Dear All,<br><br>I was in UB in June, 2006 to conduct a preliminary assessment of the current AQ activities and emissions. The urban planning commission in UB conducted a study last year which concluded ~90% coming from Gers and rest from transport (~7%) and industry (~3%).. not sure of the exact proportion, but that's the ball park. Gers in general are a major contributor given the high altitude of the area, valley like terrain which traps all the pollutants in situ, and low inversion layer which is very prevalent in the cold conditions. This makes Gers the prominent source. On the other hand, it makes a lot of difference where you take these measurements. Closer to the gers, higher the contribution of those sources to the measured value - give and take some dispersion of pollutants from the neighborhoods. In this study, all the pollutants were combined together, which is not an usual procedure. That's the official assessment.<br><br>Overall, motor vehicles are a major contributor, along with Gers increasing coal consumption. Given the trend in the number of vehicles on the road, their contribution is bound to increase several folds.. including indirect pollution from vehicles.. the fugitive dust from the roads. Given the dry conditions in UB, there is a lot of tendency for higher resuspension of dust on the roads. Ozone is also increasingly becoming a problem, but the monitoring system is limited in its capacity.<br><br>Now, there is also an Air Quality Management Bureau (AQMB), which is in its infancy and will take some effort and collaboration from the international agencies to start and study some projects. Currently, a full scale study to inventorize the multiple sources and multiple pollutants in a co-benefit and integrated framework is yet to be undertaken. There has been some rough estimates in the past, but there is a growing need and demand from the locals to establish a credible knowledge base, which hopefully will happen soon. <br><br>Programs like Efficient stoves for Gers, reducing coal consumption at power and industrial level - by reducing elec losses, will be contributing to reducing air pollutants and GHGs, but how much and how is a question. There are some recent publications on Indoor Air Pollution in Gers and the efficient stove program.<br><br clear="all">with regards,<br>Sarath<br><br>-- <br><br>Sarath Guttikunda<br>New Delhi, India<br>Email: <a href="mailto:sguttikunda@gmail.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"> sguttikunda@gmail.com</a><br> <br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 2/20/07, <b class="gmail_sendername"> Brendan Finn</b> <<a href="mailto:etts@indigo.ie" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">etts@indigo.ie</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div bgcolor="#ffffff"> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">The challenges in Ulaanbaatar are complex. As in many problem cities, it is has taken quite some time and many fluffed decisions to get to this point, so it won't be easy to resolve it either. </font><font face="Arial" size="2">There are a few key factors : </font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">a) Ulaanbaatar has grown rapidly over the past few decades, and now has more than one third of the entire population of Mongolia (c. 1 million out of less than 3 million people). This has been mostly migration from the countryside, but also from mining towns and other small population centres. There are no other counter-balancing urban centres of note.</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">b) There is a legacy stock of Soviet-era apartments, but the bulk of the growth has been in "ger settlements". A "Ger" ('yurt' in other countries) is a felt-covered solid tent structures normally used in the countryside, and a very effective way to survive the harsh winters. No-one had foreseen settlements of thousands and thousands of these like a giant trailer park with individual fenced areas, small muddy lanes, animal husbandry and various other characteristics. I believe that about 45% of Ulaanbaatar's population is in gers. Mostly, their heating and cooking is done by coal, which contributes greatly to the air quality problems, not to mention sanitation and other issues.</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">c) Ulaanbaatar has a roads structure suited to the Soviet era of buses and trucks, a set of relative narrow arteries and key routes, and channelled traffic. Once private cars with dispersed movement patterns hit it, it rapidly congested. It was evident in 1995-6 how it was going to turn out, but our recommendations to establish bus priority before it was too late (along with many other measures) were ignored. I haven't been there in some time, but I believe it is now heavily congested.</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">d) The bus and trolleybus network - which in 1995-6 was fairly good but with aged rolling stock - has been seriously eroded. As I understand it, the minibuses have taken a very large share of the public transport market, extracting seriously from the large bus network, and contributing to the congestion. They are probably the only practical means of serving the ger settlements. The buses received from Korea and Japan in 1995-6 are now at the end of their viable life, and it's not certain what happens next. </font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">e) The topography of Ulaanbaatar is also a factor, being on a river plan between high ground to north and south. In the absence of wind, you can get a nasty build-up of emissions, and in sunny weather this can also lead to photochemical smog and low-level ozone. I don't know if the big coal-fired power plant on the west side of the city is still in service, but ten years ago it was a nasty addition to the problem except in summer when it shut down for maintenance.</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">I believe that some of the international agencies are getting active there on transportation and air quality issues, hopefully they will make some contribution, but I think the problems go deep into the migration of population into Ulaanbaatar, the lack of alternative employment centres, and the now-embedded ger settlement population who probably do not have the lifeskills to live outside their current environment.</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">I hope this is of some assistance to anyone looking at Ulaanbaatar's challenges. </font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">With best wishes, </font></div><span> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">Brendan Finn. </font></div> <div>_____________________________________________________________________________________<br>From Brendan Finn, ETTS Ltd.   e-mail : <a href="mailto:etts@indigo.ie" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">etts@indigo.ie</a>   tel : +353.87.2530286</div></span><div><span> <blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;"> <div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">----- Original Message ----- </div> <div style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> <b>From:</b> <a title="edelman@greenidea.info" href="mailto:edelman@greenidea.info" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Green Idea Factory</a> </div> <div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>To:</b> <a title="sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org" href="mailto:sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"> Global 'South' Sustainable Transport</a> </div> <div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, February 20, 2007 10:35 AM</div> <div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Subject:</b> [sustran] Skies turn grey in Ulan Bator</div> <div><br></div>There are lots of reasons besides increased automobile use for Ulan <br>Bator's descent into EGH (economic growth hell), but at bottom of <br>article they list measures they are studying to solve the problem... but <br>taking the auto- out of automobile does not seem to be one of them <br>(okay, maybe it is simply not mentioned here...)<br><br>Anyone have more info?<br><br> <<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6376203.stm" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6376203.stm</a>><br><br> -- <br>--------------------------------------------<br><br>Todd Edelman<br>Director<br>Green Idea Factory<br><br>Korunn� 72<br>CZ-10100 Praha 10<br>Czech Republic<br><br>++420 605 915 970<br>++420 222 517 832<br>Skype: toddedelman<br><br><a href="mailto:edelman@greenidea.eu" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">edelman@greenidea.eu</a><br><a href="http://www.worldcarfree.net/onthetrain" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"> http://www.worldcarfree.net/onthetrain</a><br><br>Green Idea Factory,<br>a member of World Carfree Network<br><br>-------------------------------------------------------- <br>IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS. <br><br>Please go to <a href="http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss </a> to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights. The yahoogroups version is only a mirror and 'members' there cannot post to the real sustran-discuss (even if the yahoogroups site makes it seem like you can). Apologies for the confusing arrangement.<br><br>================================================================<br>SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). <br><br></blockquote></span></div></div> <br>--------------------------------------------------------<br>IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS.<br><br>Please go to <a href="http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"> http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss</a> to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights. The yahoogroups version is only a mirror and 'members' there cannot post to the real sustran-discuss (even if the yahoogroups site makes it seem like you can). Apologies for the confusing arrangement. <br><br>================================================================<br>SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). <br></blockquote></div><br>