AmmoniaN2K

Project details

Funding body: Irish Environmental Protection Agency STRIVE programme

Collaborator: University College Dublin

Dates: 2014-2018

Project summary

The AmmoniaN2K project aims to quantify and assess the impact of ammonia emissions from intensive pig and poultry units on Natura 2000 sites in Ireland. This research has assisted the EPA licensing of intensive agriculture installations, in particular:

• supported Appropriate Assessments under the Habitats Directive
• contribute to national inventory reporting and PRTR reporting
• assisted in the assessment of developments under Food Harvest 2020
• supported work on trans-boundary air pollution.

The AmmoniaN2K project has been divided into the following work packages that AQMRC are heavily contributing to:

• Understanding the current state of environment: comprehensive literature review and geospatial analysis, in addition to the identification of four case study sites.
• Establishing an emissions and ambient monitoring programme: monitoring ammonia emissions from four case study sites.
• Data analysis and atmospheric dispersion modelling: comprehensive data analysis including generation of ammonia dispersion models.
• Ecological assessment of impact: using critical loads and dispersion models to identify and assess habitats and species within N2K sites under threat.
• Knowledge transfer: dissemination of results through publications, websites and conferences.

The results of this project can be found on the UWE Bristol Research Repository.

Please email Professor Enda Hayes at Enda.Hayes@uwe.ac.uk for more details.