Residential AQA, Westbourne Park in London

Aether was commissioned to undertake an air quality assessment, air quality neutral assessment and construction dust assessment for a proposed large residential development on Edenham Way in Westbourne Park in London.

The challenge

The development is located within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) where there have been wide spread exceedances of annual mean nitrogen dioxide concentrations in recent years, primarily due to high levels of traffic. Therefore RBKC has declared the whole borough as an Air Quality Management Area and air quality is therefore a key issue for the planning application.

The solution

The dispersion modelling tool ADMS-Roads, was used in combination with local meteorological and monitoring data, traffic data and energy centre data to predict nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and particulate matter (PM₁₀) concentrations at the site and at nearby residential locations. This allowed concentrations at the development site pre and post development to be assessed and appropriate mitigation to be put in place.

The modelling showed that in the pre development scenario, annual mean nitrogen dioxide concentrations were predicted to be above the objective at all locations. This was primarily due to the high background concentrations. With development, the change in concentrations was predicted to be negligible due to no increase in car journeys being assumed and the energy centre impact being minimal.

An air quality neutral assessment was undertaken and found to be compliant with London’s ‘air quality neutral’ guidance for buildings and transport.

Emissions and dust from the construction phase of a development can have a significant impact on local air quality. A brief assessment was undertaken to highlight the main issues and suggestions of mitigation provided.

The result

Due to the predicted exceedances of annual mean nitrogen dioxide concentrations, it was recommended that NO_x/NO₂ filters were installed in all of the flats. In addition the developer was encouraged to consider further mitigation measures in order to minimise the use of private vehicles by residents.

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