Quality of Life Information Services Towards A Sustainable Society For The Atmospheric Environment

Quality of life information services
towards a sustainable society

for the atmospheric environment
COST Action ES0602 Workshop Proceedings
Editors:
Kostas Karatzas and
Jaakko Kukkonen
COST Action ES0602
Thessaloniki, 2009
Quality of life information

services towards a sustainable
society for the atmospheric
environment
COST Action ES0602 Workshop

Proceedings
Editors:
Kostas Karatzas and
Jaakko Kukkonen
COST- the acronym for European Cooperation in Science and Technology- is the oldest and
widest European intergovernmental network for cooperation in research. Established by the
Ministerial Conference in November 1971, COST is presently used by the scientific communities
of 35 European countries to cooperate in common research projects supported by national
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The funds provided by COST - less than 1% of the total value of the projects - support the
COST cooperation networks (COST Actions) through which, with EUR 30 million per year, more
than 30 000 European scientists are involved in research having a total value which exceeds EUR
2 billion per year. This is the financial worth of the European added value which COST achieves.
A "bottom up approach" (the initiative of launching a COST Action comes from the European
scientists themselves), " la carte participation" (only countries interested in the Action
participate), "equality of access" (participation is open also to the scientific communities of
countries not belonging to the European Union) and "flexible structure" (easy implementation
and light management of the research initiatives) are the main characteristics of COST.
As precursor of advanced multidisciplinary research COST has a very important role for the
realization of the European Research Area (ERA) anticipating and complementing the activities of
the Framework Programmes, constituting a "bridge" towards the scientific communities of
emerging countries, increasing the mobility of researchers across Europe and fostering the
establishment of "Networks of Excellence" in many key scientific domains such as: Biomedicine
and Molecular Biosciences; Food and Agriculture; Forests, their Products and Services; Materials,
Physical and Nanosciences; Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies; Earth System
Science and Environmental Management; Information and Communication Technologies;
Transport and Urban Development; Individuals, Societies, Cultures and Health. It covers basic
and more applied research and also addresses issues of pre-normative nature or of societal
importance.
Web: http://www.cost.esf.org
Publisher: Sofia Publications S.A., Thessaloniki, Greece

Book title: COST Action ES0602 Quality of life information services towards a sustainable
society for the atmospheric environment
Year of publication: 2009
ISBN: 978-960-6706-20-2
COST Office, 2009
No permission to reproduce or utilise the contents of this book by any means is necessary, other
than in the case of images, diagrammes or other material from other copyright holders. In such
cases, permission of the copyright holders is required. This book may be cited as: Quality of life
information services towards a sustainable society for the atmospheric environment COST
Action ES0602 Workshop Proceedings.
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the external websites referred to in this publication.
COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ................................................................................................................. 7
Atmospheric quality information for quality of life

1.1
Introduction .......................................................................................................9
1.2
Atmospheric quality information and its dissemination ..................................10
1.3
Air quality information services (AQIS) ............................................................13
1.4
The future of AQ Information services .............................................................16
1.5
Conclusions ......................................................................................................17
1.6
References .......................................................................................................17
An overview of the COST action Towards a European Network on

Chemical Weather Forecasting and Information Systems
2.1
Introduction .....................................................................................................22
2.2
The role of this COST action with respect to other initiatives and projects .....26
2.3
The objectives and expected benefits of this COST action ...............................27
2.4
Participation, working groups and organization .............................................29
2.5
Overview of the progress of the action ............................................................30
2.6
The future perspectives....................................................................................35
2.7
References .......................................................................................................36
2.8
Selected relevant web site addresses ..............................................................37
An overview of WG1 : Exchange of AQ forecasts and input data

3.1
Introduction .....................................................................................................39
3.2
Other relevant activities and contributions of this action ...............................40
An overview of WG 2: Multi-scale forecasting, multi-model ensemble,

boundary data
4.1
Introduction .....................................................................................................43
4.2
Forecasting, model development and boundary data .....................................45
4.3
Status of the activity ........................................................................................46
An overview of WP3: Dissemination and visualization

5.1
The basics ........................................................................................................49
5.2
Work description..............................................................................................50
5.3
Dissemination and visualisation solutions per country. ...................................52
5.4
Related publications ........................................................................................53
Delivering preventative health information to vulnerable people: Airalert

and Sussex-Air
6.1
AirAlert empowering vulnerable people with directed information. ............57
6.2
Getting air pollution information out there .....................................................58
6.3
Air pollution forecasts to air alerts ..................................................................58
6.4
airAlert the air pollution warning service for vulnerable people: .................59
6.5
The airAlert service aims ..................................................................................60
6.6
airAlert service information (2006 & 2007 summer services) ..........................60
6.7
The future of intervention systems ..................................................................63
Towards an international real-time data and forecast system for public

information: AIRNow-International
7.1
Introduction .....................................................................................................65
7.2
The air quality index ........................................................................................66
7.3
Airnow-international (airnow-i) .......................................................................68
7.4
Benefits ............................................................................................................69
7.5
Group on earth observations (geo) societal benefits .......................................70
7.6
Future endeavors .............................................................................................71
7.7
References .......................................................................................................71
Near-real time Air Quality Data (Ozone web and future actions)
8.1
Background ......................................................................................................73
8.2
Results in 2008 .................................................................................................75
8.3
Next steps ........................................................................................................75
8.4
Relevant web-links ...........................................................................................76
AIRTHESS: the Thessaloniki system for early warning air pollution

information
9.1
Introduction .....................................................................................................77
9.2
Air Quality monitoring in Thessaloniki .............................................................79
9.3
The early warning information system ............................................................80
9.4
References .......................................................................................................85
10
The Cyprus AQ Information Portal
10.1
Introduction .....................................................................................................87
10.2
Public information and awareness ..................................................................88
10.3
Sahara dust episodes .......................................................................................89
10.4
Air quality simulation and nowcasting / forecasting .......................................90
10.5
References .......................................................................................................91
Annex A .............................................................................................................. 93
PREFACE
The chemical composition of the atmosphere has numerous impacts to the
quality of human life. Some prominent examples of these are the adverse
health effects of fine particulate matter and ozone, the irritation and cough
caused by some air pollutants and the sneezing associated to aeroallergens, the
sense of smell associated to the changes of the seasons as well as to the
exposure to unpleasant odors.
The COST Action ES0602: Towards a European Network on Chemical Weather
Forecasting and Information Systems (www.chemicalweather.eu), organized in
May 2008 a workshop in Thessaloniki, Greece, devoted to Quality of life
information services towards a caring and sustainable society for the
atmospheric environment. The main purpose of the workshop was to present
and discuss existing Chemical Weather Forecasting and Information Systems,
developed both by the action participants, and by related important
organizations, such as the European Environment Agency and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. The focus of the workshop was specifically
on the dissemination and the wider use of chemical weather forecasting
information. This has been the main topic of the Working Group 3 of this COST
action.
The workshop included a number of key presentations from invited experts
from Europe and the United States. These represent regional, national and
continental solutions and services that provide information on the quality of
the atmospheric environment and chemical weather forecasts, via web portals,
mobile devices, and other ICT communication channels.
8
These presentations are included in this publication, and we wish to thank all
the authors for providing these contributions. In addition, this publication
includes three brief papers that present the objectives, content, interaction
and achievements of the working groups that are active within the COST
ES0602 Action. We also wish to acknowledge the substantial contributions
towards the successful organization of this workshop by all of the participants
of this COST action. Last but not least, this publication includes an inventory of
AQ information systems in Europe, on the basis of input received by members
of the Action. We hope that based on these proceedings and the referenced
information, the readers will be able to have direct access to the current state
of the art, the latest developments and the future plans concerning Quality of
Life Information Services for the Atmospheric Environment.
This publication is supported by COST.
In Thessaloniki and Helsinki, March 2009
The editors,
Kostas Karatzas and Jaakko Kukkonen
1 ATMOSPHERIC QUALITY INFORMATION FOR

QUALITY OF LIFE
Kostas D. Karatzasa
Abstract
Air quality (AQ) is among the most significant and well studied concepts of
environmental quality. Yet the question of perception, interpretation and
communication of AQ information remains open, and needs to be addressed in an
effective way in order to design better abatement strategies for the protection of
human health and new information services for quality of life support. Contemporary
AQ information dissemination methods and tools can now make use of various
telecommunication channels for pull and push service provision. These may include
internet for e-mail notification, World Wide Web for detailed AQ related information,
SMS for early warning services, and other ICT oriented solutions and methods. The
present paper provides information on atmospheric quality information, information
systems, presentation and dissemination practises. The paper also draws conclusions
concerning the design and the functions of AQ information services, thus providing
input to research institutes, authorities and companies working in the area of
environmental information dissemination.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Atmospheric Quality Information Services (AQIS) are electronic services that
provide access to environmental information and user-taylored environmental
communication, by combining ICT methods and communication concepts, in a
human centered way, making use of state-of-the-art atmospheric quality
observations and modelling. Such services emerged as a result of the
contemporary environmental legislation at European level, but they soon
developed a life of their own, acting as outriders of quality of life,
personalised, electronic information services. This has been recoglized already
a
Informatics Applications and Systems Group, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle

University, Box 483, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; E-mail: kkara@eng.auth.gr
*
This article is based on Karatzas K. (2009), informing the public about atmospheric quality: air
pollution and pollen, Allergo Journal 3, in press.
10
by relevant authoroties, who state that quality of air means quality of life
(the EPA official site on air pollution in USA). Thus, AQIS combine the need for
improved well being on a personal level, with the understanding of
environmental pressures and their consequences, especially at the urban scale.
They also provide with valuable information concerning the way that the
pattern of our everyday life is associated with exposure to, and consequences
of, these environmental pressures. It is becoming more and more clear that
such pressures have different spatial scales (ranging from a neighbourhood to a
regional problem), and multiple temporal scales (from the seconds of street
canyon photochemistry to the hours of duration of a pollen episode, moving
towards the days of duration of an ozone episode). The multiplicity of time and
space related scales of environmental pressures calls for information services
that are capable of addressing them; services that are also in the position to
effectively operate within scale boundaries. On the other hand, many
environmental problems are of multiple time and space scales simultaneously,
air pollution and pollen being among the most prominent ones. Although this
statement is strongly supported by scientific evidence, it has not become part
of the human understanding concerning the characteristics of the environment
that he/she lives in. Certain perceptions of environmental pressures and
problems still dominate the way that people understand and interpret quality
of life constituents like the quality of the atmospheric environment. The
present paper discusses aspects of air quality and pollen information services.
1.2 ATMOSPHERIC QUALITY INFORMATION AND ITS DISSEMINATION

It was early recognized that citizens well informed in environmental issues can
support the formulation and application of practises for the protection of the
environment and the support of sustainable development, while being able to
protect themselves from negative effects that the environment might have to
their health. Yet, what was lacking (and it still is), is a model for effective
communicating of environmental information to the public. This type of model
guidelines, started to rise within the related legal framework, that, in its turn,
tried to incorporate in the best way the scientific knowledge concerning the
impacts of AQ to human health and the environment, and introduced in our
everyday vocabulary terms like assessment, limit values, target values,
concentration and many others.
Thus, the first EU legislation concerning air quality information availability was
Dir. 82/459 later replaced by Directive 97/101, which stated that E.I. should be
11
made accessible to the public via an information system set up by the European
Environment Agency (EEA), the European air quality information system
Airbase. The major change came with Directive on Ambient Air Quality
Assessment and Management (96/62/EC), which required for the development
of action plans concerning zones within which concentrations of pollutants in
ambient air exceed limit values. These limit values were established by new
(Daughter) Directives, that replaced old ones. It is worth noting that within
these Daughter Directives, the use of computer-network services is mentioned
in order to provide to the public with the appropriate air quality information,
which should be up-to-date and should be routinely made available (Karatzas
and Moussiopoulos, 2000).
The EUs latest amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament
and of the Council on public access to environmental information, that later
became Dir. 2003/4/EC declares that environmental information should be
provided to the public on-line. This is in line with Article 7 of Directive 2003/4
which states that Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure
that public authorities organise the environmental information with a view to
its active and systematic dissemination to the public, in particular by means of
computer telecommunication and/or electronic technology.
The most important update concerning the provision of AQ information to the
general public came with the new Clean Air for Europe (CAF) Directive
2008/50/EC. This directive includes a list of pollutants for which information
needs to be communicated, a detailed desctiption of the information per se,
and a direct reference on the necessity to make use of forecasts in order to
provide with an amount of information as detailed and as structured as the one
that will be based on observations, making it mandatory to include AQ info on
the basis of spatial and temporal dimensions of exceedances. Moreover, the
same Directive states that the (bublic information described there in) shall be
made available free of charge by means of any easily accessible media including
the Internet or any other appropriate means of telecommunication a.
Yet, it is difficult to come up with a harmonised, and homogeneous (regardless
of time, space and pollutants) way to briefly and accurately describe AQ and
communicate related information, due to the complexity of the air pollution
problem per se and the variations in the way that limit values and alert
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32008L0050:EN:NOT
12
thresholds are defined and calculated. Some examples on the basis of
popular pollutants follow:
Particulate matter. This is a category of pollutants, which is further

classified on the basis of their mean aerodynamic diameter and of their
physical state (liquid, solid, mixed). The most well known subcategory
is PM10, i.e. particulate matter of solid state and of mean diameter in
the order of 10 m. This is a pollutant that is directly emitted my
combustion or mechanical processes as well as indirectly formed from
gaseous pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and
ammonia. The criterion applied for assessment in the European Union
is the daily mean concentration, and the limit value used equals
50g/m3, not to be exceeded more than 35 times per calendar year.
Another criterion exists, concerning the mean annual value, which is
40g/m3 not to be exceeded.
Ozone (O3): This is a pollutant that is not directly emitted but produced
in the atmosphere, as the result of the change in the chemical balance
of the atmospheric air, due to the existence of other pollutants. Ozone
is a pollutant that has a very strong photochemical profile, and in
addition can travel with the aid of atmospheric air. The criterion
applied for assessment is the highest 8 hour mean of hourly values,
calculated as a running average; a set of 24 values should be calculated
for each day, each one representing the 8hour average of time
intervals ending from 01:00 to 24:00 of the day of reference. The target
value is 120g/m3 not to be exceeded more than 20 days per calendar
year. It worthies noting that WHO has just introduced a new guideline
value, equal to 100 g/m3, a typical procedure in the domain of AQM,
resulting from updated scientific evidence concerning consequences of
polluted air to man and the ecosystem.
Pollen: A persons reaction to pollen varies, is unique for each citizen, is

based on many different factors including an individuals sensitivity to
particular pollen, amount of pollen an individual is exposed to, as well
as weather (e.g. wind, temperature etc.). On this basis, no limit values
for pollen exist, and all the pollen levels used are based on pollen
counts.
The above examples demonstrate the differences in the way that an

atmospheric pollutant affects ambient air quality, and should be taken into
account in the design of any AQ information and communication method. On
13
this basis, and following the mandates of the legal framework, the
prerequisites of the information content and current practice (Karatzas, et al.,
2005), the information to be made available to the public should consist of (a)
spatial and temporal air quality and emission data (for both pollen and air
pollutants), (b) air quality forecasts (c) measures and advices to decrease
personal exposure, (d) guidelines for sensitive parts of the population and
administrative details.
1.3 AIR QUALITY INFORMATION SERVICES (AQIS)

