Air Management and Policy
What we do – Air Management and Policy
Making sure air quality management is informed by the best scientific evidence
For over 15 years we have been working with local and national government agencies to make sure that air quality policy practice keep up with scientific advance.
Areas of specialism include
- Road tunnel management
- Monitoring and indicator design
- Exposure assessment
Examples include:
- Review of airborne dust monitoring in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle (2024)
- Advice on national air quality monitoring in airsheds (Ministry for the Environment, 2024)
- Good Practice Guide for the Assessment of Road Transport Projects (2022)
- Review of the NZTA Nitrogen Dioxide Monitoring Network (2021)
- Ministry of Education COVID-19 Response Ventilation Programme (2021-22)
- Air quality indicator design for traffic-related air pollution (Greater Wellington, 2021)
- The use of air quality guidelines and standards (Ministry for the Environment, 2021)
The Air Quality Collective
Current and recent projects
Mapping traffic pollution: Using cheap samplers and semi-empirical modelling to gain insight into how urban planning and design impacts exposure
The degree to which road traffic pollutes urban air varies hugely, depending how much traffic is nearby. We’ve been mapping traffic pollution in detail across all New Zealand’s towns and cities over the last decade. In doing so we’ve been refining the methods to...
DustGrid: Using low-cost sensors to help manage post-Cyclone dusts
In February 2023 floods following Cyclone Gabrielle dumped 20 million tonnes of silt across 4 productive farming valleys in New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay. As recovery operations disturbed the silt dense clouds of dust posed a new hazard that lingered for months after the...
Smart Home Air Quality System – SHAQS
When it became clear that New Zealand’s successful elimination strategy was to be replaced with one of mitigation, it also became clear that we needed to understand the ventilation practices in our indoor spaces. As part of the Ministry of Health fund to improve...
The Air We Share: Helping teachers and students to improve air quality in classrooms
Many teachers know that period 3 brain fog, when the children in front of them slump their shoulders and everything seems harder. It could be stale air. Without good ventilation contaminants can build up, including other people’s breath. And that breath could contain...
Recent blog posts
Latest news and blogs
Indoor Air Quality Research Centre of New Zealand calls for government prioritisation on ventilation this World Ventil8 Day
As the world faces the challenge of maintaining healthy indoor environments in an era of pandemics and climate change, World Ventil8 Day 2024 is set to spotlight the critical role of ventilation in enhancing health and wellbeing. This year’s theme “Enabling Action”...
Does New Zealand have an air quality problem? Part two: Wood – it might be “green” but it ain’t clean
New Zealand has some of the sweetest, purest, clearest clean air anywhere in the world. Most of the time. In most places. This is the continuing story of those other times and places. New Zealand is harbouring four guilty secrets about its air – four situations...
Our Air 2024 – Commentary from The Collective
The Ministry for the Environment and StatsNZ released Our Air 2024, an update on the state of the air in Aotearoa/New Zealand's. This is a very important document, and we can't pass the opportunity to give our perspective on its content and what it may mean for air...
Does New Zealand have an air quality problem? Part one: Density and diesels don’t mix
New Zealand has some of the sweetest, purest, clearest clean air anywhere in the world. Most of the time. In most places. This is the story of those other times and places. New Zealand is harbouring four guilty secrets about its air – four situations where our...
Why is Particulate Matter so special?
Air pollution is one of those things, like weather and climate, that because it affects everyone we all have an opinion about it. This makes it an ideal area for "citizen" and "traditional" scientists to collaborate and work towards improving our lives. However, air...
On air cleaners and extras
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the status quo in a number of ways. From helping the world realize that you can run scientific conferences that are accessible for people who cannot (or will not) travel, to rising the very thorny question of "should kids be...
How good is good enough?
Chasing the dream of accurate and reliable low cost sensors in air qualityFor quite a few years now, there are a number of projects around consumer level (as opposed to research grade) air quality sensors. (Air Quality Egg, Speck, Dustduino, Air Beam and our own...
Home heating: what’s the problem?
Using solid fuel Use of solid fuel, mostly wood but also coal, particularly in some South Island towns, is a major source of night-time airborne pollution in many places in New Zealand. On cold, still winter nights dispersion is poor and emissions from domestic...
What is air pollution?
So what is air pollution? Pollution is bad. The word ‘pollution’ conjures up images of something dark, something menacing, something nasty that turns up where it shouldn’t. The notion of something clean and pure being invaded by something repulsive or distasteful that...