About us

Dr Ian Longley

Programme leader for Impacts of Air Pollutants research programme for New Zealand. He has a degree in Engineering and a PhD in Atmospheric Physics, both from the University of Manchester. He joined NIWA in 2007.

Ian’s research mission is to apply the latest scientific understanding to the practical management of air quality, whilst expanding our understanding of the relationships between emissions and health. His principle expertise lies in observationally-based studies of the impacts of exposure to road traffic emissions, however the programme he leads spans research into domestic heating, urban meteorology, atmospheric composition, indoor air, urban planning, environmental information and citizen participation.

Ian regularly acts as a consultant to Auckland Council, the Ministry for the Environment, the New Zealand Transport Agency and the infrastructure industry, and is currently advising the New South Wales Government regarding road tunnels. Ian has published over 50 scientific papers and reports and given presentations at conferences and meetings around the world.

Dr Guy Coulson

Group Manager of NIWA Auckland’s Urban Air Quality and Health research group a position he has held since 2005.

Guy has over twenty five years’ experience in environmental management, research and consulting including fifteen years as an active researcher in atmospheric chemistry and air quality, and six years in a commercial environment as an environmental and technology management consultant. Guy has considerable experience managing air quality projects, both research and commercial. Guy was the manager of the $9 million FRST funded Healthy Urban Atmospheres research programme from 2008 to 2012 and before that the $4.5 million Protecting New Zealand’s Clean Air programme. He is currently a Principle Investigator on the $9 million MBIE funded Resilient Urban Futures programme.

In New Zealand, Guy has led numerous air quality management and monitoring projects including AEEs of the Manukau Harbour Crossing and Waterview Connection, the first edition of A Draft Transit Standard to Producing an Air Quality Assessment for Road Building Projects, and many monitoring campaigns.

Guy has a PhD in atmospheric chemistry from the University of Essex, an MSc in environmental assessment from Anglia Ruskin University and a BSc in chemistry from the University of Bradford. He has previously worked as a researcher at the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Essex and as a consultant at Arthur D. Little and Cambridge Consultants. He is currently a member of steering committee and visiting scientist for EU (Marie Curie) funded Human EXposure to Aerosol Contaminants in Modern Microenvironments (HEXACOMM) programme.

Dr. Elizabeth Somervell

Air quality scientist who holds a PhD in urban air quality modelling from the University of Hertfordshire and an MSc in Environmental Diagnosis from Imperial College, London. She has specialist skills in meteorological and air quality modelling, with experience of regional scale (UM, CMAQ) and local scale (CalPuff, Calmet, AusPlume) models.

Since joining NIWA three years ago, Elizabeth has been involved in a range of air quality projects, including the Roadside Project, Auckland CBD’s PENAP campaign and Resilient Urban Futures. She has worked with a wide range of stakeholders including Councils (Auckland, Greater Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Taranaki, Nelson, Marlborough, Southland and Otago), government agencies (NZTA) and academic institutions (University of Auckland, Canterbury, Otago and Massey). She has led monitoring campaigns in the Marlborough District, produced guidelines for permissible activity limits for industrial boilers, advised on the impacts of rural burning and been heavily involved in NIWA’s vehicle emissions and woodburner emissions research.

Elizabeth sits on the New Zealand branch committee of CASANZ (the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand) and is on the editorial team of the CASANZ journal, Air Quality and Climate Change

Mr. Gustavo Olivares

Chemical engineer (MSc) with more than 15 years of experience in air quality research in Chile, Sweden and New Zealand. During the last 8 years, as part of the Urban Air Quality and Health group in NIWA, Gustavo has been a key researcher in NIWA’s FRST and MBIE funded air quality research programmes.

Gustavo has worked specifically on issues related to spatial representativeness of air quality monitoring sites, source apportionment from traditional air quality time series information and the incorporation of air quality indicators into long term urban planning tools. More generally, his capabilities include:

  • Dispersion modelling and its use as a monitoring network design tool.
  • Data analysis development for Air quality aimed to maximise the value of information obtained by single purpose monitoring sites.
  • Instrument development to characterise urban air quality.
  • Urban planning tool development incorporating land use, transport, energy and air quality indicators.

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