The Asia Center for Air Pollution Research (ACAP) as the Network Center for the EANET is currently looking for suitable candidates to apply for the position as Deputy Director General of the ACAP in charge of the Network Center for the EANET.
Find out more on our Careers’ page.
The Secretariat for the EANET is currently looking for suitable candidates to apply for the position of EANET Coordinator, in charge of the EANET Secretariat.
Find out more on our Careers’ page.
26 October 2020 – Bangkok, Thailand
The Working Group (WG) Session 2 Meeting on Drafting Medium Term Plan for the EANET (2021-2025) and on Reviewing Scope of Instrument for the EANET was held virtually from the 20th to the 22nd October 2020, gathering over 50 representatives from the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET)’s Participating Countries.
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Following the Session 1 of the meeting held last July, participants met again online to work together on the Medium Term Plan for the EANET (2021-2025) defining the Network’s future activities for the next 5 years, while also discussing a possible expansion of the scope of the EANET’s Instrument.
For three days, from 20-22 October 2020, National Focal Points and representatives from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Republic of Korea, Russia, Thailand, Philippines, and Viet Nam joined the EANET’s Secretariat, Network Center and the United Nations Environment Programme teams to discuss in detail how they envision the future of their Network.
The Session was initiated by the Welcome Remarks of Dr. Dechen Tsering, Regional Director, and Representative, United Nations Environment Programme for Asia & the Pacific, who emphasized the importance of the mandate of the EANET, as part of growing momentum for international cooperation on air quality in the region.
Dr. Shiro Hatakeyama, Director General, Asia Center for Air Pollution Research, delivered the Opening Remarks and highlighted the importance of the 2nd Working Group Meeting to determine the future activities of the EANET. Mr. Yuichi Nagasaka, Director of the Air Environment Division, Environmental Management Bureau, Ministry of Environment, Japan, also delivered Remarks to greet participants and reaffirm Japan’s support to the EANET.
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At the end of the 3-day meeting, the Session agreed on Recommendations to be submitted to the 22nd Session of the Intergovernmental Meeting, next November (IG22).
In these Recommendations, it is suggested to adopt the final draft of Medium Term Plan (MTP) (2021-2025) as well as the final draft of Work Programme and Budget in 2021 (WP&B 2021) that will be prepared according to the discussion at the Working Group Meeting sessions and relevant follow-up discussions.
In addition, the Working Group recommended the IG22 to recognize that “some activities relating to air pollution are a major interest to Participating Countries but may be beyond the current scope of the EANET. This includes types of activities and/or substances or targets areas that are related to air pollution beyond acid deposition” and to “ Express support for the need to expand the scope of the Instrument.”
EANET National Focal Points will meet again at the IG22, from 25 to 26 November 2020 through an online platform and discuss the finalization of the MTP (2021-2025) and Work Programme and Budget for the EANET in 2021 by considering the Recommendations of the WG Meeting.
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Curious about EANET’s activity? Find out more about the next EANET Meeting dates on the Event’s page and discover the pictures of the Working Group Meetings on Flickr.
27 November 2020 – Bangkok, Thailand
The Twenty-second Session of the Intergovernmental Meeting (IG22) on the EANET was held virtually from 25 to 26 November 2020. It was concluded by major decisions on the approval of the Medium Term Plan (MTP) (2021-2025) and Work Programme and Budget in 2021, as well as the decision to start expanding the scope of EANET’s Instrument.
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Over 50 representatives from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Republic of Korea, Russia, Thailand, Philippines, and Viet Nam participated in the IG22, to discuss in detail how they envision the future of their Network.
Chaired by Thailand, the IG22 Session started with Welcome Remarks from Mr. Thalearngsak Petchsuwan, Deputy-Director General, Pollution Control Department, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand, followed by Opening Remarks by Dr. Dechen Tsering, Regional Director and Representative, United Nations Environment Programme for Asia & the Pacific, and by Dr. Shiro Hatakeyama, Director General, Asia Center for Air Pollution Research.
After almost two years of conducting several discussions among the Participating Countries, the IG22 approved the MTP for the EANET (2021-2025). In addition, the Session approved the Work Programme and Budget for EANET in 2021.