Information services for the quality of the atmospheric environment should, by
definition, address information needs of citizens on the basis of effective
communication methods. Those two are the key points for the design of any
Environmental Quality Information Service (EQIS), and more specifically
Information needs. Those are defined by the way that the citizen
envisages him/herself in relation to the physical environment, the
interactions that he or she has or believes to have with such an
environment and the impacts of the quality of the environment to
his/her life, family, and personal ethical values that constitute quality
of life. It is clear that these issues are very much influenced by the
subjective view of each individual and by complicated (and in many
cases uncertain) science that is involved in the cause-effect circle of
environmental quality and well (sustainable) being. This means that a
successful AQIS should be able to incorporate flexible and adaptable
content, of varying scientific detail and of multiple graphical-verbalmultimedia representations. In addition, spatial and temporal
characteristics of the information should be provided on the basis of
service dimensions that will be able to address them (i.e. georeferences services for spatial data, time-dependent services for
temporal variation of information, etc).
Communication methods used. The effective communication of a

message of informative nature that may escalate to a health hazard
warning is the key for the success of every AQIS. As there are
numerous publications on communication in general and on the
communication of scientific content, it is better to focus on findings
related to the atmospheric environment and specifically air quality. A
first step is to identify the user (target group), by responding to
questions like who is the user of the service, basic family and personal
14
background in relation to environment, health and media technologies,
scenarios of information usage, everyday life patterns, etc. Then, the
information content should be addressed. According to AIRNET
Thematic
Network
on
Air
Pollution
and
Health
(http://airnet.iras.uu.nl/), stakeholders prefer information to be
presented in short overviews using non-specialist language. In
addition, one of the findings of the airALERT that provides SMS-based
air quality related health warnings in Sussex, U.K., is that people would
like to receive health warning that advice them on the basis of their
personal health condition in relation to atmospheric pollution,
especially if they belong to the so called sensitive parts of the
population (http://www.sussex-air.net/airalert_seminar.html).
Concerning AQIS, these issues have been addressed in a comprehensive and
systematic way in the frame of the APNEE and APNEE-TU projects
(www.apnee.org), as it is evident by the number of publications that the
project produced, the impact it had to the research communitya and by the
number of off springs that it created. APNEE established a multi-channel
information service platform for the dissemination and presentation of air
quality information. The communication path made use of various
telecommunication channels for pull and push service provision, indulging
internet for e-mail notification, world wide web for detailed pollution related
information, SMS for early warning services, WAP and J2ME applications in
mobiles and PDAs for enhanced graphical and informative content on the
move, street panels (VMS) for covering key parts of the urban web and voice
services for personal communication support. Moreover, APNEE provided
location based services, and supported personalisation of the information. The
project results have been documented in various publications (Johansen et al.,
2001; Bohler et al., 2002; Karatzas et al., 2004; Peinel and Rose, 2004; Karatzas
et al, 2005). Concerning the content of such an information service, it should be
noted that a recently published survey on real time AQ information for asthma
patients (Bush et al., 2006), showed that the respondents would like to receive
information related to monitoring and self-management of asthma, including
avoidance measurements and prevention.
Was presented by Commissioner Mrs Reding as one of the three success stories out of the total
th
of ICT projects under the 5 FP.
15
Pollen information systems may be considered as a part of AQIS. Although
there are not so many pollen information systems, that are operational or
under test, those existing make use of internet technologies and SMS
messaging for communicating information and provide warnings to the
recipients. It is interesting to note that such systems are considered in many
cases as part of the official AQ information portal of city or other authorities.
Thus for example, the city of Albuquerque in New Mexico, USA, provides with
detailed pollen information as part of the AQ information pages
(http://www.cabq.gov/airquality/index.html). In addition to that, a European
site for the collection and provision of pollen information is
www.polleninfo.org, a portal created and maintained by Dr. Siegfried Jaeger.
Recently, a new COST action on the assessment of production, release,
distribution and health impact of allergenic pollen in Europe has initiated its
activities (www.eupollen.eu). Yet, it should be noted that some dedicated sites
for the forecasting and information provision of pollen levels already existed
some years ago. Some examples follow:
Dynamic on-line forecasting system for cedar pollen in Kanto, Japan

(http://www.kafun-info.jp/). A meteorological forecast model is being
fed with emission data coming from a model and observations, for the
provision of pollen concentration levels. Information is being made
available via the web, while in the first years of operation, wap access
was also being tested and used (Delaunay et al., 2002)
Atmospheric concentrations of allergenic pollen in Europe. A project of

the Finnish Academy of Sciences, that run from 2005-2007, and
developed an integrated modelling system for simulating and
forecasting in time the pollen emissions and transport on an European
scale. The results for birch pollen are now available via the internet
(http://pollen.fmi.fi/pics/index_2008.html)
The National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit at the University of

Worcester provides, with the sponsorship of a major pharmaceutical
company, pollen forecasts for UK, available via the internet and via
SMS (http://www.zirtek.co.uk/Home.aspx)
In all these cases, a meteorological model is being combined with an air

dispersion model, that takes input from pollen emission models (in some cases
in combination with pollen emission observations), for the calculation of grains
of pollen per cubic metre on a mean daily basis.
16
1.4 THE FUTURE OF AQ INFORMATION SERVICES

It has already been suggested that the usage of telecommunication networks
and modern mobile devices can help in the transformation of the citizen
from a passive receiver of information to an actor (Karatzas, 2005). It has also
been suggested that the citizen should be able to electronically annotate (tag)
information related to the quality of the environment, and post it to a digital
community, for others to use, thus formulating on an individual level the
content of the environmental information service (Karatzas, 2006). These ideas
have independently been pushed much further in the frame of various research
projects, like the PEIR project. The Personal Environmental Impact Report
(PEIR) project has developed an online tool that allows people to use their
mobile phones in order to explore and share their impact towards the
environment and the way that the environment has an impact on them
(http://peir.cens.ucla.edu/). PEIR is based on participatory or citizen-initiated
sensing, and data commons (Cuff et al., 2008). It allows citizens to annotate,
photograph and record environmental pressures, post them via wireless
communication to a digital media (map-based) that is being made available for
the whole community to use and explore. In addition, mathematical models
make use of these data plus background data in order to provide with detailed
and as accurate as possible, environmental quality information for specific
areas of interest. The aspect of the digital city and sustainability information
services has been extended and enriched via the Ubiquitous Sustainability
concept (Paulos et. al., 2008) and its relationship to environmental quality and
sustainability, that also incorporates the usage of micro-sensors, together with
mobile phones, for advanced environmental quality monitoring (IEEE Spectrum,
2009). These projects and concepts have already been tested for the air quality
domain, and are expected to act as paradigms for the future environmental
information services. Such services will be digital, yet working on an ambient
environment, making use of Human-Computer Interaction developments, and
allowing for participatory environmental surveillance and actions, especially in
the way that digital social media are able to support. In addition, small, mobile
sensors, are already available to monitor environmental pressures in the
vicinity of patterns of urban living and mobility (http://bioinf.ncl.ac.uk/
message/). In this respect, chemicalweather information may play an important
role for the environmental information service personalization on the fly,
taking into account georeferencing, and the needs for adaptation to individual
environmental pressures and health problems. Personalised exposure and
dosage may be supported by chemicalweather services and devices attached
17
to mobile phones, thus qualtifying quality of life on an indivifual level, while
also provide with information of alternatives of urban life and mobility
patterns. Such services may thus support quality of life and may also have a
quantitative effect on life expectancy, if they are able to result in the reduction
in exposure to ambient air pollution (like in the case of fine particulates, Pope
et al., 2009).
1.5 CONCLUSIONS
Pollen information has gained its share as part of the air quality information
that authorities should provide to the public, timely, or even in advance. On
this basis, there is a number of AQIS that have been developed as a response to
the legal mandate to provide environmental information to the citizens and the
decision makers, and as a consequence of the scientific and technological
developments in the fields of environmental sciences and ICT, respectively.
Related literature has been accumulated, suggesting that this is a scientific field
maturing fast, with considerable consequences in public administration, citizen
participation in decision making and awareness and behaviour drives towards a
more sustainable society. Personalisation of these services, in combination with
the vast usage of internet and mobile phones in EU, is expected to lead to new
types of (smarter) AQIS that will allow for assessment of quality of life on a
personal level based on mobility patterns and urban life characteristics, and
taking into account individual sensitisation and exposure.
1.6 REFERENCES
Anderson HR, Ponce de Leon A, Bland JM, Bower JS, Emberlin J., Strachan DP. Air
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Bush A, Karagiannis G, Stamatopoulos V. Kotis T. Public perception of realtime
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Cuff D., Hansen M. and Kang J. Urban Sensing: out of the woods, Communications of
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Holmen A, Blomqvist J, Frindberg H, Johnelius Y, Eriksson NE Henricson K , Herrstrm
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dissemination on multimodal information channels and GIS. Proceedings of the
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Environmental Protection, L. Hilty and P. Gilgen eds., Part 1: Impacts and
Applications. 2001; 271-278. ISBN 3-89518-370-9.
Karatzas K. A quality-of-urban-life ontology for human centric, environmental
information services, Presentation at the COST C21- Towntology meeting on WG1:
Ontologies and Information Systems and Information Systems (available via
http://www.towntology.net/Meetings/0512-BXL/presentations/
C21_towntology_karatzas_brussels.pdf), Brussels, 12-13 Dec. 2005 (accessed
18.03.2009)
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K.
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(accessed
18.03.2009): meeting on Information and Communication Technologies for the
Management of Natural Resources and Environmental Risks, 21.03.2006
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Karatzas K., Endregard G, Flisand I. Citizen-oriented environmental information
services: usage and impact modelling. Proceedings of Informatics for
Environmental Protection- Networking Environmental Information-19th
International EnviroInfo Conference, Brno, Czech Republic. 2005; 872-878
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Environmental Information to Non Scientists, ISESS2007, http://www.isess.org/
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21
2 AN OVERVIEW OF THE COST ACTION TOWARDS A

EUROPEAN NETWORK ON CHEMICAL WEATHER
FORECASTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Jaakko Kukkonena, Kostas Karatzasb, Kjetil Trsethc, Aasmund Fahre Vikc,
Thomas Kleind, Roberto San Jose, Taru Balka and Mikhail Sofieva
Abstract
This action provides a forum for benchmarking approaches and practices in data
exchange and multi-model capabilities for chemical weather (CW) forecasting and near
real-time (NRT) information systems in Europe. It examines existing solutions of CW
forecast and information systems, integrating activities at national and international
levels, bringing together key players from Europe and abroad, to enhance synergies
and collaboration between scientific bodies. The action includes approximately 30
participants from 19 countries, and its duration is from 2007 to 2011
(http://www.chemicalweather.eu/). Major efforts have been dedicated in other actions
and projects to the development of infrastructures for data flow. We have therefore
aimed for collaboration with ongoing actions towards developing near real time
exchange of input data for AQ forecasting. We have collected information on the
operational models in the participating countries in a structured format. We have also
constructed a European air quality forecasting portal that will include links to all
available chemical weather forecasting systems in Europe in a user-friendly graphical
format. We have joined the case studies that have been organized within COST-728, in
order to inter-compare and evaluate the models against experimental data. Work is
also in progress in order to construct an operational model forecasting ensemble. A
representative set of regional background stations have been selected from the
participating countries, and the operational forecasts for this set of sites will be intercompared and evaluated. The Action fosters and proactively supports the exchange of
information, experience and best practices on various approaches to disseminate
a
Finnish Meteorological Institute, Erik Palmenin aukio 1, P.O.Box 503, FI-00101 Helsinki
Aristotle University, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Box 483, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
c
Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Dept. Atmospheric and Climate Research, P.O Box
100, N-2027 Kjeller
d
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Folkborgsvgen 1, SE-601 76 Norrkping
e
Computer Science School, Technical University of Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo - Boadilla
del Monte-28660, Madrid, Spain
b
22
information on the internet and other media. It explicitly supports efficient
environmental information services for Europe with emphasis on quality of life for
European citizens, in line with ongoing initiatives such as Global Monitoring for
Environment and Security (GMES).
2.1 INTRODUCTION
It would be cost-effective and beneficial for citizens, society and decisionmakers that national chemical weather forecast and information systems
would be harmonized across Europe. Moreover, the fundamental rights for
free mobility and access to infrastructures and services for every European
citizen require that information concerning the quality of the environment
should be available continuously and similarly to all. This action provides a
forum for the evaluation and assessment of modelling and information systems
for chemical weather and air quality forecasting systems in Europe. This Action
supports and complements several ongoing projects and other initiatives
towards the same goals. In particular, it serves as a platform for the
information exchange between the meteorological services, environmental
agencies, and international initiatives.
Current legislation of the European Union (EU) (e.g., the ozone daughter
directive 2002/3/EC) requires (i) informing the public on air quality, (ii)
assessing air pollutant concentrations in Member States, and indicating
exceedances of limit and target values, (iii) forecasting future potential
exceedances and (iv) assessing possible emergency measures to abate
exceedances using modelling tools. AQ modelling methods include statistical,
deterministic and hybrid systems.
Methods using a combination of weather forecasting and atmospheric
chemistry simulations are here referred to as Chemical Weather (CW)
forecasting. The definition of chemical weather (CW) extends the theme of air
quality (AQ) with the integration of themes such as, e.g., meteorology and
allergenic pollen. CW forecasting uses a combination of meteorological
forecasting and atmospheric chemistry simulations in order to generate
information relevant to citizens, decision makers and the scientific community.
23
Israel
Figure 2.1: Countries participating in the COST ES0602 action (in blue). The action includes
approximately 30 participants from 19 countries, and its duration is from 2007 to 2011
(http://www.chemicalweather.eu/). In addition, Belgium has recently been accepted as a
member country, and Russia has been included as a permanent non-COST member country.
Users of AQ forecasts include European citizens, public authorities and agencies

in charge of environmental impact assessments and public health. AQ
forecasting requires access to meteorological and air pollutant concentration
fields and measurements (both in situ and remote-sensing), emission
inventories and physiographic data. Existing national AQ Forecast and
Information Systems (AQFISs) have specific characteristics, address various
spatial and temporal scales, and consequently, have different strengths and
limitations.
National Meteorological Services (NMS) have a strong expertise on handling
and disseminating large amounts of data in near-real-time, data assimilation
and numerical forecasting model systems. The European Environment Agency
(EEA) has established the European Environment Information and Observation
Network (EIONET, http://air-climate.eionet.eu.int/) for environmental
information transfer, and the Ozoneweb information system as a pilot
demonstrating seamless, near real time (NRT), air quality information access
and dissemination. There are several institutes and organisations that are
24
responsible on national level for operating air quality monitoring networks,
managing concentrations data and providing air quality assessments. These
include air quality national research centres (AQ-NRC), the national
environmental agencies (NEA), ministries or national-regional authorities
responsible for environmental issues, universities, research centres, and the
NMSs. They also have the responsibility of informing the public on current as
well as on forecasted air pollution situation, and taking subsequent measures in
case of exceedances.
There are currently numerous local, regional and continental-scale AQFISs in
Europe. Some prominent examples are the following: the EURAD modelling
system in Germany (Elbern et al. 2007, http://www.eurad.unikoeln.de/index_e.html), the PREVAIR consortium in France (Menut et al. 2005,
http://www.prevair.org/en/index.html), the Your Air- system in England and
Wales (http://www.cerc.co.uk/YourAir), the Air Quality and Emergency
Modelling System SILAM (Sofiev et al. 2006, http://silam.fmi.fi), the air quality
forecasting and simulation system MM5-CHIMERE (Vautard et al. 2005,
http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/mm5/,
http://www.lmd.polytechnique.fr/chimere/), the AIRTHESS air quality
information, forecasting and early warning system in the Greater Thessaloniki
Area (http://www.airthess.gr), the European Operational Air Quality
Forecasting system EOAQF (http://verde.lma.fi.upm.es/cmaq_eu/) in Spain,
and the MATCH AQ Forecast and Information System (MAQS) in Sweden
(Engardt et al. 2005, http://www.airviro.smhi.se/MATCH-AQ/maqs). However,
any single modelling approach bears inherent uncertainties; the higherresolution domains also commonly cover only a limited area (characteristically
one or a few European countries). This action aims to benchmark, evaluate and
combine these modelling systems, in order to provide accurate and reliable
high-resolution AQ forecasts.
However, there are various institutional, scientific and practical obstacles for an
overall seamless exchange of data and forecast information dissemination. A
European network of CW forecasting and information systems (ENCWF) will
require a high level of coordination between various participants in NRT. In
view of the substantial number of national arrangements and actors, this action
is aimed to start a process that will aim at common agreements, protocols and
procedures in order to remove these obstacles. A state-of-the-art ENCWF
integrating data collection and processing, forecasting, as well as management,
display and dissemination of CW forecasts using GTS (Global
25
Telecommunication Systema, and internet possibilities would have a high
impact. One promising example of such a system is AIRNow
(http://airnow.gov/) that has been operational in the USA and Canada under
EPA for several years.
Within the framework outlined above, it is the explicit aim of this COST Action
to provide an integrated, neutral and growing platform to bridge any potential
gaps between the scientific community (e.g. universities), providers of
infrastructure (such as the NMSs), environmental agencies, the observation
and the modelling community and the user community. The Action has three
major fields of work which all aim at a better integration and exploration of the
existing assets by means of fostering improved networking between the
identified institutions and initiatives.
The first field of work comprises the analysis of existing dataflows and
information exchange as well as the suggestion of improvements towards an
improved pan-European integration with regard to both AQ measurements and
model results. The second area of work focuses on the exploration of the
added value of multi-model approaches for the forecasting of AQ. There are
two prominent examples of ensemble dispersion modelling within (i) the field
of emergency preparedness (FP5-project ENSEMBLE, Hewitt 2005, ensembleseu.metoffice.com) and (ii) the EU-ESA GMES (Global Monitoring for
Environment and Security, COM(2008)748, http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/
space/gmes/index_en.htm) initiative, i.e., GEMS (Global Earth-system
Monitoring using Space and in-situ data, Kaiser et al. 2006,
http://gems.ecmwf.int/). These show that multi-model approaches are a good
way to enrich the information provided by the individual deterministic models
with probabilistic information, e.g. the range of uncertainties.
In particular, within the GEMS project, analyses and 72h forecasts from ten
state-of-the-art regional air quality models (BOLCHEM, CAC, CHIMERE, EMEP,
EURAD, MATCH, MOCAGE, MM5-UAMV, NAME and SILAM) are performed on a
quasi-operational daily basis (Peuch et al., 2008). The models rely on ECMWF
operational meteorological forecasts as well as on GEMS global chemical
weather data. They all consider the same high-resolution (~ 8 km)
anthropogenic and biogenic emissions inventories.
The third field of work of this COST Action is about the dissemination of AQ
information to the user community. The importance of providing user-tailored
a
http://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/TEM/XGTS/gts.html
26
information, i.e. the required content the appropriate presentation form
through the most commonly used communication channels has been outlined
by, e.g., the APNEE FP5-project (www.apnee.org). In particular, the Action has
constructed a preliminary version of a European AQ forecasting portal; this
portal has integrated information content in principle from all publicly available
operational AQ forecasting services in Europe.
2.2 THE ROLE OF THIS COST ACTION WITH RESPECT TO OTHER

