ICT Technologies and Somputational Intelligence Methods for the Creation of an Early Warning Air Pollution Information System

Abstract

Contemporary air quality management calls for effective, and in advance, AQ information dissemination. Such dissemination requires for communication that should not be based solely on written or oral language forms, but should make use of graphical, symbolical and multimedia language communication schemes, via available communication channels. Previous experiences and published research results indicate that the content of environmental information systems should include both real time information and forecasting for key parameters of interest, like the maximum concentration values of air pollutants. The latter are difficult to achieve, as air quality forecasting requires both domain expertise and modelling skills for the complicated phenomenon of atmospheric pollution. One of the ways to address this need and to extract useful knowledge for better forecasting and understanding of air pollution problems, is the application of Computational Intelligence (CI) methods and tools. The present paper discusses the creation of an environmental information portal for the dissemination of air quality information and warnings, for the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. The system is developed with the aid of state-of-the art, web-based technologies, including modular, on the fly software integration to operating applications, and implements CI for the forecasting of parameters of interest. In addition, observation data are made accessible to the public via an internet-based, graphics environment that deploys open source geographic information services.