Detailing the actions that will take place during the next five years, the MTP for the EANET (2021-2025) regroups activities related to five key objectives: Objective 1: Monitoring of acid deposition including related chemical substances with quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC), Objective 2: Promotion of data utilization and dissemination, Objective 3: Promotion of capacity building, Objective 4: Enhancement of outreach activities and Objective 5: Enhancement of cooperation and collaboration.
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The IG22 recognized activities related to air pollution as of major interest to Participating Countries, although considered beyond the current scope of the EANET.
For 20 years, based on the Instrument for the Strengthening the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET), the EANET has been working specifically on acid deposition monitoring.
Marking an important milestone for the Network, Participating Countries agreed to start the process of expanding the scope of the Instrument allowing the EANET to work on wider air quality and air pollution issues in the near future.
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Find out more about the IG22 by reading the Report of the Session and discover the pictures of the IG22 Meeting on Flickr.
Photo credits: all rights reserved to EANET.
25 September 2020 – Bangkok, Thailand
The Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET) held its Twentieth Session of the SAC (SAC20) from 23-24 September 2020, virtually. The Session was organized by the Secretariat and the Network Center (NC) for the EANET.
Nearly 50 members of the SAC and/or their representatives from the Participating Countries of the EANET (from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Thailand, Viet Nam) and from the Secretariat and the NC, participated in the two-day meeting.
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Main discussions, on day one, concerned the considerations by the SAC members of future activities from technical and scientific viewpoints. Outcomes of these discussions were recommendations to be presented to the 22nd Intergovernmental Meeting of EANET (IG22) and considered in finalizing the MTP for the EANET (2021-2025).
Currently, EANET’s main activities focus essentially on acid deposition monitoring and provision of data; promotion of quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC); implementation of technical support and capacity building; dispatch of technical missions; promotion of research and studies; and promotion of public awareness activities.
SAC20 members discussed the Draft MTP that includes new activities proposed by the Participating Countries. This will be further discussed next month during the Second Session of the Working Group Meeting.
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Day two of the meeting focused essentially on the results from activities of acid deposition monitoring, compilation, evaluation, storage, and provision of data in 2019, based on data provided by the 13 EANET Participating Countries, retrieved from their national monitoring sites.
Scientists from the NC presented detailed results from the EANET Data Report 2019 data on wet deposition, dry deposition, soil and vegetation, inland aquatic environment, and catchment-scale, as well as and from the Report on the Inter-laboratory Comparison (ILC) Projects 2019, focusing on results of wet deposition, dry deposition (filter pack method), soil, and inland aquatic environment ILC Projects carried out in 2019.
An overview of the National Monitoring Plans from the EANET Participating Countries, Reports from the Chairpersons of the Task Forces of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), Progress of Development of the Fourth Periodic Report on the State of Acid Deposition in East Asia (PRSAD4) and updates on other relevant scientific activities were also presented throughout the day.
EANET Data Reports can be accessed on EANET’s website and Reports for 2019 will soon be available.
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Photo credits: All rights reserved to EANET.
1 December 2020 – Niigata, Japan
The Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET)’s fellowship program aims at funding researchers from the EANET’s participating countries to carry out research pertaining to acid deposition at the Network Center in Japan. Kessinee Unapumnuk, from Thailand, was awarded the EANET fellowship for 2018. She led her research on the impacts of exposure to fine particulate matter on premature mortality in Bangkok.
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Fine particulate matters (PM2.5) affect human health and can lead to premature death if exposed for a long time. Chronic exposure to PM2.5 increases the risk of developing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as lung cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported 4.2 million premature deaths due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancers worldwide in 2016 related to the exposure to ambient PM2.5 in both urban and rural areas.
Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, has been experiencing frequent episodes of air pollution characterized by a high concentration of PM2.5 due to combustion emissions from multiple sources and stagnant metrological conditions from January to April every year. Transportation-related sources are the major contributions to the PM2.5 levels and result in poor air quality in the city.
