aap_varpalota

ADAPTATION ACTION PLAN FOR THE MUNICIPALITY OF VARPALOTA
Graphic editing by:
Rosalba Riccobene
Federico Mensio
ADAPTATION ACTION PLAN FOR THE MUNICIPALITY OF VARPALOTA
Similarly to the other member states of European Union,
in most of the Hungarian cities and regions, air-pollution
including the high concentration of particulate matter
(PM) causes serious problems nowadays.
The region of Várpalota is also implicated in this problem
and its reduction.
In the 90’s the municipality of Várpalota was severely
affected by the cessation of mining and the related
activities. After the end of the industrial activities, airquality of the city significantly improved as a result of the
improvements of public utilities.
In the recent years, however, the trends of processes
indicate cause for concern again. It can be observed that
the high percent of population of Várpalota have returned
using solid fuel combustion (including solid fuels with high
particulate matter emission) in the terraced houses and
multifamily residential districts/zones which cause the
increase of PM-concentration in winter periods. Thus, the
emission of pollutants mainly generated by the population
of Várpalota (traffic, domestic heating) instead of industrial
activities.
The heavy traffic on the main road No 8 running through the
city centre can be consiedered one of the biggest source
of pollutants. Personal and commercial heavy vehicles
(trucks, buses etc) mean a significant environmental
burden on the city centre and the neighbouring residential
areas. Noise and air pollution are detectable and
significant.
Three major activities, some as a set of projects, have
been defined:
• Public awareness raising on the possibility to reduce
air pollution.
• Improvement of distance heating facility.
• Construction of a by-pass road.
The Adaption Action Plan is setting the managerial and
financial perspectives and frameworks of these activities.
These actions are only preliminary, but substantial steps
for achieving the overall goal which is the permanent
decrease of the air pollutants.
It’s also important to mention that due to the scale of the
actions the implementation (physical and financial) will be
promoted at different levels ranging from local/municipal
to the national one.
Therefore the evaluation of each actions is difficult as
should be taken at different level and scale.
On 27th November 2013, the members of the Healthy
Environment Platform (HEP) decided to make working
groups to examine each problematic issues and to set
pilots actions and plans to propose possible solutions for
the above mentioned issues.
Working group.
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ADAPTATION ACTION PLAN FOR THE MUNICIPALITY OF VARPALOTA
Public awareness raising on reduction of air pollution
Construction of a by-pass road
This communication campaign is a so called “soft action”
which targets selected social and age groups. It was
considered that the direct impact on the air quality would
be the weakest if the success of the awareness raising
activity was uncertain. However it is an important initial
step to help the people to be prepared on further similar
activities.
Municipality has to be the driving force of the action, but
the professional and the civil and social bodies should
be the catalyst of the process. The effectiveness of the
action should be evaluated by municipal and civil expert
applying direct data collection from the target groups.
This action is a centrally, government-lead action. The
scale of the investment needs centralised governmental
planning and support, while the local government can
provide administrative tasks. The planning process had
been checked with a detailed financial and physical
evaluations led by the responsible ministries. The results
of this evaluations showed that a significant economic and
environmental value will be achieved by the construction.
The action, road construction, will be implemented by the
State with close co-operation with the local government.
Municipality of Várpalota has already done all the
administrative and legal tasks necessary for finalisation of
the route pass and for any additional environmental and
financial studies.
The road section is 8 km long and has 2x2 lines with
physical separation. The construction also includes
development of two railroad crosses and is planned to be
started on 2014 and to be finished by 2016.
The map shows the present track of main (blue line) road
No.8 across the city, and the future track outside the builtup area (orange). The colours indicate the improvement
of the air quality: bluish means decrease, while reddish
increase of NO2 concentration.
Improvement of distance heating facility
Due to the rising prices of natural gas fuels and district
heating rates, the wood and coal combustion is the more
frequent in the area of Várpalota. It is mainly typical in the
multifamily residential districts. Solid phase emissions of
wood and coal combustion are significantly higher than
the natural gas fuel or district heating-system emissions
and it impact in the air-pollution indicators as well. In
the coldest days of winter the population of Várpalota
usually support the gas fuels with other heating methods
like wood and coal combustion which exacerbates this
situation increasing PM10 concentrations.
To monitor the air-quality, the municipality of Várpalota
established a monitoring station, situated in the centre,
next to the most busy road of the city.
Using the air-quality dataset and the infrastructure
of heating-system of Várpalota, the working-group
compared the most used heating methods and suggested
many possibilities for implementing processes which can
improve air-quality and decrease the PM10 concentration.
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ADAPTATION ACTION PLAN FOR THE MUNICIPALITY OF VARPALOTA
On top: This map shows the technical plan of the new road, which curves Várpalota from south and provides a save and fast
movements of goods along the east-west direction.
On bottom: Improvement of the local distance heating network.
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ADAPTATION ACTION PLAN FOR THE MUNICIPALITY OF VARPALOTA
TAB project web site: http://www.tabproject.eu
to contact site staff: [email protected]
High percent of population of
Várpalota is using solid fuel for
heating, including wood and
coal with high particulate matter
emission.
We’ve favoured the conversion
towards the natural gas fuel or a
district heating-system.
Public awareness raising
on reduction of air pollution
is crucial.
During the development plan of
TAB Project, we’ve tried to set a
communication campaign which
targets selected social and age
groups.
During the development plan of
TAB Project, we’ve identified the
necessity of collecting data and
alimenting a database with outputs
easy to access by the citizens.
To survey the air-quality the
municipality of Várpalota established
a monitoring station. This station is
situated in the centre, next to the
most trafficked road of the city.
The heavy traffic (personal and
commercial vehicles) on the main
road No 8 running through the city
centre can be considered one of the
biggest source of pollutants.
The construction of a by-pass
road is a government-lead action
supported by studies on the
improvement of the air quality in
the city centre.
Municipality of Várpalota (HU)
Kotzó Szabolcs: [email protected]
István Ferencsik: [email protected]
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