Air quality in Napier city is monitored at Marewa Park. The continuous monitoring sites in Hawke’s Bay measure surrounding (ambient) PM10 and PM2.5 levels rather than focus on a particular single source. Therefore the Marewa Park reflects typical residential areas, has average traffic levels and is not dominated by any particular industrial source, whereas the Awatoto site reflects a coastal area dominated by industrial activity.
HBRC analyses air quality trends for days when poor air quality is expected – we call these ‘characteristic’ days. These days are when the daily average temperate is below 11 deg C and the mean wind speed is less than 5km/h. These sites are part of HBRC’s state of the environment (SOE) monitoring network. Through winter HBRC reports publicly on compliance with the NES for air quality so that the public are aware of air quality. The results are also reported in the annual SOE report. Mobile and short-term monitoring is also done periodically.