An important communication tool

CAQI raises awarness about causes, effects of air pollution

By Anna Clark and Andrej Klemenc

Air pollution is a common challenge for European cities and its inhabitants. The residents of and people who travel to cities are not only victims of poor air quality, but also major contributors to the problem. Therefore, adequate communication of the problem is of crucial importance, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, where people primarily consider themselves victims rather than contribors to environmental pollution. Communicating the problem helps to raise awareness about the causes and effects of air pollution, and provides the potential to influence people's behaviour and attitudes, both at an individual and collective level.

 

Effective communication about air quality requires trusted and comparable data from across Europe. Such data, however, is not easy to supply because there are many different air pollutants that have an impact on the quality of air we breathe; also, data overload can cause confusion and be difficult to interpret. In order to help avoid confusion in communicating air quality data to the general public, the CITEAIR project has developed a more straightforward and easy-to-understand approach. Air quality information is provided through the Common Air Quality Index (CAQI). The CAQI presents and enables comparison of air quality by "translating" the pollutants' concentrations into colour-coded qualitative values ranging from "very low" (green) to "very high" (red) for two characteristic situations in a city: roadside and background. The CAQI considers different key pollutants that are regulated by the European Directive on Air Quality in near real time on an hourly or daily basis.

 

 

The CAQI is designed to help city residents identify and understand their air quality situation quickly and easily without the need to consult experts. Simple, up-to-date and comparable information on air quality for more than 90 European cities can be accessed through a website and smartphone application at www.airqualitynow.eu that was developed within the CITEAIR and CITEAIR II projects. Each featured city is able to improve its air quality communication not only to local residents, but to citizens across Europe. This web service supplements but does not replace local data, and is instrumental in moving towards creating a European standard for communication on air quality data. Although both CITEAIR projects are finished, the service will remain operational over the coming years. The service is specifically designed for European cities, taking into account urban typologies and providing a "one-stop shop" for air quality information in Europe.

 

 

Based on the CAQI approach, the CITEAIR II project also developed air quality forecasting for certain cities, dependent on the availability of data. Adding to the ability to view CAQI values on the previous and current day, along with the forecast, it is also possible to compare the current day's air quality with that of the next. This can be very useful and important information, especially for groups most vulnerable to air pollution, such as children, the elderly and people with respiratory or cardiovascular diseases. It can also help city authorities to undertake measures to reduce local air pollution emissions before it is too late.

Visit www.airqualitynow.eu and explore how easily you can access air quality information for many European cities. If your city is not on the list, consider taking action to convince your local authorities to join. Any city can join the website. All necessary information and instructions are available at www.airqualitynow.eu/about_join.php . Interested parties can also send an email to join@airqualitynow.eu.

For more in-depth scientific considerations of the issue of air pollution indices, please visit Comparing Urban Air Quality Across Borders.