Alistair Burn talks at the Habitats Directive: Air Quality and Ecological Impact Assessment Meeting.

1.
Habitats Directive: Air Quality and
Ecological Impact Assessment
Natural England’s View
Alastair Burn
CIEEM/IAQM Workshop, July 2015

2. Air pollution risk to England’s Natura 2000 sites
SACs
Source: UK CL Focal Centre, 2015
• 96% SACs and 91% SSSIs in England exceed
critical loads
• Biodiversity 2020 - air pollution as threat to
biodiversity.
• UK Biodiversity Indicators – Indicator B5a:
ecological impacts of air pollution
• Habitats Directive reporting – air pollution
category - threat & pressure

3. Regulation of sources
Main sources of nitrogen deposition are NOx from
combustion (traffic/industry) and NH3 (mostly from
agriculture); although the relative importance will
depend on location
Regulatory decisions need to be made in the context
of:
•wide range of impacts/ sources
•high background levels of nitrogen deposition
•air quality impacts not reflected in assessment of
site condition
•uncertainties in risk assessment

4. Uncertainties in air quality risk assessment

5. Natural England’s actions to improve our ability to
address air pollution impacts
To support regulatory decision-making and to reduce some of the
uncertainties we are :
1. Improving our approach to assessing site condition
2. Developing tools to tackle unregulated sources
3. Developing an holistic approach to deal with the range of
impacts at a site (Site Nitrogen Action Plans)

6. 1. Improving assessment of site condition
• Joint work with JNCC, NRW, SNH & NIEA.
• To develop a Decision Framework that provides a means of attributing nitrogen
deposition as a contributory factor to unfavourable condition on protected sites.
• The framework incorporates both national/research information and site based
information, including:
• the N deposition at the site and a measure of its certainty
• how the deposition relates to the critical load range for that habitat and a
measure of certainty around that critical load range
• site-based evidence of N impact.

7. 2. Tackling unregulated sources
Through the Rural Development Programme for England:
•Countryside Stewardship Scheme –incentives include capital
grants for woodland (buffer) creation, slurry store covers,
reduced fertiliser input
•Countryside Productivity Scheme –grants towards eg innovative
equipment for slurry management, managing ammonia
emissions
•Nitrogen-use-efficiency Integrated Project – advice and
incentive for investment in equipment and innovative technology
to reduce N losses

8. © Natural England/ Peter Roworth
3. Dealing with a range of impacts: Site Nitrogen
Action Plans

9. Environmental Impact Assessment
• Important to recognise the potential impacts on ecosystems
• Consider the full range of sources associated with a development
• Check the habitat type and notified features
• Use best available information in assessments and relevant
benchmarks:
– Air Pollution Information System (www.apis.ac.uk)