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Unapumnuk has estimated premature mortalities caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer (LC), ischemic heart disease (IHD), and stroke attributed to long-term exposure to PM2.5 in several districts in Bangkok from 2010 to 2017.
In conclusion, the study suggests that a strict emission control of PM2.5 is needed in Bangkok to avoid significant mortality attributable to PM2.5.
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Under the EANET Research Fellowship program 2018, this study was conducted at the Asia Center for Air Pollution (ACAP), Niigata Japan. The author acknowledged the help received from the Asia Centre for Air Pollution Research (ACAP) for performing the research as well from the Thai Pollution Control Department and the Ministry of Public Health.
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Read the full article by Unapumnuk et al. in the EANET Science Bulletin Volume 5.
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Photo credits: Bangkok by Nick van den Berg, free of the copyright license.
17 February 2021 – Niigata, Japan
The Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET)’s fellowship programme aims at funding researchers from the EANET’s Participating Countries to carry out research pertaining to acid deposition at the Network Center in Japan. Kong Savuth, from Cambodia, was awarded the EANET fellowship in 2018. Mr. Savuth’s research described human health effects of exposure to air pollutants, namely, ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM2.5) in reference to the WHO Air quality guidelines (2005).
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PM2.5 can penetrate deep inside the lungs and contribute to increasing the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases including lung cancer. According to recent epidemiological studies, reducing the annual average PM2.5 concentrations of 10 μg m-3 could result in a significant reduction of premature mortality.
Ground-level O3 can cause respiratory problems leading to asthma, cough, inflammation of the respiratory tract, chronic bronchitis, and lung damage. A high-level concentration of O3 also causes premature mortality.
WHO estimates that in 2016, some 58% of outdoor air pollution-related premature deaths were due to ischaemic heart disease and strokes, while 18% of deaths were due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and acute lower respiratory infections respectively, and 6% of deaths were due to lung cancer.
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The researchers (Savuth and Yamashita) estimated premature mortality caused by the exposure to PM2.5 and O3 in Cambodia by using PM2.5 and O3 data simulated by CMAQ (Community Multiscale Air Quality – a chemical transport model) and Concentration-Response (C-R) functions.
Read the full study and its results, published in the EANET Science Bulletin, Vol 5.
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Under the EANET Research Fellowship programme 2018, this study was conducted at the Asia Center for Air Pollution (ACAP), Niigata, Japan. The researcher, Kong Savuth, acknowledged the support and facilities provide by ACAP and by the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan, for performing the research.
Photo credits: Cambodia by Daniel Kirsch, free of the copyright license.
1 April 2021 – Niigata, Japan
Scientific and Technological Research Papers from Participating Countries are research articles written by scientists from the EANET Participating Countries, in collaboration with the EANET Network Center, in Niigata, Japan. They are published in the EANET Science Bulletin and have required the use of EANET data.
Alisa Trifonova-Yakovleva and Sergey Gromov, from Russia, estimated airborne concentrations of ammonia (NH3) in the Baikal region by using measurements conducted at two EANET monitoring sites and compared with satellite data (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI)).
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Ammonia (NH3) is an important air pollutant that may eventually fall back to earth by means of wet and dry acid deposition. It is emitted both naturally and from anthropogenic sources such as animal husbandry, the use of nitrogen fertilizers, and biomass burning.
Atmospheric deposition containing NH3, aside from acidification impacts through the oxidizing to nitric acids in rain waters or on wet surfaces, cause also other negative effects on ecosystems, such as eutrophication and loss of biodiversity. In addition, when NH3 reacts with other atmospheric constituents, it forms particulate matter (e.g. PM2.5) triggering harmful impacts on human health.
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For this research study, Alisa Trifonova-Yakovleva and Sergey Gromov used satellite data for better coverage and understanding of the air pollution at a wider regional level and ground-based measurements (filterpack method) at the Russian Litstvyanka and Mondy EANET stations from 2015 to 2017.
The goal of this study was to understand the constant levels of NH3 concentrations or their higher values of episodic nature in different locations within the Baikal Region, season-to-season.
More precise estimations of the regional airborne NH3 concentrations are indeed necessary to enhance the understanding of the scales and extension of detrimental impacts of air pollution and acid deposition on the environment and on human health.
