PROJECT ACTIVITIES

LIST OF ALL ACTIVITIES

1. Preparatory actions

A1 Formatting the project team in DOS_UMWO

A2 Preparation of the management concept of the regional environmental program (AQP) at all levels of management

A3 Preparation of the IT system project

A4 Preparation of a highly diffuse project for regional air quality monitoring system in near real time and air quality forecast

A5 Designing the competence training program for the communal AQP coordinator

A6 Preparation of a platform for direct cooperation of co-beneficiaries

A7 Preparation of a comprehensive communication plan

1. Core actions

B1 Ensuring the required competences of the air quality management system administrator

B2 Preparation of a database with an inventory of low-emission sources

B3 Creating an IT system for monitoring, reporting and updating AQP and supplying the system with data

B4 Implementation of a diffuse regional monitoring and forecasting air quality network in near real time and modeling in a consistent manner in each municipality in Opole Voivodeship

B5 Improving the air quality by increasing the ability of administration at municipal level to carry out AQP tasks

B6 Preparation of educational materials and consumables supporting the social activation process in the implementation of AQP

B7 Performing ecological education in the field of air quality

B8 Transfer of the method of preparing and updating AQP to the electronic form

1. Monitoring of project impact

C1 Determination of public awareness – survey

C2 Assessment of air quality improvement as a result of implemented corrective actions resulting from the implementation of AQP

C3 Monitoring the increase in efficiency of public administration

C4 Monitoring of socio-economic impact of the project actions

C5 Monitoring and measurement of performance indicators

1. Communication and dissemination of the project and its results

D1 Planning and implementation of the dissemination of knowledge and project results

D2 Networking with other Life projects and other air quality management projects

1. Project management

E1 Project management

E2 Establishment and work of the Project Steering Committee

E3 Independent project control

E4 Preparation of the After-Life Plan

DESCRIPTION OF SELECTED ACTIVITIES

A2 Preparation of the management concept of the regional environmental program (AQP) at all levels of management

One of the main objectives of the project is: increasing the capacity and improving the quality of public administration of the Opole Voivodeship at all levels in relation to the remedial actions specified in the air protection plan (AQP). This means ensuring simultaneously functioning components that enable consistency, stability, appropriate dynamics, stability, predictability of the obtained results. The objective of the action A 2 is to develop a comprehensive concept of the management system.

The concept of the system created as a result of the action will constitute the basis for further work on building a management system, e.g. designing an IT system, designing the training program for municipal AQP coordinators, designing the training for the administrator of the air quality management system (voivodeship AQP coordinator)

The development of the AQP management system concept will be an innovative solution taking into account multidimensional elements for increased dynamics of information flow, making management decisions for corrective actions, cooperation between the Municipalities and the Marshal’s Office in the scope of POP implementation, organizational tasks, roles and responsibilities as well as applied standards.

A3 Preparation of the IT system project

The system will have a modular structure, including i.a. the following modules:

1. collecting and presenting data module
2. support the process of planning and task management module
3. service the needs of residents module
4. module for task management by the Opolskie Voivodeship;
5. AQP implementation reporting module for Opolskie Voivodeship
6. AQP implementation reporting module for municipalities
7. creating periodic update of the plan and scenarios module
8. administrative and service module
9. sharing environmental information module
10. distributed regional system for monitoring and forecasting air quality in near real time
11. emission sources inventory module.

The designed IT solution will be a new and innovative tool the development of which is necessary to efficiently support the expected increase in investment activities (replacement of heating sources) and increased dynamics of data flow and information on corrective actions taken in the field of improving air quality.

A4 Preparation of a highly diffuse project for regional air quality monitoring system in near real time and air quality forecast

Increasing access to information about the state of air quality will be implemented by launching a highly diffuse regional network for monitoring and modeling air quality in near real time in the e-service form- collecting and sharing data about concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 in a consistent manner in particular municipalities in the Opole Voivodeship.

The problem with the use of data monitored within local networks (within the framework of these networks in the Opole Voivodeship currently about 200 sensors) is that they do not operate according to one standard, therefore the data from them is difficult to compare.

The highly diffuse regional air quality monitoring and pollution dispersion modeling system launched under the project will be integrated and calibrated with the national and European measuring network, so that scores from existing networks can also be included.

To ensure the right quality of information in the created highly dispersed regional monitoring system, a project of this system will be developed, which takes into account the following aspects:

• project of the spatial location of air quality sensors within the regional network (analyzing and indicating the optimal location each of the new sensors)
• defining the quality requirements and measurement techniques for PM10 and PM2.5 dust concentrations and air quality forecast
• defining data processing requirements- designing algorithms for new sensors and sensors from already existing networks, including designing methods and algorithms for modeling pollution dispersion
• defining the requirements for the transfer and scores sharing as a part of the e-service.

