How do we assess and evaluate the effects of traffic emissions on air quality? And even more important, how do we judge the benefits or otherwise of trends, policies and legislative interventions? We need a range of tools, some of which can be very complex and difficult to understand. The use of indicators in this application can be helpful - but what indicators do we use and how do we assess the relationships between them? The Ministry for the Environment has developed a wide range of environmental indicators, and recently examined a specific series relating to transport effects on air quality. These include typical transport factors, such as vehicle numbers, and fleet mix, as well as typical air quality indicators such as ambient concentrations of key pollutants. The paper discuss interactions between these indicators using the Driving Force, Pressure, State, Exposure, Effect, Action (DPSEEA) model and examines how such indicators can be used to inform policy decisions and to improve transport management. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E210413.
Abstract