INITIATIVES AND PROJECTS
There are prominent ongoing European projects in this area, in particular
within the EU-ESA GMES, such as GEMS and PROMOTE (PROtocol MOniToring
for the GMES Service Element, http://www.gse-promote.org/, Poupkou et al.
2006). The GMES Atmospheric Services focus on operational monitoring and
forecasting of atmospheric composition, dynamics and thermodynamics
through advanced exploitation of satellite and in-situ data, on a European,
national and local level.
In particular, within the GEMS project, the sub-project on regional air quality
has established a coordinated air quality forecasting system linked to a central
site at the ECMWF (http://www.ecmwf.int/) that includes 10 models from 9
countries. An example of a small-scale network of a few operational air quality
services has been built within the first and second stages of the PROMOTE
project. These projects, however, have a closed membership and are
development-oriented; these cannot therefore involve all stake-holders in a
comprehensive way, such as the national environmental agencies. This COST
action aims to provide a forum with a broader membership across the different
communities, in order to complement and extend these projects.
Figure 2.2 is a sketch illustrating the situation in Europe, with the delineation of
the domains of activities of the GEMS and PROMOTE projects and of the COST
ES0602 Action. Clearly, currently there are also several other related EU-funded
projects, such as MEGAPOLI (Baklanov et al. 2008), CITYZEN, EUCAARI
(http://www.atm.helsinki.fi/eucaari/) and EUSAAR (http://www.eusaar.net/).
Another relevant activity is the Global Earth Observation and Monitoring
(GEOmon) project (www.geomon.eu), the goal of which is to sustain and
analyze European ground based observations of atmospheric composition and
their complementarity with satellite observations. It aims to lay the foundation
for a European contribution to GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of
27
Systems, http://www.epa.gov/geoss/) and to optimize the European strategy
of environmental monitoring in the field of atmospheric composition
measurements. Key deliverables include the provision of access to data
through a common data centre (one-stop shop for atmospheric composition
data), and the dissemination of data and data products through user friendly
tools.
ENAQFIS Initial Configuration

AQ displays/
Forecasts
Weather
Obs .
ECMWF
Emission
Inventory
EEA/ETC Data Centre

NMSi
Users &
Stake -holders
Media
NMSj
WG1,3
COST ES0602
AQ Data
from S/L
Agencies
Multi -model
forecasts
and info
GEMS /
PROMOTE
Pollutant
Forecasts
WG2
Satellite
Obs .
WG1,3
NEAi
Public
NMSk
NEAj
NEAk
City - specific
AQ forecasts
Nation./Reg./Local Air Agencies
Figure 2.2: Illustration of the current situation in Europe: European Environmental Agency
(EEA), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and National Met
Services (NMS), National Environmental Agencies (NEA), the GEMS and PROMOTE projects and
COST ES0602.
2.3 THE OBJECTIVES AND EXPECTED BENEFITS OF THIS COST ACTION

The objective of the COST ES0602 action is to set up a forum for benchmarking,
harmonising and developing approaches, practices and protocols in forecast
data exchange and multi-model capabilities towards a chemical weather
forecasting network and NRT information systems in Europe.
Specific objectives related to collaboration and harmonisation:
28
Establish and strengthen links with similar ongoing national and

international activities and dedicated projects in Europe and
elsewhere,
To build up on current systems (e.g., those in EIONET, GEMS and

PROMOTE), and enhance cooperation and coordination between the
various local, regional, national and international actors (providers,
operators, or users) and
To identify and review needs and gaps for the optimisation and
harmonization of exchange and dissemination of AQ forecast data, as
well as for the integration of modelling systems.
To support the use of CW information towards quality of life

information services for early notification and personal use, and to also
support the use of information related to additional environmental
domains, for a shared environmental information system for a
sustainable society.
Specific objectives related to scientific work and dissemination of CW

forecasts:
To review CW forecasting and information systems in Europe and

worldwide, and evaluate their advantages and limitations,
To evaluate existing multi-model ensemble CW forecasts, and possibly

develop a new one,
To contribute in developing various scientific model improvements,

such as, e.g., those related to chemical data assimilation, and the
modelling of atmospheric chemistry, particulate matter and pollution
from non-anthropogenic emission sources,
To contribute in obtaining the optimum initial data and boundary

conditions for the CW forecasting systems, such as, e.g., the use of
satellite data, and the availability of NRT atmospheric composition
data,
To contribute to develop model evaluation guidelines for CW

forecasting systems and
To assess advantages and disadvantages of various visualisation and

dissemination platforms.
29
This Action aims at preparing the basis for the provision of NRT AQ forecasts
(primarily for particles, ozone and NOX). The proposed multi-model approach
would yield a measure of the uncertainty of the individual models, and also
provide on the average more reliable forecasts. The Action exchanges
information and experience on the various approaches to display results and
information on the internet and other media for all relevant users, in order to
support efficient services easily applied throughout Europe.
This Action will provide a coordination platform complementing on-going or
planned efforts, which will actually establish the building blocks of a European
Network of AQFISs and downstream regional and local-scale services. The
Action has facilitated a structured dialogue between numerous institutes
involved in CW and AQFISs in Europe. This tends to decrease overlap and
redundancy of national, regional or local activities and arrangements. This
COST Action contributes to the definition of the standards and architecture for
the European AQFIS network. The network will facilitate the goals of EU policies
and help countries to meet their environmental and sustainable development
obligations.
2.4 PARTICIPATION, WORKING GROUPS AND ORGANIZATION

The Action started in September 2007. The overall duration of the Action is
four years. The following 19 COST countries have actively participated in the
Action: Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. This pan-European integration is a key
asset of the Action, providing a much wider perspective on CW than those of
individual projects. In addition, the individual national contributions in this
European network help to foster and improve pan-European exchange of
technology and scientific knowledge.
The rapporteur of the action is Prof. Nicolas Moussiopoulos (Aristotle
University Thessaloniki).
It has been structured to four working groups:
WG 1: Exchange of AQ forecasts and input data,
WG 2: Multi-scale forecasting, multi-model ensemble, boundary data,
WG 3: Dissemination and visualization and
30
WG 4: Cross-cutting activity, in order to coordinate with other on-going

projects and actions
The Action has selected the chairperson (Prof. Jaakko Kukkonen, Finnish
Meteorological Institute, FMI), the vice-chair (Prof. Kostas Karatzas, Aristotle
University, Greece, AUTH), and the coordinators of the WPs (WG 1: Dr. Kjetil
Trseth, Norwegian Institute for Air Research, NILU, WG 2: Adjunct Prof.
Mikhail Sofiev, FMI, WG 3: Kostas Karatzas and WG 4: Dr. Thomas Klein,
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute). Dr. Aasmund Fahre Vik
(NILU) has acted as a deputy WG chairman in case of absence of Dr. Trseth.
A cross-cutting activity for all WPs will be to coordinate with other
organisations (e.g., EEA, EUMETNET/WG-ENV, WMO, etc.) and ongoing
activities (e.g., GEMS and PROMOTE).
We have decided to nominate the Technical University of Madrid (UPM,
responsible person Prof. Roberto San Jose) as the Grant Holder of the action.
2.5 OVERVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF THE ACTION

According to the work plan of the action, the first year was mainly devoted to
various inventories, regarding the existing networks of data, operational
forecasting tools, and platforms for visualizing and disseminating information.
In addition to the Workshop CW information services for quality of life and a
summer school, it has supported several special sessions at conferences and
currently preparing more workshops. Several Short Term Scientific Missions
(STSMs) have been performed and more are underway. The action has also
managed to establish communication and synergies with several other COST
actions.
Major efforts have been dedicated in other actions and projects to the
development of infrastructures for data flow. We have therefore aimed for
collaboration with ongoing actions towards developing near real time exchange
of input data for AQ forecasting (in WG 1). Such actions include those by EEA
and EMEP, the GEMS and PROMOTE projects, and the continuation project of
GEMS, i.e., MACC. The Action has also focused on exploring additional sources
of data. In particular, we have encouraged the participants to add missing
information to the ACCENT meta-database on field observations (www.accentnetwork.org).
We have started to collect information on the models that are currently
operational in the participating countries (WG 2). Our starting points have been
31
the Model Documentation System of the EEA and the model inventory
compiled by the COST 728 and COST 732 actions. We have also agreed to join
the case studies that have been organized within the COST-728 action. The
main aims are to inter-compare and evaluate the models against experimental
data, using the substantial previous work that includes model computations
and their analysis, as well as a ready-made structure for model computations
that includes also the required model input data.
Figure 2.3: A screenshot of the portal for web-based air quality forecasting systems in Europe.
The portal has been designed to include a map of Europe with links to high-resolution forecasts
from publicly available services.
We have also started work in order to construct an operational model

forecasting ensemble (WG 2). In order to evaluate the predictions against
experimental data in near real time, a set of selected regional background
stations have been selected from the participating countries, to cover extensive
regions of Europe. Each research team will then collect and archive the results
of the operational forecasts for this set of sites. Eventually, model predictions
as well as the ensemble predictions will be compared with the measured data.
We have also started to construct a web-based map of Europe that would
include links to the high-resolution forecasts available from all the participating
groups, possibly, in Google Earth format (collaboration of WGs 2 and 3). This
32
European AQ forecasting portal could directly support ongoing European
efforts such as the GMES information services currently under development
and implementation, and the concept of the Shared Environmental Information
System (SEIS, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/seis/index.htm). This webbased information service for AQ modelling and forecasting systems in Europe
is now in operation; it is available via www.chemicalweather.eu/Domains. New
forecasting services and other improvements are continuously added.
When the user selects any point of the map, he or she will automatically
receive a short list of the AQ modelling systems that cover the specific point. By
selecting one of them, the user will receive a set of information structured as
follows: name of the domain, name of the group that has development and / or
supports this modelling service, the name of the model(s) used, the URL of the
AQ model service, and a short description of the service.
Concerning the way that AQ modelling domains are imported, this is done by
the modellers, based on a form-oriented interface. The model does not
automatically appear on the web, unless being accepted by the service
moderator. Such a service may be tailored and adapted to collaborate with
other services, and may certainly be used as a paradigm towards a shared
environmental information system (and space).
In a global context, it could also be seen as a contribution to the Global Earth
Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) implemented by the Group on Earth
Observations (GEO, http://www.earthobservations.org/). Moreover, COST
ES0602 is interested in national, regional or local air quality information portals
and services, and has accumulated guidelines, scientific evidence and best
practises for the development and support of the operation of such systems
and services.
A major achievement during the period was the organization of the workshop
Chemical weather information services for quality of life, at the Aristotle
University, Thessaloniki, Greece, on 8 May 2008 (WG 3). The main objectives of
the WS were to improve the exchange of information and promote discussion
on the information services related to chemical weather forecasting. The main
local organizer was Prof. Kostas Karatzas. The external experts, who kept
presentations, were Mr. Phil Dickerson (USA), Mr. Nigel Jenkings (U.K.), Dr.
Savvas Kleanthus (Cyprus), Mr. Geir Endregard (Norway), Dr. Kostas Nikolaou
(Greece) and Mr. Jaume Targa (European Environment Agency). It was
especially important that the experts included representatives from the U.S.
EPA and EEA.
33
The action web site is in operation at http://www.chemicalweather.eu/. The
web site is continuously updated and maintained by the Aristotle University.
Regarding scientific and technical cooperation, we have established the
following contacts:
EEA: Mr. Jaume Targa (European Environment Agency) attended the WS in

Thessaloniki in May 2008.
U.S. EPA: Dr. Phil Dickerson attended the WS in Thessaloniki in May 2008.
GEMS, PROMOTE and MACC projects: The contact persons include Dr.
Vincent-Henri Peuch, who is the leader of the Regional Air Quality (RAQ)
subproject of GEMS, and several other participants.
ACCENT and EMEP: The main contacts are Dr. Kjetil Trseth and Dr.
Aasmund Fahre Vik.
MEGAPOLI project: The contacts mainly between Prof. Alexander Baklanov,

Prof. Jaakko Kukkonen and Dr. Mikhail Sofiev.
COST 728: The contacts mainly between Prof. Ranjeet Sokhi, Dr. Mikhail
Sofiev, Prof. Alexander Baklanov and Prof. Jaakko Kukkonen.
COST ES0203: The contacts and collaboration is agreed with Dr. Mikhail
Sofiev (coordinator of COST ES0203).
The EUMETNET Working Group on ENVironment: The main contact is Dr.

Thomas Klein.
The action has participated actively in the organization of the NetFam (Nordic
Network on Fine-scale Atmospheric Modelling) Summer School on 7-15 July
2008, in St. Petersburgh, Russia. The title of the school was "Integrated
Modelling of Meteorological and Chemical Transport Processes / Impact of
Chemical Weather on Numerical Weather Prediction and Climate Modelling.
The co-organisers are NetFAM, TEMPUS TACIS project "Development of a
competency-based two-level curricula in meteorology", and COST ES0603
(http://netfam.fmi.fi/YSSS08/).
The action has received five expressions of interest to participate from the
following non-COST countries: Dr. Phil Dickerson, AIRNow Program Director,
U.S. EPA, Prof. Greg Carmichael, Univ. Iowa, USA, Adj. Prof. Jacek W. Kaminski,
York University, Prof. Eugene Genikhovich, Main Geophysical Observatory, St.
Petersburgh, Russia, Oksana Voznyuk and research team, Academy of Medical
Sciences of Ukraine.
34
COST ES0602 aims at paving the road for better pan-European AQ information
services providing added value and tailored information to a number of user
groups. For that purpose it is important to get a good understanding of the
users needs and requirements on AQ information. The Action addresses this
issue by directly liaising with specific user communities, e.g., the Norwegian
Asthma and Allergy Association (NAAF) and AirAlert.
The following STSMs have been successfully completed:
1. Ms. Marje Prank from the University of Tarto, visited Finnish
Meteorological Institute (FMI) during 2.-8. June 2007. The visit
addressed the improved use of satellite observations in air quality
forecasting using the SILAM model.
2. Mr. Dimitrios Voukantsis from Aristotle University visited FMI during 3.9. February 2008. The visit addressed the application of computational
intelligence methods to air quality and meteorological data from the
Helsinki and Thessaloniki areas.
3. Dr. Alexandra Monteiro from the University of Aveiro to visit University
of Cologne during 16-20 June 2008. The topic will be the Application of
the EURAD modelling system for air quality forecasts in Portugal.
4. Ms. Vlachogianni Areti, from Univ. of Ioannina to FMI, in 2008. Air
quality forecasting combined with computational intelligence applied
for atmospheric data analysis.
5. Mr Nathan Kleeorin and Mr Igor Rogachevskii, from Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev,Beer-Sheva (IL) to FMI, from 24 Aug to 07 Sept,
2008. Modelling of turbulent thermal diffusion of aerosols in stratified
atmospheric flows.
6. Mr. Dimitrios Voukantsis, from Aristotle Univ. to University of Kuopio
and FMI, 21 Sept 4 Oct, 2008 2008. Episode Analysis and Forecasting
for the Metropolitan Area of Helsinki and Thessaloniki.
7. Mr Konstandinos Markakis, Aristotle from University of Thessaloniki to
FMI, Computational methods for the quantification of biogenic VOC
and sea salt emissions, from 09 to 16 November, 2008.
In summary, the main successes up to date have been:
35
the establishment of contacts and collaboration with numerous related

institutes and actions, and reviews of related work conducted in those
actions,
surveys and inventories especially regarding the existing networks of data,

operational forecasting models and model ensembles, and platforms for
visualizing and disseminating information,
successful organization of the Workshop Chemical weather information

services for quality of life,
seven completed STSMs, most of which will result eventually in reviewed

journal articles, and
substantial contribution in the organization of the NetFam Summer School

on 7-15 July 2008, in St. Petersburgh, Russia.
2.6 THE FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