Increasing access to information on the state of air quality will be achieved through:

• launching a highly dispersed regional network for air quality monitoring and modeling in near real time in the form of an e-service;
• purchase of 71 sensors;
• modeling the dispersion of pollutants;
• including Czech countries (11 network nodes).

A5 Designing the competence training program for the communal AQP coordinator

One of the specific objectives of the project is to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of residents service by raising the competence of communal AQP coordinators.

Currently the level of competence at this workplaces is varied. It is necessary to systematize and standardize the competences of people dealing with air protection in municipalities.

Systematization and standardization of competences of people dealing with the subject of air protection in municipalities and powiats:

• Program of training the competences of the AQP coordinator;
• A preparatory course;
• Two-semester postgraduate studies.

To post-graduate studies may be admitted a person with at least a first degree diploma.

Employees of the Opole University of Technology have extensive experience in building competences in the field that is expected among the communal coordinators of the AQP program.

Classes will be held one day a week (Friday) in each semester. The schedule and study plan taking into account the division into lecture and training groups will be prepared in advance.

Post-graduate education will end with obtaining post-graduate qualifications.

A6 Preparation of a platform for direct cooperation of co-beneficiaries

As part of the implementation of the action, a program of 12 seminars for AQP Coordinators will be prepared, which will include the requirements for factually conducting a given seminar.

The purpose of these seminars will be the mutual exchange of experiences of municipal AQP coordinators in the implementation of remedial tasks to improve the quality of air in the municipality

Thanks to such activities the municipal AQP coordinators, in addition to postgraduate studies, will have the opportunity for active participation in the seminar-workshop part, so that each of them will be able to prepare better for their duties. This formula also unifies the standard of tasks and processes carried out.

B2 Preparation of a database with an inventory of low-emission sources and a database for significant emission sources located in the Opolskie Voivodeship for which integrated permits have been issued

Data from the inventory of low-emission sources are very important quantitative and qualitative information about pollutant emissions (this project concerns mainly PM10 and PM2.5), without which it is difficult to assess the place and scale of corrective actions required to improve air quality.

Knowledge of the place and scale of the problem (i.e. low-emission sources necessary for replacement) will allow for more effective management of remedial actions: plan the number and type of exchanges, focus the educational and motivational activities on specific groups of residents, track the effectiveness of these activities (record exchanges made and estimate ecological effects) and verify that the corrective actions are taken translate into improved air quality, as well as set priorities for these actions on the scale of a given municipality and the entire voivodeship. This is particularly important in the situation when it is necessary to make decisions about co-financing to ensure the allocation of public funds, especially in places where the change will bring the greatest results of improvement.

The action will be implemented throughout the Opolskie Voivodeship. Expected results: 80% of the inhabited buildings in the Opolskie Voivodeship with the type of heating, parameters of the emission source and the amount of emissions released into the air specified in the voivodeship AQP database.

B3 Creating an IT system for monitoring, reporting and updating AQP and supplying the system with data

Creating an innovative IT system for managing AQP implementation along with supplying the data system will be implemented on the basis of a prepared IT system project (action A3)

B4 Implementation of a diffuse regional monitoring and forecasting air quality network in near real time and modeling in a consistent manner in each municipality in Opole Voivodeship

The action will consist in launching, as part of the project, an information management system for AQP implementation, which is the subject of the project, e-services in the field of informing air quality forecasting, based on the regional network of distributed current monitoring of air quality.

The current measurement module will serve informational and analytical purposes and monitor the results of implemented AQP on a local scale. Thanks to a denser measurement network and better forecasts and information messages contained in the system about the negative impact of pollution on health, awareness will be increased, which will translate into a greater number of investment activities (boiler replacements), and this will directly improve air quality.

Expected result: increased awareness of the current variation in air quality in individual municipalities and changes in this regard (including from 71 new sensors). Increased access to information.

B5 Improving the air quality by increasing the ability of administration at municipal level to carry out AQP tasks

Action includes:

• Conducting by the municipalities that are co-beneficiaries in the project the recruitment and employment of the communal AQP coordinator (42 people as additional employees) and their general training in working in the office. One of the important guidelines in the recruitment process will be the competence profile of the candidate for the function of communal AQP coordinator developed under action A5.
• Implementing the process of educating communal AQP coordinators, which will also cover other project stakeholders- from municipalities and counties of the Opole Voivodeship, who are not co-beneficiaries in the project. In total 90 people will be included in the post-graduate education program.

In order for the educational program to be effective for the group of participants who will require it (their start competences will not fully correspond to the competency profile of the candidate for the communal AQP coordinator and basic competences supplement will be required) a monthly preparatory course will be conducted before starting post-graduate studies.

