to be checked against real-world monitoring data from the London Air Quality Network.

In a research note submitted to Defra in 2009, researchers at King's and the University of Leeds reported the discrepancy between expected emissions reductions and real-world monitoring data over the period 2003 -2007.

The paper noted that, in contrast to expected falls of around 20%, NOX decreased in outer-London by only 8%,whilst increasing by around 7% in central and inner-London.

These findings led the researchers to investigate traffic changes between inner and outer-London over the period, concluding that the rise in diesel vehicles in central London, not seen in outer-London, was a likely cause.

The report concludes: "The disparity between the emissions trends and those from the meteorologically-averaged measurements could not be clearer..."

The VW events highlight the importance of maintaining a robust, real-world monitoring network such as the LAQN, to provide constant feedback to researchers and policy makers alike. The range of roadside, background and rural sites within the network allows researchers to tease out important trends and identify possible causes.

We thank all the boroughs and BIDs who participate in the network, which continues to be a vital resource for London and the UK.

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Item date 12/10/2015

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