The action aims to keep close good contacts with key organisations and actions
in Europe, such as EEA, ECMWF, GEMS, GEOMON, PROMOTE, MACC,
MEGAPOLI, CITYZEN, EUSAAR, and the relevant COST actions, especially COST
728 and COST ES0603. The action plans to use the work accomplished, e.g., in
the GEMS, PROMOTE and ACCENT projects, and in COST 728. We also intend to
improve the contacts outside Europe, e.g., with the US-EPA and the GURME
action of the WMO.
Several promising activities in progress, e.g. the European AQ forecasting
portal. The writing of numerous joint articles is in progress. We are currently
organising several special sessions (e.g., at the AQ Conference 2009), and two
more Workshops. The subsequent workshop will address the modelling of
chemical weather, and it will be organised in spring 2009 in Budapest.
Clearly, there are also several scientific and organisational challenges in this
area. One prominent example is the evident need for observed near-real-time
information on the concentrations of main atmospheric pollutants, for model
evaluation purposes.
36
2.7 REFERENCES
Baklanov A., M. Lawrence, S. Pandis, and the MEGAPOLI team: Sandro Finardi, Nicolas
Moussiopoulos, Matthias Beekmann, Jean Sciare, Paolo Laj, Laurent Gomes, JeanLuc Jaffrezo, Jaakko Kukkonen, Stefano Galmarini, Filippo Giorgi, Sue Grimmond,
Igor Esau, Andreas Stohl, Bruce Denby, Ulf Baltensperger, Peter Builtjes, Dick van
den Hout, Hugo D. van der Gon, Bill Collins, Heinke Schluenzen, Markku Kulmala,
Sergej Zilitinkevich, Ranjeet Sokhi, Rainer Friedrich, Liisa Jalkinen, Tomas Halenka,
Alfred Wiedensholer, Pyle, Rossow: New EC 7FP Project MEGAPOLI:
Megacities:Emissions, urban, regional and Global Atmospheric pollution and
climate effects, and Integrated tools for assessment and mitigation, Geophysical
Research Abstracts, Vol. 10, EGU2008-A-08126, 2008.
Elbern H., A. Strunk, H. Schmidt, and O. Talagrand: Emission rate and chemical state
estimation by 4-dimensional variational inversion, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 7,
17251783, 2007
Engardt M., U. Siniarovina, N.I. Khairul, C.P. Leong. Country to country transport of
anthropogenic sulphur in Southeast Asia, Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005)
51375148.
Hewitt C.; The ENSEMBLES Project: Providing ensemble-based predictions of climate
changes and their impacts, 2005, EGGS newsletter, 13, 22-25.
Kaiser J.W., M.G. Schultz, J-M. Grgoire, C. Textor, M. Sofiev, M. Bartholom, M. Leroy,
R.J. Engelen, A. Hollingsworth: Observation requirements for global biomass
burning emission monitoring, published in Proceedings of the 2006 EUMETSAT
Meteorological Satellite Conference.
Menut L., C. Honore, L. Rouil, M. Beekmann, R. Vautard, N. Poisson, V.H. Peuch, M.
Rico: PREVAIR, a modeling platform for the air quality predictability study,
Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 7, 04449.
Peuch, V.-H., L. Rouil, L. Tarrason and the GEMS-RAQ international team, 2008. The
GEMS European-scale Regional Air Quality multi-model ensemble forecasts. IGAC
10th International Conference.
Poupkou A., D. Melas, I. Kioutsioukis, I. Lisaridis, P. Symeonidis, D. Balis, S. Karathanasis
and S. Kazadzis: Regional air quality forecasting over Greece within PROMOTE,
Atmospheric Science Conference, 8-12 May 2006, ESA ESRIN, Frascati.
Sofiev M., P. Siljamo, I. Valkama, M. Ilvonen, J. Kukkonen: A dispersion modelling
system SILAM and its evaluation against ETEX data, Atmospheric Environment, vol.
40, Issue 4, 2006, p. 674-685
Vautard R., B. Bessagnet, M. Chin, L. Menut, 2005, On the contribution of natural
Aeolian sources to particulate matter concentrations in Europe: Testing hypotheses
with a modeling approach, Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 32913303.
37
2.8 SELECTED RELEVANT WEB SITE ADDRESSES

ACCENT: www.accent-network.org
AirAlert: http://www.sussex-air.net, http://www.airalert.info
AIRNow: http://airnow.gov/
AIRTHESS: www.airthess.gr
APNEE FP5-project: www.apnee.org
CHIMERE: http://www.lmd.polytechnique.fr/chimere/
COST ES0602: www.chemicalweather.eu
COST ES0603: www.eupollen.eu
COST 728: http://www.cost728.org
ECMWF: http://www.ecmwf.int/
EEA Ozone-Web: http://www.eea.europa.eu/maps/ozone/welcome
EIONET: http://air-climate.eionet.eu.int/
EMEP: www.emep.int/
ENSEMBLE FP5-project: http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/
EOAQF: http://verde.lma.fi.upm.es/cmaq_eu/
EUCAARI: (http://www.atm.helsinki.fi/eucaari/)
EUSAAR: http://www.eusaar.net
GEMS: http://gems.ecmwf.int
GEO: http://www.earthobservations.org/
GEOSS: http://www.epa.gov/geoss/
GMES: http://www.gmes.info
GTS: http://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/TEM/XGTS/gts.html
MATCH: http://www.airviro.smhi.se/MATCH-AQ/maqs
MM5: http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/mm5/
NAAF : http://www.naaf.no
PROMOTE : http://www.gse-promote.org/
SEIS: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/seis/index.htm
39
3 AN OVERVIEW OF WG1 : EXCHANGE OF AQ FORECASTS

AND INPUT DATA
Kjetil Trsetha and Aasmund Fahre Vika
Abstract
The main objective of this WG is to identify problems related to both air quality
observational and model data and their exchange in near real time. For this purpose
the WG works on:
Identification of requirements for data exchange. This includes all kinds of
data that are necessary for chemical weather forecasts
Investigation of infrastructure needed to meet the identified demands.
3.1 INTRODUCTION
The focus during the initial period of the action has been to provide an
overview of ongoing activities. This has focussed on the exchange of input data
of parameters relevant for Air Quality (AQ; i.e. not meteorological or emissions
data). This is an area where several processes are established under other
organisations, and it was early decided that the efforts of the cost action
should to the extent possible draw on these rather than setting an ambition to
develop any competing or duplicating efforts.
Since the action has members from a large number of countries it offers a
possibility to discuss issues like if the services under development meet the
user needs, and would they be sustainable. Less focus has been directed
towards the exchange of actual forecast data, but an overview of ongoing
services has been compiled. It should be noted that all Air Quality Information
Services (AQIS) normally provide easy access to web services from where
forecasts can be found.
Considering the fact that much work is ongoing in other projects, there are
many practical challenges in influencing their progression. Dissemination of air
quality forecasts is also an area of development where commercial interest
a
Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Dept. Atmospheric and Climate Research,
P.O Box 100, N-2027 Kjeller.
40
play a significant role, and many of the systems under development are fully or
at least partly developed as software solutions or consultancy services. Also
international programmes like the EC, UNECE and WMO all have identified
needs and interests in operating systems for providing such information.
The cost action has offered a possibility to discuss such matters ranging from
how exchange of information on ongoing activities can be made available, what
are the possible options for synergies, and to provide recommendations for
future developments.
3.2 OTHER RELEVANT ACTIVITIES AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS ACTION

One particularly relevant initiative is the Ozone web developed by the EEA,
which is planned to be extended to also cover particle mass data in the near
future (http://www.eea.europa.eu/maps/ozone/map). This solution builds on
data flow from national AQ information solutions. Further there has been a
pilot study on replacing ozone summer reporting based on the ozone web. The
main focus is on information to public and on legislative parameters (more
than 700 stations), and the EEA want to develop this further as an important
pillar in the in-situ data provision for the GMES.
The GMES process is also taking measures to coordinate the in-situ provision. A
working group has addressed the needs in relation to in situ data. The
conclusions include (GAS WG3 recommendations) the following. There is
inadequate monitoring and geographical coverage of parameters, in particular
surface PM2.5, CO and VOCs, a limited sustainability of certain measurements
especially research-type programmes, inadequate emissions data for air
quality modeling, insufficient timeliness of data availability (i.e. delivery of data
in near real time (NRT)), inadequate availability of NRT meteorological data for
modelers, limited sustainability of in-situ infrastructure, in particular for vertical
information (for ozone, aerosol, CO, NOx, CO2), the WG recognizes that there is
too little cooperation between existing networks and data centers. Another
challenging issue is the identified lack of interchange between networks and of
common Quality Assurance (QA) standards, common data formats and
conversion of data used in different networks and for different purposes. There
is a clear need for traceable and harmonized data quality across various
networks.
Another established infrastructure for in-situ observation data is the EMEP
programme (UN-ECE CLRTAP). Its focus is on transboundary air pollution and it
41
has operated about 100 rural background stations. The focus of EMEP differs
from the Air Quality monitoring in the sense that observations are mainly set
up to allow an assessment of the regional scale transport, transformation and
deposition, and for this reason the need for parameters is larger. Further,
EMEP observations are generally established to ensure comparability across
national boundaries at trace levels rather than at the concentration levels
which are of concern in relation to health.
It should be noted that within Europe, EMEP and the WMO GAW programme
have agreed to operate joint supersites, and there is also a strong overlap
between ordinary regional sites of the two programmes. The EEA and EMEP are
currently conducting a specific study to address how the data provision
between the two initiatives can be harmonised when it comes to near real time
data provision. The GMES Atmosphere Core Service will further rely on
validated data series, which is likely to rely on the primary sources to data
(AirBase, EMEP, FP6 and FP7 projects etc.).
Figure 3.1 Examples of near real time (NRT) air quality data services: EEA Ozone web (above)
and the EUSAAR NRT of advanced aerosol parameters activity (below).
The provision of near real time data has also additional challenges in relation to
data ownership, quality assurance and compliance issues.
One example of a relevant FP6 project is the European Supersites for
Atmospheric Aerosol Research project. This is a network of specialised aerosol
monitoring stations in the EMEP/GAW network, and where NRT functionalities
for advanced aerosol measurements (size distributions, optical absorption, etc)
have been developed. The collection of several instrumental parameters allows
implementation of automatic QA/QC routines. It is currently in demonstration
mode and acts as precursor for EMEP NRT.
42
Another relevant initiative is the Citeair project (EU Interreg project). It aims to
provide harmonised AQ information from European cities with focus on urban
background and roadside stations. Parameters include NO2, PM10 and ozone,
CO and SO2 as auxiliary pollutants. Only AQ indices are shown (see
http://www.airqualitynow.eu/). Similarly, the Air CE initiative focus is on
Central Europe and it provides public information in the form of colour coded
tables of AQ levels (SO2, NO2, O3, PM10 + met) being available at
http://airce.info/en/.
Project
Limitations
EEA NRT AQ
Few parameters currently implemented. Based on large number of

data providers using various QA procedures - makes the dataset
inhomogeneous.
(e.g. Ozone
Web)
EMEP
Only rural background stations. Still only an idea no data yet

submitted.
Citeair
Only AQ indices available and only from a few cities across Europe.
GEMS
A very closed system based on bilateral agreements. Not possible for

others to access data.
PROMOTE
Data are only available on the basis of Service Level Agreements (SLA)
to service providers.
EUSAAR
Only 20 sites available and limited prospects for increase. Main focus
on process studies, not AQ monitoring
WMO Information System (WIS) may provide a common exchange method for
in situ data in the future. It is, however, still in design phase, and further since
most data providers of air quality data are not meteorological services, it is
under consideration to rather set up a WIS-connection from the already
existing data centres (EEA, EMEP) to which users can access data.
On the more overarching level, several initiatives are ongoing. These obviously
include the GEOSS process and its architecture development, the
implementation of the INSPIRE and SEIS directives.
43
4 AN OVERVIEW OF WG 2: MULTI-SCALE FORECASTING,

MULTI- MODEL ENSEMBLE , BOUNDARY DATA
Mikhail Sofieva and Jaakko Kukkonena
Abstract
The objectives of the Working Group 2 of the Action are to analyse the existing
experience on Chemical Weather (CW) forecasting, to enhance and organise various
joint efforts of European modelling teams and finally, to design a set of
recommendations for the future research in the area. A review is in progress regarding
the operational AQ forecasting models. There are currently two relevant databases of
the existing modelling systems in this area: those collected by COST-728 and EEA. We
have also constructed a European air quality forecasting portal that will include links to
all available chemical weather forecasting systems in Europe in a user-friendly graphical
format. Such single point of reference for the European AQ forecasting information has
not been operational previously. Work is also in progress in order to construct an
operational model forecasting ensemble. A representative set of regional background
stations have been selected from the participating countries, and the operational
forecasts for this set of sites will be inter-compared and evaluated. The modelling
groups have started to collect the information, and we aim to evaluate the ensemble
performance in 2009. We have also joined the case studies that have been organized
within COST-728, in order to inter-compare and evaluate the models against new sets
of experimental data. A modelling workshop will be organised in Budapest in spring of
2009.
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Models for air quality forecasting are crucial tools of assessment in the current
research and decision-making. However, the underlying assumptions,
limitations and inaccuracies of these models are often not totally recognised,
and the model performance may even be described only in terms of standard
statistical quality scores (such as, e.g., root-mean-square, bias or correlation).
On the other hand, it is commonly not easy to evaluate in an unambiguous
manner the model successes and failures (in comparison with experimental
data), caused by the complexity of the chemical-weather systems and
a
Finnish Meteorological Institute, Erik Palmenin aukio 1, P.O.Box 503, FI-00101 Helsinki
44
especially the multiple number of various connections and inter-dependencies
between the various sub-models.
There are several air quality forecast and information systems (AQFIS) in
Europe; each of these contains specific characteristics and consequently
different strengths and weaknesses. Some prominent examples are: the EURAD
modelling system in Germany (http://www.eurad.uni-koeln.de/index_e.html), the
PREVAIRa consortium in France (http://www.prevair.org/en/index.html), the Your
Air-system in England and Wales (http://www.cerc.co.uk/YourAir/index.asp) and
the Finnish Air Quality Forecasting System SILAM (http://silam.fmi.fi). A
concerted action to benchmark and optimally use their individual advantages
would be a strong asset towards providing accurate, high-resolution AQ
forecasts. The availability of several independent forecasts will also enable to
provide ensemble-based assessments, as demonstrated in several current
research initiatives.
The European projects of the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and
Securityb) initiative supported by EU and ESA, such as GEMS (Global Earthsystem Monitoring using Space and in-situ data) and PROMOTE (PROtocol
MOniToring for the GMES Service Elementc) address this issue towards an
overarching architecture. The plans for an initial GMES Atmospheric Service is
under discussion. It is expected to focus on operational monitoring and
forecasting of atmospheric composition, dynamics and thermodynamics
through advanced exploitation of satellite and in-situ data, and through the
provision of new services at European, national and local level.
The technical and scientific bases of the GMES Atmospheric Service are
developed in the GEMS and PROMOTE projects. In particular, within the GEMS
scope, the sub-project on regional air quality has established a coordinated air
quality forecasting system linked to a central site at the ECMWF that will
include 10 models from 9 countries. A small-scale network of a few operational
air quality services has also been constructed within the first stage of the
PROMOTE project.
PRVisions et observations de la qualit de l'AIR en France et en Europe (Air Quality forecasts

and observations in France and Europe)
b
Global Monitoring for Environment and Security: joint EU-ESA initiative to bring environmental
and security data and information providers together with users
(http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/space/gmes/index_en.htm)
c
PROtocol MOniToring for the GMES Service Element: http://www.gse-promote.org/
45
4.2 FORECASTING, MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND BOUNDARY DATA

The WG2 of this action addresses several challenges of AQ forecasting. One of
these challenges is associated to the need of multi-scale simulations in order to
take into account the contributions from pollution sources on both global and
local (including urban) scales. Other challenges are the small-scale spatial
variability of emission fluxes that may be insufficiently represented in the
inventories, and in some cases, the strong dependence of concentrations on
meso- and micro-scale meteorological conditions.
The overall goals of WP2 are to provide a firm scientific basis for a multi-model
assessment and forecasting of air quality over Europe, assess the advantages
and limitations of such approaches, and to provide systems that are useful in
the decision-making processes. The specific task of WP2 will be to consider
options for the efficient utilization of a diversity of existing modelling
approaches, in particular for ensemble forecasting of air quality. Ensemble
forecasts have become standard practice in meteorology, e.g., the EPS system
of the ECMWF, but they have yet rarely been applied to air pollution
forecasting. The GEMS and PROMOTE projects have already constructed
operational AQ ensembles.
WP2 will also address the inter-comparison and evaluation of regional and
continental scale air quality models (AQM). Selected examples of the previous
inter-comparisons are those organized by EUROTRAC and EMEP, and the CityDelta project. EEA recommended in 1997 aposteriori assessment of the skill of
the forecast end-products, using a harmonized set of skill parameters. The
international model evaluation and inter-comparison exercises have been
useful for comparing the mathematical treatments of the state-of-the-art
models, for providing information about the variability of model predictions
and have also stimulated new model developments. In particular, these
exercises have contributed to an emerging area of statistical corrections of the
AQ forecasts, using past- or near-real-time measurements.
In case of numerical weather prediction, it is common knowledge that the
assimilation of meteorological measurements has a major positive impact on
the model forecast skills. It has been shown that this is also the case for the
assimilation of the concentrations of air pollutants by AQMs (e.g., by the
EURAD and CHIMERE research groups). The increasing number and quality of
satellite observations of atmospheric composition has stimulated new
developments of assimilation techniques for concentrations of chemical
species. Historically, these developments started with applications to columnCOST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu
46
integrated ozone and stratospheric chemistry. Attention has now shifted
towards the troposphere, including especially aerosols and NO2. The networks
of NRT observational data available to the partners of this action are used to
evaluate these developments.
The above-mentioned wide range of spatial and temporal scales requires twoway interactions between the simulations on local-to-meso and regional-tocontinental -scales. A regional integrated forecasting system can provide
boundary conditions for smaller-scale models, and support local-to-regional
upscaling.
Among the above-outlined set of problems, WG2 will concentrate on the
following issues:
review the existing operational forecasting tools, their advantages and

limitations;
review the experience of previous model inter-comparisons and

evaluation against measurements, and select the appropriate model
quality criteria and tools;
prepare, in cooperation with WG1, the requirements for input data,

their availability and exchange procedures, also in terms of model
evaluation;
review the methodologies for developing modelling ensembles (both

variants of a single model, and multi-model),
review the possibilities and experience with near-real-time data

assimilation into AQMs;
review the existing experience in emission abatement actions and

outline a contribution to the decision-making process;
consider the possibilities, formats and technicalities regarding the

creation and distribution of the boundary conditions of the global AQ
models for the needs of meso- or local-scale AQ applications.
4.3 STATUS OF THE ACTIVITY