After the preparatory course, post-graduate studies will be launched, which program will result from the project program developed under action A 5 adapted to the diagnosis of the needs of the target group following the preparatory course. The priority of the action is the real competence preparation of communal AQP coordinators to effectively perform their role in the AQP implementation management system.
Expected result: 40 certified auditors of the environmental standard of a residential building.

B6 Preparation of educational materials and consumables supporting the social activation process in the implementation of AQP

Action will rely on:

• analyzing, designing and creating a new tool- an educational and informative material (in the presentation form)
• designing a training outline, indicating the purpose of the training, the characteristics of the target group, the form and course of training and the use of the presentation as an educational tool;
• developing a project of an information brochure, constituting material for residents participating in municipal trainings and educational meetings.

Simultaneously with the development of the training tool, a training syllabus will be designed, indicating the purpose of the training, the characteristics of the target group, the form of conducting and the course of training and the use of presentations as an educational tool.

In addition, a draft information brochure will be developed, constituting material for residents participating in municipal trainings, educational and activation meetings.

In order for the effects of the action would be consistent with the issues in which the municipal AQP coordinator will be educated, the head of post-graduate studies will be included in the development of assumptions for the training syllabus, presentation and design of information materials for the residents of municipalities.

B7 Performing ecological education in the field of air quality

One of the main impacts of the project is supposed to be increase of knowledge, interest and motivation to change within the general target group as well as to make more available support especially for the target group. These impacts will be generated directly during the intense trainings, educational and activation meetings that each of the cobeneficent will conduct in respective commune.

Action B7 under the project has a double meaning – as:

• action implementing the communal AQP coordinator to implement his role inthe air quality management system
• action raising residents awareness of the importance of air quality and their impact on the deterioration of its quality

As part of its role each communal AQP coordinator will conduct a minimum of 10 trainings, educational and activation meetings with the residents of his municipality. These meetings will be related to raising residents awareness of their impact on air quality, the importance of air quality for the quality of life, available solutions supporting remedial actions (e.g. cofinancing programs for replacing heating sources to more ecological ones or for thermo modernization activities).

A total of minimum 400 meetings (trainings, educational and activation meetings) is planned to arrive directly to the 5 000 people from the Opole Voivodeship.

Due to the significance of the change in the residents’ interest in replacing the heating source into more ecological one, the project envisages a pool of resources for printouts so that they give the possibility of free access with all the necessary content, varied according to the needs of the recipient, and to avoid the situation that exhaustion of materials impede the achievement of the needed effect. Printouts that will play a roles of tools in activation and education action of target group will contain content tailored to the needs of the target group and the level of knowledge and motivation. Materials will also be developed that give practical advice on how to replace the heating source, what help and from whom you can expect.

B8 Transfer of the method of preparing and updating AQP to the electronic form

This action is one of the actions crowning the change in the air quality management method, constituting a lever for increasing the effectiveness of local and voivodeship level administration in this scope. The material effects of the action will be the key system results: specific operational action plans improving air quality, saved in the form of tasks in an electronic database, thanks to which reporting and updating of individual tasks and the whole AQP will be much faster and more frequent. This will translate into a higher speed of AQP implementation (relative to the current management method).

Action B8 includes:

• Preparation in the IT system by each of the communal AQP coordinators of the Municipal Low-Emission Program
• Preparation in the IT system by each communal AQP coordinator the report on the implementation of the voivodeship AQP for 2021 and forwarding it to the UMWO by the IT system.

Subactions 1) and 2) will also be possible to be implemented by other municipalities that are not co-beneficiaries in the project, because as part of participation in the competence training program, shared to representatives of all municipalities of the Opole Voivodeship, each post-graduate student will be implemented to use an IT system for monitoring, reporting and updating AQP.

Expected result: 40 Municipal Low-Emission Programs (GPN) and 40 reports on the implementation of AQP and air quality improvement for the areas of the Opole Voivodeship.

C1 Determination of public awareness – survey

As part of the project in order to examine the public awareness of the problem of low emission.

Based on the prepared survey public awareness studies will be conducted twice:

• until May 31, 2021;
• until September 30, 2022

The tests will be carried out by the method of:

CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviewing) i.e. computer-assisted telephone interview

or CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) i.e. computer-aided interview using a website

Each time the survey will be conducted on a sample of 1000 residents. The area covered by the study – all communes of the Opolskie Voivodeship.

C2 Assessment of air quality improvement as a result of implemented corrective actions resulting from the implementation of AQP

The action will consist in developing a report on the number and type of replacement of non-ecological heating sources, the amount of avoided emission and the obtained ecological effect broken down into individual communes of the Opole Voivodeship and comparison with the data available for the period preceding the project.

The activity will consist in developing a report:

• on the number and type of replacement of non-ecological heating sources;
• the amount of avoided emissions and the environmental effect achieved with the division into individual communes of the Opolskie Voivodeship
• comparison with the data available for the period prior to the project.

