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Air quality research

High quality research is an essential input to the development of future policy and management actions to improve air quality, as it provides a robust base of knowledge and tools to underpin decision-making.

Considerable research on air quality has been conducted overseas, particularly in the United States and Europe, and this has informed air quality management in Australia. While Australia continues to draw on overseas research, Australian research is important to help establish relationships between air pollution and impacts under local conditions.

In 2005, the Australian Government established the Clean Air Research Program (CARP) to identify and address some of the major research gaps in the management of air quality in Australia. CARP provided $1.4 million to support research that is directly applicable to national air quality management issues, with the overall objective being to support and facilitate research activities that underpin policies and management actions to minimise the human health impacts of air pollution. CARP projects identified a number of issues with significant implications for air quality management, including:

• Climate change is predicted to lead to a significant increase in ozone levels by 2020 and 2050.
• Air quality management actions aimed at reducing particulate matter (PM) should take into account emissions of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) precursors, in addition to primary PM emissions.
• Biogenic emissions, especially isoprene, are a significant contributor to urban SOA and ozone.
• Woodheaters are a significantly higher contributor to urban PM pollution than indicated by current inventories.

In addition to CARP, the Australian Government commissioned a series of research projects over the past ten years and these have made a significant contribution to the knowledge base relating to air pollution management in Australia. This research investigated many of the key relationships between emission sources and human health impacts.