A review is in progress regarding the operational AQ forecasting models. The
main sources of information on the modelling systems currently in use are: (i)
the available literature and internet resources, (ii) more detailed information
47
provided by the WG2 participants, (iii) the COST-728 and EEA databases of the
existing modelling systems.
We have also constructed a European air quality forecasting portal that will
include links to all available chemical weather forecasting systems in Europe in
a user-friendly graphical format. This is a joint deliverable of the WGs two and
three. The user can select any of the original sources
(http://www.chemicalweather.eu). Such single point of reference for the
European AQ forecasting information has not been operational previously.
Work is also in progress in order to construct an operational model forecasting
ensemble. A representative set of regional background stations have been
selected from the participating countries, and the operational forecasts for this
set of sites will be inter-compared and evaluated. All the modelling systems
participating in the exercise are expected to collect their forecasts during
routine operations over a period of at least one year. The first step towards the
ensemble has been taken by selecting the list of sites and distributing it to the
participants, together with the list of variables to be stored. The modelling
groups have started to collect the information in 2008, an we aim to evaluate
the ensemble performance in 2009.
We have also joined the case studies that have been organized within COST728, in order to inter-compare and evaluate the models against experimental
data. A modelling workshop will be organised in Budapest in spring of 2009.
49
5 AN OVERVIEW OF WP3: DISSEMINATION AND

VISUALIZATION
Kostas D. Karatzasa
Abstract
The main goal of WG3 is to help in streamlining dissemination of Air Quality (AQ)
information to users (the public, decision makers, etc). For this purpose, WG3 will
assess key issues including what information to disseminate, how to present and
visualise it, and which harmonization possibilities may be applied: separate pollutants
vs. AQ index, level of detail of maps, graphical representation to be used, digital
information services, etc. WG3 will compile, among others, inventory AQ Information
and Dissemination Systems (AQIDS) including their links with other activities and
organisations, and will support synergies with other COST actions that have similar
activities.
5.1 THE BASICS

A chemical weather information dissemination system is an ICT construct that
contains:
1. Information (in the form of measurements and model results)
organised in a proper database.
2. A dissemination module, that provides routing of information to the
available communication channels.
3. Information presentation modules that make use of the
communication, presentation and notification capabilities of ICT
technologies available (internet, mobile phones, etc).
4. An event generator, that automatically generates and the
information content to be disseminated and triggers the dissemination
procedure.
5. An end-users interface, for users to have access to the information
being available, in the form of proper presentation strategies (like map
overlays for google maps, etc).
a
Informatics Applications and Systems Group, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering,

Aristotle University, Box 483, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; email: kkara@eng.auth.gr
50
Such systems address one of the following issues:
Methods and practices for chemical weather Information (CWI)

visualization (use of indexes, graphs, tables, movies, etc), appropriate
for the various communication media
Investigation on the methods and techniques to be applied for the

presentation and dissemination of CI (ICT technologies vs. traditional
media; internet technologies, mobile phones, blogs, wikies,
folxonomies, ubiquitous computing, participatory censoring, social
media, etc)
ICT infrastructures, technologies and system architecture and design

principles
Real world applications, operational systems, and experience gained

concerning their use
User groups: the general public, health practitioners, asthma patients,

and their user needs and system usage feedback
The legal and regulatory framework at a European and national level

concerning access to CI: the new clean air directive, public assess to
environmental information, the rights to access public-digital data, the
impact of the INSPIRE directive on environmental information
dissemination, etc.
Evaluation of CWI systems
Usability and design issues concerning CWI systems
Quality of life information services, personalisation and georeferencing of CWI services
Notification and Early warning services, emergencies.
5.2 WORK DESCRIPTION

WP3 will review and assess experience and potential towards a fully interactive
website that would perform two main functions. Firstly to act as a front end
through which the forecasts produced by the participating countries can be
viewed. This part of the website should be open to the general public to view
both current pollutant levels and forecasts relevant to their countries and
51
others participating in the project. The second function of the website would
be to provide a conduit through which researchers gain access (via a password
protected facility) to an operational database storing detailed raw data for
model inter-comparison and development. This second function would form
the basis from which model improvements could be made resulting in better
real-time forecasts of European AQ levels.
The principal task of WP3 will be to perform a scoping study to assess how
various organisations or systems select the data and information on display and
by which means, platforms and format. The anticipated collaboration with a
broad range of actors (EEA, NMSs and NEAs) will enable to have a good
appraisal of existing data collection and exchange protocols utilised. The
participating countries will then make an assessment of the various practices
and develop recommendations about possible options on the nature of the
shared data for both the database and the public-facing website display. This
activity will be performed in association with WP1 and WP2. For instance, timeseries graphs or interpolated concentration maps can be viewed graphically on
screen or downloaded for analysis. Interpolated European maps of the latest
measured concentrations can be made available. The tools that allow for the
real-time mapping of concentrations already exist with the results even
displayed as animated movies. These possibilities and other as brought forward
by participants will be reviewed and assessed. Apart from the operational
database, WP3 will assess the requirements for the envisaged structure, goals
and formatting of a multi-year rolling archive of relevant data that can be
interrogated by the researchers involved. The archive would contain data such
as specific relevant meteorological parameters and pollutant data from the
participating countries. Relevant temporal and spatial resolution aspects will
also be taken into account. Requirements and criteria for this will be discussed.
For the public-facing website the following issues will be considered:
Countries share a universal welcoming front page containing a map of

Europe, perhaps similar to the current EEA web page;
A harmonised scheme for display (low/medium/high and colours);
A facility for selecting the appropriate language;
Possibilities to select a country and region to obtain current and

forecast AQ for that location.
52
This implies discussing the level of detail for maps needed for presentations.
Thus, for instance, the issue of presenting either separate pollutant levels
and/or an index will be investigated. The various possibilities (with drawbacks)
as to which media (internet, TV, SMS) for display according to the targeted
users (decision makers vs. children) will also be assessed.
5.3 DISSEMINATION AND VISUALISATION SOLUTIONS PER COUNTRY.

Following the aforementioned goals, WG3 inventoried the way that AQ
information is being disseminated within the countries of COST member
participants, collecting data from 93 systems from 7 countries (Annex A). On
the basis of the data that were made available, the mail characteristics of the
systems are consolidated below:
1. Typology: this characteristic corresponds to the basic elements of the
Air Quality Information system.
a. Observation data: in many of the systems analysed, air quality
observations are provided to the public on the basis of hourly
data. In some cases this info is made available in real time (with
a time lag of 1-2 hour), while in some other cases this
information is provided for the day before, or up to the last
period for which data have been validated.
b. Use of AQ models. In the majority of the systems investigated
no AQ models are used. This is attributed to the fact that these
systems are of local to regional geographical scale, for which
there has been no specific AQ model, or which are not covered
by the results provided by a model applied for a wider
geographical area. In the cases where AQ models are applied,
these are in their majority 3D models, while statistical models
and Computational Intelligence models are also used.. It
worthy mentioning that human judgement is being applied for
the estimation of the quality of the atmospheric environment
for those systems that have no AQ model support, while in
some cases both are reported to be used.
2. Basic information. Concerning basic information about the systems
included in Annex A, it should be mentioned that all report that they
provide textual information to the public, while approx. half of them
provide in addition with graphical info. Short messages (mainly in terms
of emails) are provided by 1/4th of the systems, yet only 3 of them issue
53
SMS notifications in cases of AQ problems and none of them operates a
related MMS service. Information is being provided in most of the
cases on the basis of actual air pollution concentrations, while appox.
10% of the systems are reported to make use of AQ indexes.
Nevertheless, approx. 30% of the systems have decided to make use of
a colour scale for communicating the information, thus translating
arithmetic values (concentrations) to a notification that is much easier
perceived. Street panels are used in the case of the 15% of the systems,
while none of them makes use of a voice server as a communication
channel to reach the citizen.
3. Basic technical features. For the sites for which related information was
made available, it was evident that the web server used in most cases
was the Apache server. No content management system was
employed, but is some cases the systems incorporated GIS
functionalities. Overall, the structure of the majority of the systems
was closer to a web application rather than a portal with associated
services.
5.4 RELATED PUBLICATIONS

This section contains the publications that were produced by ES062 members
that are directly related to WG3 activities and goals, i.e. are related to air
quality information dissemination systems. Publications are listed in a
chronological order.
2009
Frustaci G. (2009), Developments in European Air Quality Information
Rivista di Meteorologia Aeronautica, in preparation
Karatzas K. (2009), Informing the public about atmospheric quality: air
pollution and pollen, Allergo Journal, Issue 3/09, publication date 14th
April 2009, in press
Zhu L., K. Karatzas and J. Lee (2009), Urban environmental information
perception and multimodal communication: the air quality example,
Multimodal Siganls: Cognitive and Algorithmic Issues (Anna Esposito,
Amir Hussain, Maria Marinaro, Raffaele Martone, eds.,). Lecture Notes in
Artificial Intelligence 5398, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 288
299.
2008
54
Carnevale, C., G. Finzi, E. Pisoni, V. Singh and M. Volta (2008). Neural
Networks and Co-Kriging techniques to Forecast Ozone Concentrations in
Urban Areas, "iEMSs08, International Congress on Environmental
Modelling and Software, 7-10 July 2008, Barcelona, Spain".
Karatzas K. and J. Lee (2008), Developments in urban environmental
information perception and communication, iEMSs 2008: International
Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software, Integrating Sciences
and Information Technology for Environmental Assessment and Decision
Making. Proceedings (in press), M. Snchez-Marr, J. Bjar, J. Comas, A.
Rizzoli and G. Guariso (Eds.)
Karatzas K., A. Bassoukos, D. Voukantsis, F. Tzima, K. Nikolaou and S.
Karathanasis. (2008), ICT technologies and computational intelligence
methods for the creation of an early warning air pollution information
system, Environmental Informatics and Industrial Ecology Int.
Conference, September 10-12, 2008, Leuphana University of Lneburg,
Germany
2007
Endregard G., K. Karatzas, B.I. Skaanes and I. Flisand and S. Larssen
(2007), EEA air quality web dissemination solution- recommendations for
further development, ETC project of 2006, task 5.3.2.2 Presentation and
Dissemination of air quality data in the Neighbourhood project EEA
report.
Karatzas K. (2007), State-of-the-art in the dissemination of AQ information to
the general public, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on
Informatics for Environmental Protection - EnviroInfo2007, (Hryniewicz
O., Studziski J. and Romaniuk M., eds.), Vol. 2., pp. 41-47, Shaker
Verlag, Aachen, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8322-6397-3 (conference date and
location: Warsaw, Polant, Sept. 12-14, 2007).
Kyrkillis G, A. Chaloulakou, P. Kassomenos, 2007: Air pollution effects on
Human health: Development of an aggregate Air Quality Index for an
urban Mediterranean agglomeration. Environment International, 33(5),
670-676.
Retalis S. and K. Karatzas (2007), Design patterns for air quality information
portals, Environmental Software Systens, Volume 7: Dimensions of
Environmental Informatics (D. Swayne and J. Hrebicek, eds.), ISBN: 9783-901882-22-7, IFIP Conference Series
Trausan-Matu S., K. Karatzas and C. Chiru (2007), Environmental information
perception, analysis and communication with the aid of natural language
processing, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on
Informatics for Environmental Protection - EnviroInfo2007, (Hryniewicz
O., Studziski J. and Romaniuk M., eds.), Voll. 1., pp. 299-306, Shaker
55
Verlag, Aachen, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8322-6397-3 (conference date and
location: Warsaw, Poland, Sept. 12-14, 2007)
2006
Masouras A. and K. Karatzas (2006), Cost-Effective Quality of Life Service
Infrastructure: Using FOSS to Enable Public Sector Information Services
for Citizens, Encyclopedia of Digital Government (A.V. Anttiroiko and M.
Mlki, eds.), pp. 1291-1299, Idea Group Inc
2005
Bassoukos A., Karatzas K., Kelemis A. (2005) Environmental Information
portals, services, and retrieval systems, Proceedings of Informatics for
Environmental Protection- Networking Environmental Information-19th
International EnviroInfo Conference, Brno, Czech Republic, pp. 151-155
Karatzas K. (2005) Internet-based management of Environmental simulation
tasks. In Farago I., Georgiev K. and Havasi A. (eds) Advances in Air
Pollution Modelling for Environmental Security, NATO Reference
EST.ARW980503, 406 p., Hardcover, Springer, ISBN: 1-4020-3349-4.,
pp. 253-262
Karatzas K., Endregard G., and Flisand I. (2005) Citizen-oriented
environmental information services: usage and impact modelling,
Proceedings of Informatics for Environmental Protection- Networking
Environmental Information-19th International EnviroInfo Conference,
Brno, Czech Republic, pp. 872-878
2004
Karatzas K., K. Nikolaou and N. Moussiopoulos (2004), Timely and valid air
quality information: The APNEE-TU project, Fresenius Environmental
Bulletin, Vol. 13, No.9, pp.874-878
Karatzas K. and Masouras A (2004) Using FLOSS towards Building
Environmental Information Systems. Pahl-Wostl, C., Schmidt, S., Rizzoli,
A.E. and Jakeman, A.J. (eds), Complexity and Integrated Resources
Management, Transactions of the 2nd Biennial Meeting of the
International Environmental Modelling and Software Society, iEMSs:
Manno, Switzerland, 2004. ISBN 88-900787-1-5, Vol. 2., pp. 525-530
Katsoulis B and Kassomenos P, 2004: Assessment of the air-quality over
Urban areas by means of biometeorological indices. The case of Athens,
Greece. Environmental Technology, 25, issue 11, 1293-1304.
56
2003
Karatzas K., E. Dioudi and N. Moussiopoulos (2003), Identification of major
components for integrated urban air quality management and information
systems via user requirements prioritisation, Environmental Modelling and
Software 18, 173-178
2002
Bohler T., K. Karatzas, G. Peinel, Th. Rose and R.S. Jose (2002), Providing
multi-modal access to environmental data-customisable information
services for disseminating urban air quality information in APNEE,
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 26(1), 39-61
2001
Johansen, P. H.; Karatzas, K.; Lindberg, J.E.; Peinel. G., Rose, Th. (2001).
Citizen-centred information dissemination on multimodal information
channels and GIS, Proceedings of the Sustainability in the Information
Society-15th International Symposium for Environmental Protection, L.
Hilty and P. Gilgen eds., Part 1: Impacts and Applications, pp. 271-278
Karatzas K., Moussiopoulos N. and Papadopoulos A. (2001), Web-based tools
for environmental management, Environmental Management and Health
(now Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal)
12(4), 356-363
2000
Karatzas K. and Moussiopoulos N. (2000), Urban air quality management and
information systems in Europe: legal framework and information access,
Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management 2, . 2,
263-272
1999
Kassomenos P., A. N. Skouloudis, H. S. Lykoudis, H. A. Flocas, 1999: "Air
Quality Indicators" for Uniform Indexing of Atmospheric Pollution in Large
Metropolitan Areas. Atmospheric Environment, 33, 1861-1879.
57
6 DELIVERING PREVENTATIVE HEALTH INFORMATION TO

VULNERABLE PEOPLE : AIRALERT AND SUSSEX-AIR
Nigel Jenkinsa
Abstract
The Sussex Air Quality Partnership (Sussex-air) operates a service in East and West
Sussex in the UK called airAlert, which provides air pollution alerts to asthmatics and
other people with poor respiratory health. Over the summers of 2006 and 2007 the
service has been piloted and funded by the partnership, and from May 2008 it was
launched as a full year service, reaching out to more vulnerable groups across the
region. The current paper provides with an overview of the AIralert and Sussex-Air air
quality information systems
6.1 AIRALERT EMPOWERING VULNERABLE PEOPLE WITH DIRECTED