C3 Monitoring the increase in efficiency of public administration

The assessment of improving the efficiency of public administration will be based on:

1. analysis of changes in co-financing programs for the replacement of heating sources used by the communes of the Opole Voivodeship – whether the exchange rate increased and their prioritization improved, as well as quick access to current reliable data on the effects of exchanges
2. analysis of the level of use of the created information system for managing AQP implementation- based on the number of active users
3. analysis of improving the availability of information on the state of air quality based on the analysis of the quality of e-service operation, the number of active users, level of interest in data on the state of air quality in public space, bottom-up initiatives to strengthen civil care for not deteriorating air quality

C4 Monitoring of socio-economic impact of the project actions
In the initial phase of the Action C.4 (3Q2021), there will be selected appropriate sources of direct and indirect information for particular items included in the scope of the local socioeconomic effect being adopted in the project

Analysis:

1. impact of the project on local economic and social processes
2. impact of the project on the level of digitization of the Opole regional society
3. impact of the project on scientific activities (an impulse to research and improve analytical methods for assessing air quality) and innovation

During project implementation, data and information reflecting the project impact on local economy and population will be collected from defined sources and study.

The assessment of the project local socio-economic impact will be conducted twice.

The reports being the product on the Action will take the form of a study consolidating the data and results over the project implementation period. The Applicant plans to take info account: change in incidence rate, direct or indirect employment growth in the renewable energy producers and service providers and in IT suppliers, as well as strengthening activities aimed at providing additional sources of income in rural areas.

C5 Monitoring and measurement of performance indicators

The Action will be specially focused on monitoring and measurements  the performance indicators included in KPI.

• reduction of carbon dioxide – 60,000 tons / year
• reduction of PM10 dust emission – 400 tons / year;
• reduction of PM2.5 dust emission – 390 tons / year;
• reduction B (a) P – 0.2 tons / year.

D1 Planning and implementation of the dissemination of knowledge and project results

The action will be implemented through:

• development and implementation of the project website with relevant content;
• design and construction of project information boards;
• development and production of films promoting the project and its results;
• preparation of the layman’s report;
• promotion of the project and activities in local media (in the communes of co-beneficiaries) will be implemented (including through spot broadcasts on local radio, TV advertisements)

D2 Networking with other Life projects and other air quality management projects

One of the most important tasks in the project will be networking with other Life and other air quality management projects. To this purpose active operations are planned in the organization of conferences and participation in other conferences on the subject.

As part of the implementation of the action, the following will be organized:

• two-day conference with Czech partners in Ostrava;
• two-day conference with Czech partners in Olomouc;
• a conference in the European Union presenting the results of the project;
• a two-day conference in Opole summarizing the project.

E1 Project management

The project logic assumes that all elements contained in it: education, information, impact on the policy of improving air quality will improve the awareness of target groups, increase interest, increase competence and increase involvement in the issue of replacing nonecological heating sources. As a result, there will be an increase in investments (i.e. exchanges of high-emission, non-ecological boilers).

From the applicants perspective the missing element to increase the dynamics of changes are no longer financial incentives but the reduction of awareness and competence barriers and the increase in the effectiveness of administrative and management activities. The actions provided for in the project are the answer to these aspects.

The management and supervisory functions in the project will be performed by:

• Project manager – a person whose task will be running the entire project. Project Manager has extensive experience in project implementation is the basic assumption for efficient implementation of management procedures.
  Voivodeship AQP coordinator – person whose permanent task will be close cooperation with 26 commune AQP coordinators

E2 Establishment and work of the Project Steering Committee

One of the key activities carried out under the Project is the appointment of a Steering Committee (SC).  The Committee acts as an advisory team consisting of representatives of units, institutions and organizations involved in air protection or responsible for performing tasks related to air protection.

The Steering Committee will meet on average once every 3 months. At the meetings, the project  manager will present progress in project implementation. Project progress will be subject to assessment by SC members and the scope of activities for the next period will be approved.

The participation of the Steering Committee in the project will be a confirmation of formal communication in the project under which, among others, reports, reports, results of project audits and notes from meetings.

E4 Preparation of the After-Life Plan

The After Life plan will indicate what activities must be carried out after the project is completed to maintain its sustainability, who will be responsible for them and from what sources they will be financed- within the entire implemented system and within the individual 42 communes that are co-beneficiaries in the project, as well as Czech partners.

The After-Life Plan will also regulate the organizational issues regarding the transfer of project collection items (tools, data, documents and methodologies) which will constitute a set of project results intended for scaling and transfer to target groups.

The After-Life plan will include recommendations to use the achieved experience to define standard and scope of low emission inventory. Then it could be also possible recommendation of introducing rules linking rights of applying for financial support with the transfer of data about the source of emission.