Monitoring reports
The ten Greater Manchester local authorities have been instructed by government to bring harmful nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air pollution levels within legal limits as soon as possible, and by 2026 at the latest, through a Clean Air Plan (CAP). Since 2018, Greater Manchester has been monitoring air quality for the CAP. For many years before this, monitoring has also taken place under the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) process.
For 2018 to 2020, Greater Manchester has produced an annual air quality monitoring report for the CAP. A separate Annual Status Report (ASR) has also been produced for the LAQM process since 2015, which summarises local monitoring, outlines the strategies to improve local air quality, and progress made. From 2021 onwards, the CAP monitoring results will be summarised in the ASR.
You can read the reports and monitoring results by clicking the links below.
2021
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report 2021
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report monitoring results 2021
* A minor update was made to the spreadsheet in October 2022 to correct the total number of Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) diffusion tubes listed in Stockport, and nine LAQM locations in Oldham where concentration levels have been corrected by the reporting laboratory.
2020
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report 2020
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report monitoring results 2020
Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan Air Quality Monitoring Report 2020
2019
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report 2019
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report monitoring results 2019
Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan Air Quality Monitoring Report 2019
2018
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report 2018
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report monitoring results 2018
Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan Air Quality Monitoring Report 2018
2017
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report 2017
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report monitoring results 2017
2016
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report 2016
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report monitoring results 2016
2015
Greater Manchester Air Quality Annual Status Report 2015
Other reports
EMIGMA
EMIGMA is the Greater Manchester Emissions Inventory. The inventory contains information on the emissions of pollutants identified in the UK's Air Quality Strategy from all identifiable sources in the area. The emissions sources are grouped into three broad categories:
- Stationary point sources - predominantly industrial processes.
- Mobile line sources - road, rail and air transport.
- Area sources - other influential sources, such as domestic emissions, for which it is not practical to resolve to point or line representations but which are nevertheless collectively significant. These sources are essentially population based and include, for example, combustion and solvent usage-related emissions from domestic houses.
The EMIGMA database covers an area of 1272km2 encompassing the ten local authorities of Greater Manchester.
The database allows the magnitude and spatial distribution of emissions across Greater Manchester to be investigated and enables the relative importance of different sources of air pollution to be examined.
The emissions data has a further role in providing the basis for dispersion modelling exercises and air quality management planning.
In conjunction with transport models, it also provides the basis for forecasting air quality and determining the effects of changes in land use planning and transport policies.