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Discover the results of the study by reading the full article in the EANET Science Bulletin, Vol 5.
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This study was carried out in the framework of the Research Project AAAA-A20-120013190049-4 “Development of methods and technologies for monitoring of environmental pollution under the influence of transboundary pollutants transport (UNECE: EMEP, ICP IM) and acid deposition in East Asia (EANET)”.
Processing of satellite measurement data was performed as part of the research theme under the Plan of Basic Scientific Research of the State Academies of Sciences No. 0148-2019-0009, AAAA-A19-119022190173-2 “Climate changes and their consequences for the environment and the life of the population in Russia”.
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Photo credits: Baikal ice on sunset, by Sergey Pesterev, free of the copyright license.
17 September – Niigata, Japan
The Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET)’s fellowship program aims at funding researchers from the EANET’s participating countries to carry out research pertaining to acid deposition at the Network Center in Japan. Ekaterina Zhigacheva, from Russia, was awarded the EANET fellowship in 2017. She led her research on the investigation of atmospheric input and runoff discharge of sulphur and nitrogen compounds as the balance components of Komarovka river catchment by long-term observations at the Russian EANET Primorskaya station (for 2005 – 2015).
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Air pollution consists of significant amounts of compounds of sulphur and nitrogen. These compounds deposit on the earth’s surface through wet and dry depositions and cause detrimental impacts on the ecosystems and environment, including acidification of the water bodies, such as rivers and lakes.
Zhigacheva, in this study, analysed the components of the Komarovka river catchment at Russian EANET Primorskaya station using observations from 2005 to 2015. The goal of the study was to evaluate the effects of pollution on regional ecosystems.
The author acknowledged the help received from the EANET Primorskaya site and PCEM laboratory for data and financial support and facilities from the Asia Centre for Air Pollution Research (ACAP) for performing the research.
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Read the full article by Zhigacheva et al. in the EANET Science Bulletin Volume 5.
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Photo credits: Komarovka river by Hiroyuki SASE, all rights reserved.
27 August 2020 – Niigata, Japan
The Twenty-First Senior Technical Managers’ Meeting (STM21) on the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET) was held online on 7 August 2020. The Meeting was organized by the Network Center (NC) for the EANET in collaboration with the Secretariat for the EANET. About 40 senior technical officials involved in the EANET monitoring activities from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Thailand, and Viet Nam participated in the meeting.
The objectives of this annual meeting were to exchange information on the current status of the EANET monitoring activities, including the consideration of the draft Data Report 2019 and the draft Inter-laboratory Comparison Project Report 2019, as well as to discuss the EANET’s National Monitoring Plans for 2020.
During the meeting, the NC presented the preliminary draft Data Report 2019 which contains wet deposition, dry deposition (air concentration), soil and vegetation, inland aquatic environment, and catchment-scale monitoring data, as well as a summary of the monitoring data of 2019 and related information submitted by the 13 EANET Participating Countries in 2019.
The representatives of the EANET Participating Countries, later on, presented their National Monitoring Plans and current EANET activities, including monitoring capacities, technical limitations, future plans, etc. Throughout the meeting, the senior technical officials discussed implementation challenges and shared their experiences and knowledge to foster solutions in favor of future innovation.
In 2020, the number of the EANET monitoring sites has significantly increased, with a total number of 60 wet deposition monitoring sites, 47 dry deposition monitoring sites, 21 soil and vegetation monitoring sites, 19 inland aquatic environment monitoring sites, and 2 catchment-scale monitoring sites, located in 13 countries of Asia.
Most recently, China started monitoring wet and dry deposition in two newly registered EANET monitoring sites: in Wuzhishan, Hainan Province, and Lijiang, Yunnan Province. Indonesia also introduced two new EANET monitoring sites: in Jembrana, in the province of Bali, and Lombok Barat, in West Nusa Tenggara Province.
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Find out more about EANET’s monitoring activities on EANET’s website or contact us for more information on acid deposition monitoring and data.
Photo credits: Lijiang Shi, Yunnan Sheng, China, by Culacinno, free of copyright license.