Speaker: Dr Soheil Rastan, Senior Research Officer, Statistics Canada,
soheil.rastan@statcan.gc.ca; Visiting Senior Fellow, Energy Studies Institute,
esisr@nus.edu.sg
Date: Friday, 21 October 2011
Time: 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Venue: ESI Conference Room,
29 Heng Mui Keng Terrace,
Block A #10-01,
Singapore 259772
Please send us your name, organisation and email address via the ESI website here. For enquiries, please contact Ms. Jan Lui at 651 62000.
Synopsis
On Ground-level Ozone (O3), Canada, 1990-2005: Based on the publicly available spatio-temporal data on hourly O3 concentrations from over 70 monitoring stations across Canada, a time series trend on the lower and upper tails of the distribution of the data, the 25th and the 75th percentile, was generated. The 25th percentile of the data symbolizes days with lower concentrations, hence the “good days”, while the 75th percentile of the data symbolizes days with higher concentrations, hence the “bad days”. Results of the statistics indicate that as far as the national estimate to population weighted ground-level ozone concentration is concerned, the good days are getting worse and the bad days remain the same.
On Pollutant Standards Index (PSI), Singapore, 2000-2010: Based on publicly available data on the PSI, the air quality advisory aggregated from over a dozen monitoring stations across Singapore, a time series trend was generated. Pending detailed spatio-temporal pollutant specific data, the PSI was used as an interim surrogate for an air quality indicator. Days with a PSI value of less than or equal to “50” symbolize days with relatively lower concentrations of air pollutants hence the “good days”, while days with a PSI value of over “50” symbolize days with relatively higher concentrations, hence the “not as good days”. Results of the statistics indicate that as far as the PSI is concerned, the number of good days is increasing and the number of bad days is diminishing.
Are We Measuring the “Right” Air Pollutants? This seminar highlights the potential relevance of air quality data in studying the linkages between energy, economy and the environment. It underlines the utility of chemical specific air quality data as a blueprint for developing innovative and integrative sustainability solutions—indicators to facilitate policies towards responsible, sustainable and healthy growth.
About the speaker
Soheil Rastan, Ph.D., MBA, P. Eng., is the Unit Head of an interdisciplinary research team at the Material and Energy Flow Accounts, Environment Accounts and Statistics Division, Statistics Canada. The Unit is responsible for the collation and reconciliation of data on economy, energy, health and the environment towards the development and dissemination of crossbreed, integrative and policy-relevant sustainability indicators. He serves as a scientifc advisor in a number of academic and public sector organizations including Environment Canada, Health Canada, the National Research Council of Canada, and the Consortium on Canadian eco-system valuation, assessment and accounting. He is a part-time faculty member at universities in Montreal and Ottawa (Canada) and in Xi’an (China). He is a registered professional engineer (Ontario, Canada) and holds a Ph.D. from the department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University.
This seminar will be held under Chatham House rules: “when a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant may be revealed.”