INFORMATION.
Sussex-air is made up from the Sussex local, county and health authorities, in
addition to the Health Protection Agency, the Environment Agency and the
Sussex Universities (Brighton and Sussex). The partnership also has close ties
with Kings College London (Environment Research Group) and Environmental
Protection UK. Sussex-air has developed the AirAlert service that sends free
messages directly to vulnerable people informing them about air pollution
levels in their area. AirAlert is targeted at people with respiratory health
problems who may be affected by air pollution, and warns people the day
before or on the day that elevated air pollution is expected to occur, via a voice
or text message (via mobile or home telephone, email or via web pages or RSS
on PC). The service initially operated for the Sussex counties and is now
available for the Herts and Beds counties in U.K.
Sussex-air, Sussex Air Quality Partnership, c/o Lewes District Council, PO Box 168,
Lewes BN7 9FA, Tel: 01273 484 331; email: nigel.jenkins@lewes.gov.uk; URLs:
www.sussex-air.net, www.airalert.info
58
6.2 GETTING AIR POLLUTION INFORMATION OUT THERE

Air quality data in the UK has for many years been collected, validated and
stored by both local and central government, however although this data has
been publicly available, it has tended to be a resource for air quality
professionals rather than the wider public. In most cases the application of the
data has tended to be used to identify air pollution hotspots rather than as a
informative tool to aid the management of health.
Data and forecasts are available from the national air quality monitoring
network, the Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN), is available via
government websites, such as the UK Air Quality Archive
(www.airquality.co.uk)
and
the
UK
Air
Pollution
Forecast
(http://www.airquality.co.uk/archive/uk_forecasting/apfuk_home.php
This
pollution information can also be sourced via other media such as newspapers,
some radio stations and television via CEFAX and Teletext services.
Many local authorities present their data on websites, however very few
actually have the resource to provide a forecast service, let alone provide
information that is directed at vulnerable groups through a proactive delivery
method.
Advances in technology have now made it cost effective to provide information
services such as airAlert (www.airalert.info ) and other systems like the
Swedish air information (www.luftkvalitet.info ) and London based airText
service. We can now target and deliver air pollution warnings to vulnerable
groups before an incidence of high pollution occurs. These systems allow
important alerts to be sent direct to vulnerable individuals or groups such as
schools via text/SMS (Short Message Service) message, voice message (to
home phones) RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or email.
6.3 AIR POLLUTION FORECASTS TO AIR ALERTS

Sussex-air developed airAlert from its existing air quality forecasting service
which had been in operation across Sussex since 2002. airAlerts are linked into
the air pollution forecasts in Sussex, provided by Kings College London
(Environmental Research Group) (KCL). These are based on the most recent air
quality data, collected twice daily from the automated Sussex Air Quality
Monitoring Network and regional meteorological forecasts The network is
made up of 16 automated air quality monitoring stations (2008) spread across
Sussex, continuously sampling the air for various pollutants, which include
59
nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), particulates/dust less than
10g/m (PM10), ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO). Kings College London
also utilise data from surrounding counties and the London Air Quality
Networks, in addition to data from Europe.
An air quality forecast is produced each day in Sussex and if there is a predicted
breach of the UK air quality health banding thresholds, an airAlert is sent out to
those persons vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. These alerts are sent
direct to recipients by either text message/SMS (mobile phones), voicemessage (home-phones) or email and are available as an RSS feed to PCs.
6.4
AIRALERT THE AIR POLLUTION WARNING SERVICE FOR

VULNERABLE PEOPLE :
AirAlert is a free service for people with asthma and other respiratory
conditions in Sussex. Clients for the service join up through local health care
networks, such as the British Lung Foundation (BLF) Breatheasy Groups,
through GP surgeries and clinics. Over the last two summer pilot periods, the
service has provided alerts to over 300 vulnerable people with asthma (and
COPD). Anyone with asthma or a respiratory complaint can register for free online at www.airalert.info or by post by returning a free-post response form in
the airAlert leaflets.
Once registered, clients each received an airAlert information pack and airAlert
card, to inform further about airAlert and to help them understand the
messages. The airAlert website, to be relaunched in May 2008, will allow clients
to register, get airAlert updates and cancel or take holidays from the service.
The service continues to develop and last summer included email airAlerts for
schools (airAlert-4-schools) and the media (e-Alerts). The airAlert-4-schools
pilot in 2007, provided airAlerts to sixteen schools across Sussex to inform staff
and pupils of any predicted air pollution episodes. Southern FM radio station
also received and broadcast e-Alerts potentially reaching in excess of 100,000
people. It is expected that in 2008 with promotion and marketing airAlert will
reach directly to 700-1000 people in Sussex
airAlert provides preventative health care information for key target client
groups who are vulnerable to the effects of air pollution episodes:
Persons with asthma and other respiratory sensitive groups
Other groups, overlap into the key target groups also:
60
Young and older people
Carers
People with limited access to services or living remotely
Vulnerable groups in the community
Schools and children nurseries
Health professionals
6.5 THE AIRALERT SERVICE AIMS

The key aims of the service provided by Sussex-air are to:
1. Provide air quality alerts warning of an air pollution episode that has
the potential to affect the health and well-being of vulnerable persons
or groups.
2. Provide clear understandable messages and an informative, helpful
service.
3. Provide the service free to clients.
4. Provide support and information direct to vulnerable persons via
message services such as SMS/text, telephone voice message, email,
RSS and the web.
5. Support the public health system by supplying preventative healthcare
information to aid patients health care, help reduce health service
burden and costs.
Vulnerable groups in the community
Schools and nurseries
6.6
AIRALERT SERVICE INFORMATION (2006 & 2007 SUMMER

SERVICES)
During the summers of 2006 and 2007 airAlert provided pollution forecast
services to 160 and 304 clients respectively. During this period airAlert issued
36 alerts in 2006 and 17 alerts in 2007 resulting a total of over 10,000 airAlert
messages being sent.
61
airAlert 2007 - service usage
10-15 child
6%
2-10 Child
11%
Health
Professional
3%
Carer/partner
2%
Personal
use(myself)
78%
Figure 6.1: Service users/clients in 2007.
2007 user data showed the users of the service being predominantly women
(65%), likely being the carers of younger children and older partners.
The majority of clients received the service for their personal use (78%), with
people caring for others (young and old) receiving 19% of the alerts and health
care professionals 3%.
Text messages to mobile phones were the most popular (79%) when compared
to land-line/home phone voice message deliveries (21%). Mobile phone
technology was not a deterrent to older people with over 55 year olds
dominating the users (41%). This was reflected in the dominance of the
recruitment Breatheasy-Group-cohort, which are anecdotally observed to be
made up of mainly older people.
Sussex-air in association with Dr Kirsty Smallbone at the University of Brighton,
undertook interviews and questionnaire surveys with service clients of airAlert
2006 and 2007. This showed that the intervention provided by airAlert, gave
clients the opportunity to take preventative action to minimise their risk of
feeling ill or avoiding a visit or admission to A&E or their GP.
On receipt of the airAlert message many took precautionary measures such as
using inhalers (24%) or preventative doses of medicines (19%) and extra doses
due to symptoms (9%). As the alerts informed clients of the pollutant level and
the locations where these were likely to occur, such as at roadside or rural
62
locations, some preferred avoid areas specified in the alert (15%), undertake
less exercise (outdoors) (16%) or stay indoors for the duration (13%) or all day
(3%). (Refer Figure 2: Client response to airAlert messages.). Results from 2006
showed that 67% of the clients modified their behaviour due to airAlert and the
majority made a link with their symptoms to air pollution.
Question: Of the people who said it helped manage the disease, what do you
do differently when you receive an airAlert?
30
25
Men
20
Women
15
10
5
0
h
In
ex
tra
al
er
t
ta
en
ev
pr
tra
ex
ive
s
oe
do
se
du
to
d
io
av
om
pt
m
y
e
ar
as
e
sp
ie
cif
in
th
..
e.
ss
le
i
rc
xe
se
do
in
s
or
e
or
m
do
in
s
or
ld
al
ay
he
ot
Figure 6.2: Client response to airAlert messages (2007).
Clients were asked to assess whether airAlert helped them manage their
symptoms, with the majority (73%) agreeing that airAlert did. 5% did not think
airAlert coincided with their symptoms and 22% did not know.
63
Did airALERT help you manage your
symptoms?
100
Percentage
80
60
40
20
0
Yes
No
Don't Know
Figure 6.3: User symptom response (2007).
These types of service empower vulnerable persons, by providing information

which allows them to make decisions to better manage their health.
The service, by default, also provides resource savings to primary, secondary
and tertiary care authorities by likely reduced admission rates through early
intervention. Potential resource savings from airAlert can be made from likely
non-admissions to hospitals and GP surgeries. For example, as an asthma
hospital admission cost to the NHS is estimated to be 861 per day, and if
airAlert prevented an estimated 1 in 30 admissions in 2007, the potential
savings for local Sussex health authorities could have been 24,000. airAlert
provided this service to over 300 client users in 2007, at a cost of 10,000 (2008
service costs).
6.7 THE FUTURE OF INTERVENTION SYSTEMS

AirAlert has the potential to be used to deliver information to a wider cohort
across Sussex and other counties in the UK and EU. The delivery technology
allows information to be sent direct to the clients, and if well managed airAlert
has the potential to provide other useful services to vulnerable people. These
can be directed at patients, health professionals, hospitals and carers of the
vulnerable, older and younger people. Such services could include:
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in association with

other providers.
Pollen
Heat-wave and cold alerts

64
AirAlert and similar systems have great potential to provide information to
persons to aid in the management of respiratory illnesses. This sits well with
the preventative health care agenda and should reduce hospital admissions
and GP visits. The existing technology could be utilised to deliver a wide range
of additional environmental information to assist in the better self
management of health.
65
7 TOWARDS AN INTERNATIONAL REAL-TIME DATA AND

FORECAST SYSTEM FOR PUBLIC INFORMATION : AIRNOWINTERNATIONAL
Phillip G. Dickerson, Jr.a; Scott A. Jackson; John E. White
Abstract
The AIRNow realtime air quality system has served the public for more than a decade.
This paper outlines the rationale behind the system, gives an informative history of the
Air Quality Index, and discusses future plans for expanding the system internationally.
7.1 INTRODUCTION
The average adult breathes 13,000 liters each day, making air quality a critical
public health issue. Poor air quality is an insidious problem, difficult to sense
and impossible for the public to measure. The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) created the AIRNow program in 1995.
Figure 7.1: AIRNows National Ozone Map.
US EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards
66
AIRNow was founded upon the principle of protecting public health by offering
real-time air quality data and forecasts. Based upon that vision, EPA grew
AIRNow from a small regional program with three data polls each day, to a
nationwide program featuring hourly data, hundreds of maps, forecasts, and
information on air quality.
7.2 THE AIR QUALITY INDEX

To make real-time data meaningful to the general public, EPA developed the
Air Quality Index (AQI), a color-coded scale that ties air quality concentrations
to health effects.
Table 7.1: The Air Quality Index (AQI)
Air Quality Index

Levels of Health Concern
(AQI) Values
Colors
When the AQI ...air quality conditions are:

is in this range:
...as symbolized
by this color:
0 to 50
Good
Green
51 to 100
Moderate
Yellow
101 to 150
Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups Orange
151 to 200
Unhealthy
Red
201 to 300
Very Unhealthy
Purple
301 to 500
Hazardous
Maroon
"Good" The AQI value is between 0 and 50. Air quality is considered
satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.
"Moderate" The AQI is between 51 and 100. Air quality is acceptable; however,
for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small
number of people.
67
"Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" When AQI values are between 101 and 150,
members of sensitive groups may experience health effects.. For example,
people with lung disease are at greater risk from exposure to ozone, while
people with either lung disease or heart disease are at greater risk from
exposure to particle pollution. The general public is not likely to be affected
when the AQI is in this range.
"Unhealthy" Everyone may begin to experience health effects when AQI values
are between 151 and 200. Members of sensitive groups may experience more
serious health effects.
"Very Unhealthy" AQI values between 201 and 300 trigger a health alert,
meaning everyone may experience more serious health effects.
"Hazardous" AQI values over 300 trigger health warnings of emergency
conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.
Behind the very simple, public-facing AQI levels lies a mildly complex equation.
This equation reduces pollutant concentrations to the simple index value used
to portray the Air Quality Index:
Where:
Ip = the index value for pollutant p
Cp = the truncated concentration of pollutant p
BPHi = the breakpoint that is greater than or equal to Cp
BPLo = the breakpoint that is less than or equal to Cp
IHi = the AQI value corresponding to BPHi
Ilo = the AQI value corresponding to BPLo.
68
Table 7.2: AQI concentration breakpoints.
7.3 AIRNOW-INTERNATIONAL (AIRNOW-I)

Air quality is not only a problem in the United States, but also a worldwide
problem. Developing countries are installing air quality monitoring networks
and beginning to forecast air pollution levels to help address this problem.
Equally important is developing methods to effectively communicate
information and educate the public about air quality conditions.
This educational effort is consistent with the World Health Organizations
Guidelines for Air Quality, which states that public information systems are
playing an increasingly important role in many countries in raising awareness,
warning of pollution episodes, and advising susceptible population subgroups.
One problem air quality agencies in developing countries face is a lack of
software and knowledge about how to effectively communicate this
information to the public.
The EPAs AIRNow program has been shown to be a successful model for
communicating air quality conditions and forecasts to the public. It has become
the national resource and focal point for decision makers, the media, and the
public to access air quality information. AIRNow displays air quality conditions
using animated maps with colors that correspond to the AQI. These maps are
shown on the programs web site (www.airnow.gov) along with information
69
about health impacts from air pollution and suggestions about what individuals
can do to improve air quality. In addition, EPA has developed training,
outreach, and educational materials about the health effects of poor air quality
and guidance on public health protection.
Several countries have expressed interest in the AIRNow system; however, the
current system is a customized collection of software programs and databases
that are not easily distributed. One way to address this distribution issue is to
provide a simpler, easier-to-install version of the AIRNow software. It would
include data processing, quality control, system monitoring, and mapping. This
AIRNow-International or AIRNow-I software package would provide the basic
features of the AIRNow program based on AIRNows technology.
7.4 BENEFITS
AIRNow-I will bring the experience EPA gained in real-time data gathering,
processing, and distribution to the rest of the world. AIRNow-I will offer air
quality information to the public in areas across the world that do not currently
have access to this information. Armed with this knowledge, the public can
begin to make decisions to protect themselves from harmful air quality. In
addition, the data sharing capabilities that AIRNow-I provides can be of
tremendous use to the air quality research community. As different local
entities begin to share air quality information, new discoveries can be made
about the behavior and causes of regional air pollution.
Further, AIRNow-I will set the stage for an international dialog on real-time
data standards, methods, applications, and more. AIRNow-I holds the
promise of becoming a catalyst for world-wide integration and standardization
of real-time air quality data. In addition, AIRNow-I would make great strides
towards bringing international equity to the availability of public information
about air quality, especially in developing countries where air quality can be an
immense public health issue.
AIRNow-I, by supporting existing real-time data efforts in other countries, will
serve to bolster those established systems, while allowing less developed
countries to apply AIRNow technology. With agreed upon standards for sharing
data, AIRNow-I could interface seamlessly with existing systems, while allowing
for worldwide sharing of air quality data. This worldwide availability of data
will no doubt foster air quality research, while also giving the public access to
an important health resource.
70
7.5 GROUP ON EARTH OBSERVATIONS (GEO) SOCIETAL BENEFITS

AIRNow-I delivers the key GEO societal benefit of understanding environmental
factors affecting human health and well being. Within that benefit area, two
key topics are air quality and the urban environment. AIRNow-I supports both.
The system will be built with air quality as its primary focus. As for the urban
environment, AIRNow-I will provide the data and tools needed to both
measure air quality in urban areas, and more importantly, inform residents of
those areas. As such, AIRNow-I will deliver great benefit to both key GEO
topics.
AIRNow-I is a critical infrastructure and public information piece within the
larger GEO framework. Using the AIRNow framework will allow GEO to both
measure and report air quality throughout the world. Further, the AIRNow-I
realtime data and reporting concept could be extended to other media, such as
water, and could be used as a basis for emergency environmental alerts. This
has already been done in parts of the U.S. with the EnviroFlash e-mail alert
system.
In addition, the AIRNow-I project dovetails nicely with several other GEO
initiatives. In particular, the AIRNow team plans to support the Common
Alerting Protocol (CAP) to integrate air quality alerts into CAPs all-hazards, allmedia approach.
In the GEOSS Ten Year Implementation Plan, the Health societal benefit is
described as: GEOSS will improve the flow of appropriate environmental data
and health statistics to the health community, promoting a focus on prevention
and contributing to the continued improvements in human health worldwide.
This passage illustrates precisely the need for a system such as AIRNow-I. In the
air quality arena, the only prevention available is through knowledge of when
and where poor air quality exists. In many developing nations, that information
is simply not available to the people that desperately need it.
GEO can provide the necessary tools for countries around the globe to
measure, evaluate, and distribute air quality information. Information that can
not only be used to further research, but more importantly, to protect public
health.
71
7.6 FUTURE ENDEAVORS

