Urban Air Quality

Question 1

What is a particulate?

Answer 1

Tiny pieces of solids and liquids floating in the air.

Question 2

How do particulate levels vary in urban and rural areas?

Answer 2

More particulate are found in urban areas (10-40 microgram per m cubed) compared to less than 10 in rural areas.

Question 3

What are the 4 sources of particulates?

Answer 3

-Vehicle exhausts
-Burning
-Construction, mining and quarrying
-Plants and moulds

Question 4

How many particulates are produced by vehicle exhausts?

Answer 4

Produce 80% of fine particulates.

Question 5

How is burning a source of particulates?

Answer 5

Burning of cigarettes and fuel produces fine particulates like soot and ash.

Question 6

How is construction mining and quarrying a source of particulates?

Answer 6

These activities produce course particulates like tiny fragments of rock and cement dust.

Question 7

How are plants and moles a source of particulates?

Answer 7

Generate coarse particulates like pollen and mould spores.

Question 8

How do particulates cause health problems?

Answer 8

Coarser particulates are filtered out but fine particulates can enter the lungs and cause asthma, lung cancer and heart disease.

Question 9

How is photochemical smog created?

Answer 9

When pollutants that come from burning fossil fuels constant sunlight the UV light causes it to break down and release harmful chemicals forming a smog.

Question 10

What health problems is photochemical smog linked to?

Answer 10

Breathing difficulties and respiratory disorders.

Question 11

Give an example of a place that struggles with photochemical smog.

Answer 11

Los Angeles, USA

Question 12

What are the 4 small scale methods to reduce air pollution?

Answer 12

-Congestion charging
-Pedestrianisation
-Improve public transport
-Schemes to reduce traffic

Question 13

What are the 2 larger scale methods of tackling urban air pollution?

Answer 13

-New legislations
-Alternative fuels

Question 14

How does congestion charging reduce air pollution?

Answer 14

Includes charging people when they use their vehicles in certain places at certain times encouraging them to drive less and use public transport more.

Question 15

Give an example of congestion charging being effective.

Answer 15

Central London:
Congestion charges reduced emissions by 15% in its first year of operation.

Question 16

What are the negatives of congestion charge reducing air pollution?

Answer 16

-Some people travel around the edge of cities now increasing traffic in those areas.
-The volume of traffic is so high it’s difficult to enforce fines.

Question 17

What is pedestrianisation and how does it reduce air pollution?

Answer 17

Restricts vehicles from entering certain places reducing road traffic.

Question 18

Give an example of where pedestrianisation has been used.

Answer 18

Bedford, the high street was widened to encourage more walkers to use the high street.

Question 19

What is the negative of pedestrianisation?

Answer 19

Can lead to ships recording fewer customers because people can only get to them on foot.

Question 20

How does improving public transport increase air quality?

Answer 20

Encouraging people to use public transport instead of their cars reduces pollution.

Question 21

Give 3 examples of how cities may improve their public transport.

Answer 21

-Improved bus services. Eg: bus lines to make buses quicker.
-Park and ride schemes to make it easier to access public transport.
-Teams and light railway services they don’t get caught in road congestion.

Question 22

Give an example of public transport improvements.

Answer 22

The metro link in Manchester.
Has taken 2.6 million cars off the roads.

Question 23

What are the negatives of public transport improvements?
include the example.

Answer 23

-Improvements are expensive
Metro link cost £1 billion
-Park and ride schemes can shift traffic problems elsewhere.

Question 24

How can schemes to reduce traffic reduce air pollution?

Answer 24

Schemes such as car sharing reduce the amount of cars on the road so less pollution is emitted.

Question 25

Give an example of a scheme to reduce traffic.

Answer 25

London: car sharing scheme.

Question 26

What are the negatives of car sharing schemes.

Answer 26

Car sharing can be inconvenient and dangerous.

Question 27

Name 2 laws that aimed to reduce air pollution.

Answer 27

-Uk clean air act
-Road vehicles regulations

Question 28

What is the UK clean Air act?

Answer 28

Aimed to reduce domestic pollution by introducing smoke control areas where only smokeless fuels could be burned.
Introduced taller chimneys so pollutants would be released higher in the atmosphere.

Question 29

What is the road vehicles regulations act?

Answer 29

Aimed to reduce exhaust emissions by ensuring cars pass an emissions test in their MOT.

Question 30

How can alternative fuels reduce air pollution?

Answer 30

If petrol and diesel are replaced with cleaner fuels they will reduce less.

Question 31

What are the 2 alternative fuels?

Answer 31

-Biofuels produced from plants.
-Electric vehicles that run off batteries.

Question 32

What are the negatives of alternative fuels?

Answer 32

Biofuels:
-Growing crops to create the fuels can reduce biodiversity.
Electric Vehicles:
-Need recharge points
-Producing and disposing of batteries can cause environmental problems.