CITEAIR – Common Information to European Air

Abstract

Air quality is becoming a major issue for European citizens, as they become more aware of its impact on their health. The number of days where pollution levels exceed acceptable thresholds, the severity of diseases and their impact on society are of increasing concern each year. This has encouraged 11 European cities and regions to collaborate in the CITEAIR project to develop tools and technologies which will provide a better assessment of urban air quality, support local action plans and policies for abating air quality problems. An Internet platform is being developed to inform the public on actual air quality situations, which will also enable comparisons between different European urban environments. The paper provides an overview of the approach of the CITEAIR project, and then focuses on the development of a proposed Common Air Quality Index (CAQI) and the implementation of a Common Operational Website (COW). The COW is an interactive website designed to automatically collect air quality data from monitoring sites in participating European cities and to present these data in a simplified format. This together with adoption of the CAQI will facilitate easy comparisons of air quality and exchange of ideas on improving air quality across Europe. CITEAIR invites European cities and regions to collaborate with the project by providing their air quality data for publication on the COW, together with examples of successful environmental management actions for use as case studies. This cooperation, at an early stage, will seek to ensure that the protocols and procedures for data-transfer, evaluation and presentations that are currently under development will meet the needs of the wider community.