The initial AIRNow-I pilot in Shanghai, China is scheduled for completion in
March 2009. Once the pilot phase is done, the AIRNow-I system will be ready to
be taken to other nations. The AIRNow-I Team at US EPA will begin a process of
strategically searching for another pilot partner.
It is difficult to predict what resources will be required for each new pilot, but
the AIRNow-I Team is committed to continuing the development process with
other nations. Which nations will come to the table and which will be best
suited to participate, remains to be seen.
7.7 REFERENCES
Federal Register, 1997: Review of national ambient air quality standards for particulate
matter, 40 CFR Part 50, July 18. Available on the Internet at:
http://www.epa.gov/EPA-AIR/1997/October/Day-23/a28143.htm
Federal Register, 1999: Air Quality Index Reporting; Final Rule, 40 CFR Part 58, August
4. Available via http://www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg/t1/fr_notices/airqual.pdf
Wayland R.A., J.E. White, P.G. Dickerson, and T. Dye, 2002: Communicating real-time
and forecasted air quality to the public: current state and future plans. EM
(December 2002), 28-36.
73
8 NEAR-REAL TIME AIR QUALITY DATA (OZONE WEB AND

FUTURE ACTIONS )
Jaume Targaa and Tim Haigha
Abstract
The purpose of this document is to outline EEA plans in relation to near real-time Air
quality data in 2009 and beyond.
8.1 BACKGROUND
As part of its 2004 2008 strategy, the European Environment Agency
increased focus on dynamically presenting environmental data in interactive
map based Internet sites. One of the foremost projects offers the possibility to
track ground level ozone on a pan-European scale and is commonly known as
ozone web.
The purpose of the web site, which was launched in 2006, is to inform about
ozone in Europe for current and recent situations on an hourly basis based on
measured near real-time data. The site provides data providers, air quality
experts, as well as citizens the opportunity to follow the development of air
quality in a specific region as well as have an overall picture of the situation on
a European level.
Keeping the public informed about ozone pollution is a key part of European
legislative strategy to address this air pollution. The objective of the site is to
provide a visual and easily understandable presentation of measurement data
for the public enabling comparison of air quality conditions across borders and
providing information about local air quality information sites.
Data from more than 800 air quality measurement stations from over 40 data
providers in 32 countries are provided to EEA.
In February 2008 the Commission adopted a Communication on establishing a
"Shared Environmental Information System" for Europe to improve and
a
European Environment Agency, ETC/ACC, (jaume.targa@aeat.co.uk,

tim.haigh@eea.europa.eu)
74
streamline the European system for collecting, analysing and reporting
environmental information. The ozone web site and data exchange is cited
extensively in the communication and is seen as a pilot of Shared
Environmental Information System (SEIS) concepts.
A series of SEIS pilot projects have been established. The SEIS pilot project for
ozone web focused on three objectives:
to demonstrate that the system can be used to provide information

relating to provisional ozone exceedances (current monthly summer
ozone exceedance reporting) and provide a basis upon which countries
and the Commission can discuss streamlining summer ozone reporting
by countries to the European level.
to demonstrate that near real-time ozone data can be consolidated to

full coverage and repeated for other priority air pollutants,
(particulate matter).
to assess the properties of ozone web to determine which

characteristics of the system, data and data exchange mechanisms are
key and suitable for extension of this approach to other areas.
75
8.2 RESULTS IN 2008

The EEA has been working on these objectives in active partnership with
countries. During the course of 2008 a web site which makes use of NRT ozone
data to create summer ozone reporting outputs has been piloted. The
preliminary results seem good - Summer ozone reporting outputs have been
successfully created based on NRT data. Countries have provided feedback,
including most importantly confirmation that the results generated from the
pilot match their own system outputs.
Consolidation of ozone data provision to full coverage is tantalizingly close with
only Bulgaria and Romania outstanding. Over 20 000 ozone date measurement
are received and processed per day. Data provision for just a few countries is a
little patchy.
EEA has also extended the data exchange system to cater for other air quality
parameters. Extension of data coverage to wider air quality parameters has
progressed with 16 countries involved in PM10 data provision and over 600
stations providing data. A pilot PM10 viewer has been created and sent for
consultation to stakeholders that expressed interest. Feedback on the pilot
PM10 viewer has been positive.
Some countries provide additional air quality parameters such as NO2, SO2,
PM2.5, etc to EEA.
8.3 NEXT STEPS

As EEA moves to a new strategy, a key word will be integration. The following
areas are seen as the main areas of activity in relation to near real time air
quality data:
Operational integration of the near real time data with summer ozone
reporting procedures so that the near real-time data starts to replace
the current monthly reporting and becomes part of the EEA official
report on the summer ozone season for the European Commission.
Integration with SEIS: EEA NRT air quality systems provide a real-world
example of the kind of services that an open, shared environmental
information system will enable, and thus provides proof of concept for
76
the SEIS. This type of approach needs to be generalized a much wider
range of environmentally-relevant parameters and information.
Re-use of near real time data and architecture to support for example
Kopernikus (GMES) services and insitu data; EMEP requirements,
creation of forecasts and AQIs.
In 2009, the current systems and procedures for summer ozone reporting will
be integrated and aligned with EEA standard approaches to operational air
quality reporting. A key dependency is on EU legislation and guidance which
should be amended to accommodate the change in approach. The Commission
has requested an evaluation of the results of the pilot, to be undertaken in
2009. Full streamlining could occur from 2009 onwards. The summer ozone
report is expected to focus on adding value through more sophisticated
analysis and timely messaging to compliment the NRT web based interface.
The generalization of the approach for NRT AQ will be further developed in
2009 and integrated into EEA work-plans for SEIS. The NRT data provided to
EEA is increasingly expected to focus on securing added value in partnership
with others, such as through Kopernikus (GMES) or other initiatives at a
national or international level. Cooperation with other organisational
structures is expected to intensify. EEAs new role as responsible for insitu
coordination for Kopernikus, is also expected to lead to a wider use of the NRT
data for validation and assimilation for modelling, both through use of EEA
capacities and also by increasing access to other data capacities.
8.4 RELEVANT WEB-LINKS (UNTIL OCTOBER 2008)

Summer ozone reporting pilot:
SNAPSHOT PAGE - http://86.58.131.6/snapshot/template_viewer.swf
EXPLORER PAGE - http://86.58.131.6/explorer/bin/explorer.html
ADMIN PAGE - http://86.58.131.6/admin/ozoneAdmin.swf
77
9 AIRTHESS: THE THESSALONIKI SYSTEM FOR EARLY

WARNING AIR POLLUTION INFORMATION
Kostas Nikolaoua and Kostas Karatzasb
Abstract
This paper deals with the establishment of an early warning air quality information
system for the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. The so-called AIRTHESS 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 Computational
Intelligence 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 and via mobile telephony
services.
9.1 INTRODUCTION
The city of Thessaloniki is the second largest city of Greece (more than one
million inhabitants) and one of the largest urban agglomerations in the Balkans.
Its complex coastal formation, in combination to the near-by mountainous
areas, forms a very complex land use and orography pattern that favours local
circulation systems. Thus, the formation and transport of pollutants are heavily
influenced by the local meteorological and topographic characteristics, which is
the case in many coastal urban areas around the world.
The Thessaloniki air quality presents similar temporal evolution as in the most
of the European cities. The improvement of fuel quality, the technological
innovations in industry, the emission sources control programmes, the recent
considerable renewal of the vehicle fleet (gasoline engine passenger cars
equipped with three way catalytic converters, buses and taxis with new
technology diesel engines), the urban traffic management and the urban
telematics applications contributed significantly to the decreasing trend of air
a
Organization for the Master Plan and Environmental Protection of Thessaloniki, 105 Vas. Olgas
Str., 54643 Thessaloniki, Greece; e-mail: kinikola@hol.gr
b
Informatics Applications and Systems Group, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle

University, Box 483, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; email: kkara@eng.auth.gr
78
pollutants: SO2 (sulphur dioxide), CO (carbon monoxide), Pb (lead) and
suspended particulates. This trend is not observed in the case of photochemical
pollutants: NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) and O3 (ozone). Suspended particulates are
still above the European standards in many cases, although their trend is
decreasing. These results show that despite the temporal trends, the
suspended particulates and the photochemical pollutants constitute the most
important problem of the urban atmospheric environment today (Nikolaou,
2003; Nikolaou et al., 2008).
The evolution of the urban pollution sources (mainly the vehicle fleet), their
characteristics, the parameters influencing their emissions, the temporal trends
of some air pollutants, the development of various plans including
transportation planning and transport telematics applications for the
improvement of urban traffic and environment in Thessaloniki have been
presented elsewhere (Nikolaou, 2002; Nikolaou and Papadakis, 2001a and
2001b, Nikolaou et al., 2002, Basbas et al., 2004).
Early warning information services are a basic constituent for quality of life
information services, and as such are inevitably associated with the
atmospheric environment, the media that surrounds us throughout our life.
Such services attempt to integrate the need for improved well being on a
personal level with the understanding of environmental pressures and their
consequences, especially at the urban scale. They also provide with valuable
information concerning the way that the pattern of our everyday life is
associated with exposure to, and consequences of, environmental pressures. It
is becoming more and more clear that such pressures have different spatial
scales (ranging from a neighbourhood to a regional problem), and multiple
temporal scales (from the seconds of street canyon photochemistry to the
hours of duration of a pollen episode, moving towards the days of duration of
an ozone episode). The multiplicity of time and space related scales of
environmental pressures calls for information services that are capable of
addressing them. The present paper discusses the development of an air
quality, early warning, environmental information system, that applies
Computational Intelligence (CI) methods for the forecasting of parameters of
interest, and Information & Telecommunication Technologies (ICT) for the
dissemination of the environmental information.
79
9.2 AIR QUALITY MONITORING IN THESSALONIKI

The air quality monitoring state network in Thessaloniki is operated by the
Region of Central Macedonia (RCM), but there are also two other networks
operated by the Municipality of Thessaloniki and the Municipality of
Echedoros. The total of the air quality monitoring stations of Thessaloniki is
presented in Figure 9.1.
S2
S3
S1
S4
S6
S5
S8
S8
Figure 9.1: The air quality monitoring stations of Thessaloniki, Stations belonging to the air
quality monitoring state network of RCM in Thessaloniki are represented in triangular shape.
(S1:TEI Sindos, S2: Neohorouda, S3: Kordelio, S4: Dimokratias Sq., S5: Agias Sofias Sq., S6:
AUTh, S7: Panorama, S8: Kalamaria).
80
9.3 THE EARLY WARNING INFORMATION SYSTEM

Air quality information systems have already been addressed the era of the 4th
FP in EU. The first communication channels investigated were the ones
supported by internet technologies. In the 5th FP a number of IST related
projects addressed air quality management, information, and systems. The
reference project was APNEE and its take-up measure APNEE-TU that
addressed, for the first time, the needs of the citizens for personalised
information services for the quality of the environment they live in, and
developed an umbrella of pull and push services that can be used for providing
AQ information to the public. APNEE and APNEE TU (2000-2004) provided with
a holistic approach to AQ information management and dissemination. A
number of projects followed, while in parallel operational systems started to
emerge (Karatzas et al., 2004; Karatzas, 2007). Some examples include the
following systems:
Luftkvalitet. The official Norwegian AQI site, developed and supported

by the Norwegian Institute for Air research in the frame of their air
quality management system AIRQUIS and its information component
AirOnline, that provides web based, mobile phone and street panel
information dissemination
AirNow, the official air quality information system of the Environmental

Protection Agency, USA. This system received input from more than
3000 monitoring stations, and provides information via the internet
and with emails.
AirALERT, which is an SMS based air quality information service for the
Sussex area, U.K., especially focusing on asthmatic people, school
children and elderly.
Environmental data are very complex to model due to underlying interrelations

between numerous variables of different type. However, as standard statistical
techniques may possibly fail to adequately model complex, non-linear
phenomena and chemical procedures, the application of Computational
Intelligence (CI) Methods for forecasting of a wide range of pollutants and their
concentrations at various time scales, perform usually well. CI techniques such
as Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), Classification and Regression Trees (CART)
and Support Vector Machines have been applied for forecasting of
photochemical and particulate matter pollution. The results of these studies
81
indicate that CI methods perform better compared to statistical methods, and
can be potentially very accurate in forecasting parameters of interest,
depending on the quantity and quality of the data. These findings, combined
with the computational efficiency of CI methods, suggest that the latter
methods can be an excellent tool for the creation of operational air quality
forecasting modules, which may effectively support operational air quality
management on a day-to-day basis.
The Thessaloniki air quality information and early warning system (AIRTHESS),
was designed and developed taking into account the state of the art in ICT and
the way that AQ information should be disseminated and presented, either on
a daily information basis, or on the basis of alerts generated by incident
forecasts. AIRTHESS makes use of Google Maps for the geographic presentation
of information and Adobe Flash for the graphical presentation of air pollution
time series, merged in a responsive rich web application using the Google Web
Toolkit (GWT) to perform dynamic actions. In the backend, AIRTHESS is
implemented using a stack of open source libraries and frameworks, mainly
based on the Eclipse Equinox implementation of the OSGi Service Platform,
allowing fine-grained reuse of existing code and extension of behaviour with
minimal overhead. Further, an in-house web application framework based on
Apache Velocity for rendering and Apache Torque for the database access.
AIRTHESS uses the OSGi Event Service in publish-subscribe mode to handle
dataflow requirements for new measurements and notifications. When new
measurements arrive, an Event is generated describing their metadata (such as
their station, the measurement series that have been updated, the first and last
moment of the new data, etc) and asynchronously posted to the Event Service.
Any OSGi services that have registered as handlers whose filters match the new
event are then notified; the modeling subsystem is one such service, handling
execution of prediction models. Any forecasts that are calculated emit their
own events; the notification service is subscribed to these particular events and
checks if any users should be notified of these new predictions. Being based on
OSGi and the publish-subscribe pattern allows the various components to be
very decoupled from each other; further, services can dynamically subscribe to
the generated events without causing any downtime. The warning are being
issues via e-mail and SMS to the (freely) subscribed users. On the software
development side, we have also investigated Apache Camel as a JVM-bridging
transport for the OSGi Event Service, which should allow us to host the
prediction models in a second JVM with failover and perhaps better
performance.
82
In this work, use was made of datasets of meteorological and air pollutants
hourly measurements (more than 200,000 records), supplied by the monitoring
state network of the Region of Central Macedonia (RCM), Greece. After
removing records with missing values, as well as obviously erroneous
measurements, a simple method of linear interpolation was applied, for
estimating missing values when the time gap was less than 48 hours.
Moreover, numerical values for all pollutants (including the class variable) were
transformed to nominal values. We have used eight datasets of meteorological
and air-pollutants measurements, combined with seasonal information for
estimating (i) daily maximum NO2, (ii) maximum O3 and (ii) mean and maximum
PM10 concentration levels.
After formulating the appropriate datasets for each prediction task selecting
the subset of parameters used for forecasting each of the target pollutants and
calculating the corresponding values from the hourly concentrations present in
the original datasets we removed records with missing values in the class
attribute (the maximum or mean concentration value to be predicted) and
transformed the class attributes to nominal values, in accordance to relevant
technical guidelines defining the corresponding scales.
Then, we proceeded by evaluating almost all available (and applicable)
algorithms within the WEKA environment, using limited computational
resources and within a reasonable time frame. For each of the stations and for
each of the target pollutants, several experiments were conducted, each
evaluating a specific algorithm using 10-fold cross validation and 5 repetitions
(thus providing a statistically significant performance measure as the mean
over 50 evaluations per station-algorithm pair). The final product of this
procedure was a list of the 5 best performing algorithms per station and target
pollutant.
Having selected the top performing algorithms, we observed that none of them
managed to predict exceedances (HIGH and VERY HIGH class values)
accurately: due to the scarcity of records representing above-threshold
concentrations and the complexity of the domain we are trying to model, only
one tenth of constructed models managed to achieve a prediction accuracy
greater than 50% in the case of exceedances. To circumvent this shortcoming,
we decided to employ cost-sensitive model building for our final operational
models. In this direction, a cost-matrix was defined, based on the knowledge
domain of the authors, that mirrors the relative cost each of the models
misclassification has:
83
False HIGH alarms entail a cost of unnecessary measures equal to 10
False VERY_HIGH alarms entail a cost of measures equal to 20
Missed HIGH alarms entail a cost (e.g. for public health) equal to 30
Missed VERY_HIGH alarms entail a cost equal to 90
Misclassification costs, in general, are proportional to the distance

between the actual and predicted class values, with every step away
from the actual class entailing a cost equal to 5.
Cost-sensitive model building proved to be an effective technique to guide

