Industries We Work With

The impacts of dust and air quality affect us all and are concerns for most industrial, commercial and public organistaions. We work in many countries beyond the British and Irish islands from Australia to the USA and Azerbaijan to Portugal. Our clients' activities are equally variable and range from running docks to managing the environmental impacts of steel works and from road construction to running museums.

Many industrial activities produce dust or impact on air quality; others may be adversely affected by neighbours' activities and the public have a direct and often increasing concern with undesirable impacts. It is essential that due consideration is given to the whole network of impacts at the earliest stages of planning as well as during and after implementation.

DustScanAQ provides consultancy services to a wide range of sectors including:

Minerals, oil and gas
Food and agriculture
Transport and infrastructure
Planning and development
Construction and refurbishment
Power generation

Recycling and waste management
Manufacturing
Local and national government
Storage and warehousing
Docks, harbours and marinas
Public institutions - schools, hospitals etc.

Air Quality Residential Feasibility Case Study

Written By

DustScan Editor

Background

The client was seeking planning permission for the erection of four detached residential properties on a parcel of land adjacent to a heavily trafficked A-Road. To support the planning application, an air quality assessment was required.

Issue

The local authority felt that due to the adjacent A-Road, future occupants of the proposed residential units may be exposed to illegal levels of air pollution, namely nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

Solution

DustScanAQ liaised with the local authority to agree a suitable scope of work. It was agreed dispersion modelling would be used to determine that the proposed residential units were a suitable distance from the A-Road and pollutant concentrations were within the objectives. If pollutant concentrations exceeded the objectives, DustScanAQ would offer advice in the form of design changes and mitigation. The dispersion modelling followed the latest guidance from the Institute of Air Quality Management (IAQM) and Environmental Protection UK (EPUK). Model outputs were processed to produce pollutant contour maps. This contour below illustrates that annual mean NO2 concentrations are well below the relevant air quality objective at the entirety of the proposed residential plots.