Near Real-time Comparison of Air Quality Data Across European Cities and Regions

The European Union has been actively developing policies to protect the environment and force member states to inform citizens on the state of their ambient air quality, a concept further enforced by the Aarhus convention. Simple, up to date and comparable information on air quality in Europe is important for the general public which is increasingly concerned about air pollution, for the media as well as for local authorities.. Currently, this information is not easily available. The internet is commonly used for publishing air quality in near real-time and often air quality is being presented as an index, translating measurements into a summary figure for easy interpretation. A review of existing websites and indices shows that the way air quality is interpreted differs considerably and is not easily comparable. For air quality specialists air quality information is available at the European scale (e.g. Airbase, an historic database and Ozone web, near real time but one pollutant only). These sources of information are not easily usable by the general public. There was a gap to fill for the European project CITEAIR (Common Information To European Air). Its main objective being to provide near real-time comparative environmental data easily understood by the wider public.