Achievements in 2020

We continue to improve our air quality monitoring, forecasting and research capabilities in meeting the data and information need by the people of New South Wales.

Expansion of air quality monitoring in 2020

In 2020, the NSW Government expanded the standard air quality monitoring network from 51 to 55 stations and the rural network was expanded from 35 to 39 stations:

• Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie on the Mid-north Coast, previously deployed during the 2019–2020 bushfire emergency, were converted to long-term monitoring stations in April 2020.
• Rural stations at Grafton and Lismore in the Northern Rivers, Merimbula on the South Coast, and Cooma in the Snowy Mountains, previously deployed during the 2019–2020 bushfire emergency, have been maintained as long-term stations of the rural network, in April 2020.
• Penrith, in the Sydney North-west region, was commissioned in July 2020.
• Morisset, in the Lake Macquarie region, was commissioned in November 2020.
• Lidcombe, in the Sydney East region, was commissioned in March 2020, to replace the nearby Chullora station that will be decommissioned in 2021.
• The Merriwa background air quality monitoring station in the Upper Hunter region was upgraded in July 2020 to monitor particles as PM2.5, visibility, ozone, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide.
• 12 stations in the rural network were upgraded to measure particles indicatively as PM2.5 and PM10. All 33 rural stations in New South Wales, and 3 of 6 located in other states, now measure PM2.5 and PM10 separately.

Better public information

Reporting of hourly average particle levels

We upgraded our website in response to community requests for improved reporting of near-real time changes in air quality, publishing hourly-averaged particle measurements and enhanced health guidance and advice in February 2020.

Reporting of air quality categories

We introduced air quality categories (AQC) to replace air quality indices (AQI), applying a nationally consistent approach for reporting hourly PM2.5 data and associated health advice in November 2020.

Expansion of data delivery services

We launched additional online data service tools that support customised delivery of current and historical air quality and meteorological data to response agencies, businesses and the public.

• Our web-based Air Quality Application Programming Interface (API) allows web users to stream data for business and mobile applications.
• We launched the air quality data explorer, a tool that lets citizens spatially and temporally view air quality and meteorological data along with other information, such as status of ongoing bushfires or hazard reduction burns. This facility is accessible from the SEED portal’s map viewer and the air quality website. A ‘how-to’ video has been published to guide users of the data explorer.

Review of Air Quality Monitoring Plan for New South Wales

The revised NSW Air Quality Monitoring Plan explains how the NSW government intends to monitor ambient air quality across metropolitan and regional areas, during the five-year period 2020–2025. The Plan meets the requirement of National Environment Protection (Ambient Air Quality) Measure (AAQ NEPM), Part 4 Section 10, that each jurisdiction must have a plan setting how it proposes to monitor air quality to meet the purposes of the AAQ NEPM. The purpose of air quality monitoring is to build the scientific evidence base for air quality management that reduces pollution and protects communities. The Plan for 2020–2025 focuses on monitoring in five regions with the highest population, Greater Sydney, the Lower Hunter, the Central Coast, the Illawarra region and the Albury-Wodonga region.

For more information, please see the NSW Air Quality Monitoring Plan 2020-25.

Research projects

Blue Mountains and Lithgow Air Watch

At the request of the Blue Mountains and Lithgow community groups, the EPA commissioned a 12-month air quality monitoring project in partnership with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s Atmospheric Science Branch.

The Blue Mountains and Lithgow Air Watch project found that between the 1 June 2019 and 31 May 2020, the air quality in Katoomba (where the compliance station was located) was generally very good. Air quality complied with the national air quality standards, outside of the period of the exceptional bushfires of spring–summer 2019–2020.

The Sydney Air Quality Study

The first-phase report (PDF 14.2MB) of the Sydney Air Quality Study (covering 2017–2019) was released in November 2020. This report discusses how air quality has changed in Greater Sydney over the past two decades. It also includes new insights into the contribution of major sources to air pollution and population exposure in the region.

The next phase of the study will present new findings on the health cost of air pollution. The health burden analysis based on results published in the first report will be finalised in collaboration with NSW Health and the NSW Environment Protection Authority in 2021.

Enhanced modelling and forecasting capability

The Enhancing Air Quality Forecasting program is progressively improving the accuracy of air quality forecasting in New South Wales. A wide variety of new tools had been developed, tailored, run and validated for predicting air quality in NSW. Major improvements were made in smoke emissions modelling and forecasting during the NSW bushfires in 2019–20 to more accurately predict the smoke and associated health impacts on regional air quality from the extreme scale of the wildfires.

To further enhance the accuracy of air quality forecasting, dynamic modelling of pollutant emissions from human sources, such as residential wood heating, power stations and motor vehicles, has been under development within the Modular Emissions Modelling System (MEMS) project. An advanced wind-blown dust emissions scheme was also being investigated through research collaborations with third-party science providers to better capture the regional air quality conditions during dust storm events.

Regional summer ozone monitoring campaign

New national standards for gaseous pollutants are expected to be introduced by the National Environment Protection Council in 2021. One of the proposed changes is the introduction of a rolling 8-hour standard for ozone, of 6.5 parts per hundred million (pphm), to replace the 1-hour and 4-hour standards. Ozone is measured as a standard parameter in the Greater Metropolitan Region, given it is the major pollutant produced in urban photochemical smog.

However, during the January 2019 heatwave, a concentration just under the standard was measured at Gunnedah, a regional centre in northern New South Wales. As such, a scoping study is being undertaken during the 2020-21 summer to measure ozone levels at five major regional centres in New South Wales. The selected scoping locations are Tamworth, Bathurst, Orange, Albury and Wagga Wagga North. These will supplement measurements made routinely in the Greater Metropolitan Region, and in regional New South Wales at Gunnedah, Goulburn, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour.

Community engagement

Air Quality Monitoring must serve community needs. The NSW Government listens and learns from communities, pursuing the best outcomes and creating opportunities that benefit all. Monitoring must always be done for the sake of people’s wellbeing and the prosperity of New South Wales. The NSW EPA leads engagement activities to identify and respond to community needs. The EPA produces a range of draft policies, agreements and reports that call for community involvement, engagement and consultation.

NSW Government Air Program scientists participate in community engagement activities and panels administered by the NSW EPA. Examples include the Lower Hunter Dust Deposition Study, the Namoi Region Air Quality Advisory Committee, the Newcastle Community Consultative Committee on the Environment, and the Upper Hunter Air Quality Advisory Committee.

Other activities include the Rural Air Quality Monitoring Network, which is supported by 39 citizen scientists who help to maintain each station and respond to feedback gathered from the channels listed above.