the algorithms towards the intended outcome: all models built using the above
cost-matrix managed to outperform the corresponding non-cost-sensitive ones
(comparison per algorithm-station-target pollutant triplet) achieving prediction
accuracies up to 88.5% for exceedances. The algorithms that were proven to be
more effective were mostly in the category of decision trees, and more
specifically J48 (WEKAs C4.5 implementation) and Logistic Model Trees
(Karatzas et al., 2008; Tzima et al., 2007).
Figure 9.2: Basic structure of the AIRTHESS system
84
The AIRTHESS system is based on an internet portal (www.airthess.gr). The
basic structure of the system is presented in Figure 9.2. An internet information
indicative page of the AIRTHESS system is presented in Figure 9.3, while Email
messages and SMS are used for early warning information of the citizens.
Figure 9.3: An internet information indicative page of the AIRTHESS system
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge the project AIRTHESS, supported by the Organization
for the Master Plan and Environmental Protection of Thessaloniki, and the
Region of Central Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece. The work of this paper is
also related to COST action ES0602 (www.chemicalweather.eu), and COST
action C21 (www.towntology.net).
85
9.4 REFERENCES
Nikolaou K., 2003. Air quality in European urban areas and the new EC directives.
Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology, 4 (2), 477-482.
Nikolaou K., Papadakis N., Basbas S., Ermidis P., Spyroglou P., Dimou P., 2008. Spatial
and temporal variation of air quality in Greek cities. Journal of Environmental
Protection and Ecology, 9(3), 494-500
Nikolaou K. 2002. Comparative evaluation of the air quality in Athens and Thessaloniki
versus EC new standards. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 11 (8), 426-431.
Nikolaou K., Papadakis N., 2001a. Ten years trends of the urban air pollution in
Thessaloniki. Part I: The primary pollutants. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 10 (1),
69-72.
Nikolaou K., Papadakis N. 2001b. Ten years trends of the urban air pollution in
Thessaloniki. Part II: The secondary pollutants. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 10
(2), 230-233.
Nikolaou K., Basbas S., Toskas G., 2002. Air pollutant emissions and concentrations
based on urban traffic modeling. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 11 (8), 494-498.
Basbas S., Nikolaou K., Toskas G., 2004. Relative contribution of various diesel vehicle
classes to the urban air pollution. Water, Air and Soil Pollution: Focus, 4 (4-5), 55-63.
Karatzas K., Nikolaou K. and Moussiopoulos N., 2004. Timely and valid air quality
information: The APNEE-TU project. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 13(9), 874878
Karatzas K., 2007. State-of-the-art in the dissemination of AQ information to the
st
general public. Proceedings of the 21 International Conference on Informatics for
Environmental Protection - EnviroInfo2007, Warsaw, Poland, Sept. 12-14, 2007,
(Hryniewicz O., Studzioski J. and Romaniuk M., eds.), Vol. 2., pp. 41-47, Shaker
Verlag, Aachen, 2007
Karatzas K., Bassoukos A., Voukantsis D., Tzima F., Nikolaou K. and Karathanasis S.,
2008. ICT technologies and computational intelligence methods for the creation of
an early warning air pollution information system. Proceedings of the 22nd
Conference on Environmental Informatics and Industrial Ecology, Leuphana
University of Lneburg, Germany, 10-12 September 2008
Tzima F., Karatzas K., Mitkas P. and Karathanasis S., 2007. Using data-mining techniques
for PM10 forecasting in the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki, Greece. Proceedings
th
of the 20 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, IEEE Computational
Intelligence Society and International Neural Network Society, Orlando, Florida,
August 2007, pp. 27522757
87
10 THE CYPRUS AQ INFORMATION PORTAL

S. C. Kleanthousa
Abstract
Air quality in Cyprus is monitored and accessed with the assistance of a network of nine
fully automatic monitoring stations, located all over Cyprus. The acquired
measurement results are presented to the general public on-line, together with other
useful information on issues related to air quality, through public indoor/outdoor
panels and a special designed web-based air quality (AQ) information portal
(www.airquality.gv.cy).
The Department of Labour Inspection (DLI), Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance has
the responsibility for the operation of the network, and for the implementation of
abatement measures in order to reduce environmental pressures and improve air
quality. The current paper provides with a brief overview of the AQ information portal,
a snapshot of the AQ management actions taken, and some information on the future
developments of AQ management and forecasting in Cyprus.
10.1 INTRODUCTION
The Department of Labour Inspection of the Ministry of Labour and Social
Insurance, as the competent authority in Cyprus for the assessment and
monitoring of air quality in Cyprus, is operating a network of 9 stations for the
air quality monitoring all over Cyprus (Figure 10.1). Four stations monitor the
air quality in areas close to roads with high traffic, in four major cities (Larnaca,
Limassol, Nicosia and Pafos). Three monitoring stations are located in
residential areas in Larnaca, Limassol and Nicosia, one is a station
representative of industrial areas (located in Zygi, near power plnt and a
cement factory) and one is a background and long range transboundary
pollution representative station (EMEP station), located at Agia Marina
Xyliatou. All stations are equipped with automatic, state-of-the-art atmospheric
quality analyzers and meteorological sensors.
Department of Labour Inspection, 12 Apelli Street, 1080 Nicosia, Cyprus, E-mail:

skleanthous@dli.mlsi.gov.cy
88
Figure 10.1: The network of 9 air quality monitoring stations in Cyprus
10.2 PUBLIC INFORMATION AND AWARENESS

The AQ measurements are automatically collected every hour through the
central data control system, and presented to the general population on-line,
through a the AQ information portal and indoor/outdoor panels (Figure 10.2).
Important information related to main sources of pollution and their effects on
human health, the vegetation and the environment in general, is also given to
the public. The AQ information portal provides access to on line AQ data in a
simple, yet effective way, with the aid of a color scale, while actual
concentration values are also been made available. Moreover, the portal
includes detailed information for all monitoring sites, plus information about
air pollution and its impact to man and the ecosystem, detailed AQ statistics,
reports, latest news, and information concerning Cyprus and EU AQ related
regulations. It should also be noted that the portal includes a media center and
a kids corner, providing basic AQ information and updates on current status
for the general public as well as for children. The outdoor panels introduce
messages to the public, accompanied by advice and suggestion concerning
ways to avoid exposure or to lower emissions of air pollutants.
89
Figure 10.2: Air Quality information dissemination to the public in Cyprus.
10.3 SAHARA DUST EPISODES

One of the interesting aspects of AQ in Cyprus is related to the appearance of
Sahara dust in the lower atmosphere, as a result of air mass transportation
from Africa to the Mediterranean region. Thus, air quality in Cyprus is generally
good, with the exception of Ozone and PM10. To a large extent, the high
concentration observed in Cyprus for these pollutants, are due to nature
events, such as high temperature and solar radiation for Ozone, and dry
conditions, sea salt and transboundary pollution for PM10. Very often big
amount of dust from the Sahara desert and other regions of North Africa and
Middle East is transported over the Mediterranean area where Cyprus is
located, causing very high concentration of PM in the atmosphere (Figure
10.3a). This has as a consequence serious health problems to the general
population, especially to the sensitive groups of people like those with
respiratory problems, asthmatic people, children, elderly, pregnant women and
people with cardiovascular diseases. During such episodes AQ information is
provided to the public on-time, not only through the AQ information portal and
the indoor/outdoor panels, but also through the press, an information office,
and the Mass Media (TV, Radio, Newspaper) (Figure 10.4b). All primary and
secondary schools are also informed about such episodes, via the ministry of
Education, so that they can avoid outdoor children activities during the
episodes.
90
Figure 10.3: Sahara dust episodes in Cyprus (left) and related public awareness (right)
10.4 AIR QUALITY SIMULATION AND NOWCASTING / FORECASTING

One of the developments taking place in relation to new AQ management tools
adopted in Cyprus is related to a project currently running in corporation with
the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki concerning air emissions analysis and
inventorying, and air quality forecasting. In this way, the Department of Labour
Inspection will be in the position to simulate and forecast the air quality all over
Cyprus. The developed colored air quality maps (Fig. 10.4), for whole Cyprus
and each major individual city, will be published on-line through the internet
and indoor/outdoor panels, giving so the possibility to the public to know well
in advance the expected air quality so that they may plan accordingly their daily
activities ,in order to avoid any undesirable health effects.
Figure 10.4: Nowcasting and forecasting maps
91
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks are given to A. Adamides, C. Papadopoulos, I. Christofides, M.
Fountoulis, T. Hadjikyriakou, A.M. Christoforou, I. Christoforou, C. Stefanidou
and A. Andreou.
10.5 REFERENCES
National action plan for the improvement of air quality in Cyprus, published on
Department of Labour Inspection air quality website (www.airquality.gv.cy).
Preliminary Assessment of Ambient Air Quality in Cyprus, Universitt Stuttgart,
Institute of Process Engineering and Power Plant Technology Department of Air
Quality Control, 2004, published on Department of Labour Inspection air quality
website (www.airquality.gv.cy).
New ambient air quality framework directive 96/62/EC.
93
11 ANNEX A
Contries participating in COST Action ES0602 for which data concenering Air
Quality Information Systems have been collected (in alphabetical order)
1. Austria
2. Estonia
3. Germany
4. Greece
5. Hungary
6. Italy
7. Spain
94
1. Austria
Name
Daily Air Quality Report

Austria- Umweltbundesamt - Daily Air Quality
Report
0. General description
Data collected by Federal
1. Typology:
Measurements
Provinces and Umweltbundesamt
Modeling
no
Human judgment
no
Combination
no
2. Owner and
Umweltbundesamt
3. Basic information:
Maintenance
Umweltbundesamt
Text
yes
Graphs
no
Short messages
no
AQ indexes
no
Colored messages
yes
SMS
yes
MMS
no
Street panels
no
Voice servers
no
Other
4. User groups
Public, Specialists
5. Statistics
yes
6. Cost estimations
7. Participation to projects
EEA OzoneWeb
8. Basic techn.features
Web server used
Apache
Content manag.
TYPO3
95
Hourly Ozone Information (Summer)
on-line AQ information
Austria - Umweltbundesamt - Hourly Ozone Information

(Summer)
Austria - Umweltbundesamt - on-line AQ

information
3D interpolation model
no
no
no
no
no
Umweltbundesamt
Umweltbundesamt
Umweltbundesamt
Umweltbundesamt
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
Public, Specialists
Public, Specialists
yes
no
EEA OzoneWeb
apache
google maps
TYPO3
96
2. Estonia
Name
Estonian Air Quality Management system (AQMS)
National monitoring network: 4 urban and 3

background stations - hourly online data;
meteorological masts - 15 min. average data.
1. Typology:
Measurements
AirViro Hourly online forecast maps (PM10, NO2, SO2

and CO) for 5 major cities: Tallinn, Tartu, Narva,
Kohtla-Jrve, Prnu,
Modeling
no
Human judgment
no
Combination
Estonian Environmental Research Centre (EERC),

Estonian Environmental Information Centre (EEIC)
2. Owner and
EERC
Maintenance
yes
Text
yes
Graphs
yes - automatic email will be sent

to specified addresses when level of certain
pollutant reaches predefined level.
Short messages
no
AQ indexes
no
Colored messages
no
SMS
no
MMS
no
Street panels
no
Voice servers
Other
4. User groups
Public, specialists, authorities

no
5. Statistics
no
6. Cost estimations
no
Two identical IBM server systems, in EERC and EEIC,

mirrored with each other
8. Basic techn. features
Web server used
web pages
Content manag.
Estonian Air Quality Management system (AQMS)
97
Page left blank by intention
98
3. Germany (1/3)
Name
UBA
RIU
Federal Environmental
agency, collecting all
measurements from
the regional agencies
no
Measurements
no
MM5, EURAD
Modeling
yes
yes
Human judgment
no
yes
Combination
Federal Government
of Germany
University of
Cologne
yes
yes
Maintenance
yes
yes
Text
yes
yes
Graphs
no
no
Short messages
no
yes
AQ indexes
no
no
Colored messages
no
no
SMS
no
no
MMS
no
no
Street panels
no
no
Voice servers
Other
Public, Specialists
Envir. Authority,
Public
yes
yes
no
no
1. Typology:
2. Owner and
4. User groups
5. Statistics
6. Cost estimations
GEMS, PROMOTE
Web server used

Content manag.
UBA
RIU
web pages, query
web pages
UBA
RIU
99
TRUMF
LANUV
GAA
BLFU
no
Regional data
(Northrhine-Westfalia)
Regional data (Lower

Saxony)
Regional data
(Bavaria)
REM,CALGRID
based on RIU forecast
based on RIU forecast
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
yes
no
University of Berlin
State of NorthrhineWestfalia
Ministery of Env.
Lower Saxony
Ministery of
Environment Bavaria
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
yes
no
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
Envir. Authority, Public
Public, Nat.
Authorities
Public, Loc. Authorities
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
TRUMF
LANUV
GAA
BLFU
web pages
web pages
web pages
web pages
TRUMF
LANUV
GAA
BLFU
100
Germany (2/3)
Name
LUBW
BLUME
Regional data (BadenWrttemberg)
Regional
(Berlin)
data
Measurements
no
no
Modeling
yes
yes
Human judgment
no
no
Combination
Ministery of Env.
Baden-Wrttemberg
Environmental
Senate of Berlin
yes
yes
Maintenance
yes
yes
Text
no
no
Graphs
no
no
Short messages
no
no
AQ indexes
no
no
Colored messages
no
no
SMS
no
no
MMS
yes
yes
Street panels
no
no
Voice servers
Other
Public, Loc. Auth.
Public, Loc. Auth.
no
no
web pages
web pages
1. Typology:
2. Owner and
4. User groups
5. Statistics
6. Cost estimations
Web server used

Content manag.
LUBW
BLUME
101
LUAB
BUISY
HALUM
HLUG
Regional data (Brandenburg)
Regional data
(Bremen)
Regional data
(Hamburg)
Regional data (Hessen)
no
no
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
Ministery of Environment
Brandenburg
Environment Senate of
Bremen
Environment Senate of
Hamburg
Ministery of
Environment Hessen
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
web pages
web pages
web pages
web pages
LUAB
BUISY
HALUM
HLUG
102
Germany (3/3)
Name
LUNG
ZIMEN
Regional data
(MecklenburgVorpommern)
Regional data
(Rheinland-Pfalz)
Measurements
no
no
Modeling
yes
yes
Human judgment
no
no
Combination
Ministery of Env.
MecklenburgVorpommern
Ministery of
Environment
Rheinland-Pfalz
yes
yes
Maintenance
yes
yes
Text
no
no
Graphs
no
no
Short messages
no
no
AQ indexes
no
no
Colored messages
no
no
SMS
no
no
MMS
yes
yes
Street panels
no
no
Voice servers
Other
Public, Loc. Auth.
Public, Loc. Auth.
no
no
Web server used
web pages
web pages
Content manag.
LUNG
ZIMEN
1. Typology:
2. Owner and
4. User groups
5. Statistics
6. Cost estimations
103
LUAS
UMWS
LUESA
LUSH
TLUG
LUAS
Regional data
(Saarland)
Regional data
(Saxonia)
Regional data
(SachsenAnhalt)
Regional data
(SchleswigHolstein)
Regional data
(Thringen)
Regional data
(Saarland)
no
no
no
no
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
Ministery
of
Environment
Saarland
Ministery of
Environment
Saxonia
Ministery of
Env. SachsenAnhalt
Ministery of
Env SchleswigHolstein
Ministery of
Environment
Thringen
Ministery of
Environment
Saarland
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
Pub., Loc. Auth.
Pub., Loc. Auth.
Pub. Loc. Auth.
Pub., Loc. Auth.
Pub., Loc. Auth.
Pub., Loc. Auth.
no
no
no
no
no
no
web pages
web pages
web pages
web pages
web pages
web pages
LUESA
LUSH
TLUG
LUAS
LUAS
UMWS
104
4. Greece
Name
AIRTHESS
Measurements
Time series hourly data received by the AQ monitoring

network operated by the Prefecture of Central
Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece (updated daily)
Modeling
Yes (CI methods), producing forecasts
Human judgment
no
Combination
no
1. Typology:
Owner: ORTH1, Developed, Operated and Maintained:

AUTh2, Dept. of Mech. Engineering, Informatics
Applications and Systems Group
2. Owner and
Maintenance
yes (guidelines, background informaiton, etc)
Text
yes (multiple types including comparisons, etc)
Graphs
yes
Short messages
no
AQ indexes
Colored
messages
yes
SMS
no
MMS
no
Street panels
Voice servers
no
email (automatically issued early warnings based on AQ
forecasts). In addiiton, all AQ measurements are available
for the public via the web
Other
Public, Specialists, Decision makers, etc,
yes
4. User groups
yes
5. Statistics
Operational and maintenance costs (including issuing of
50000 SMS and emails), approx. 10000/year. The use of
all services are provided free of charge to all interested
6. Cost estimations
7.
Participation
projects
to
Web server used
Apache
web pages, query, graphics, complete portal
functionalities
Content manag.
1
Organization of Environment and Master Plan

2
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
AIRTHESS
105
UOA
PROMOTE - AQ Forecast for SE Mediterranean
GEMS NKUA/AUTH
no
no
no
based on MINNI
MM5, CAMx
MM5, CAMx
no
no
no
no
no
no
AUTh2, Lab of Atmospheric Physics
NKUA3, Lab of Climatology and

Atmospheric Environment, AUTh2,
Lab of Atmospheric Physics
ARIANET
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
1)Region of Central Macedonia, 2)Ministry of

Environment, Planning and Public Works,
3)Public
Public
no
no
no
Protocol Monitoring for the GMES Service

Element: Atmosphere (PROMOTE)
Global and regional earth-system

monitoring using satellite and insitu data (GEMS)
yes
yes
web pages
no
no
ENEA-ARIANET
Public,
Authorities
Nat.
National and Kapodistrian University
106
5. Hungary
Environmental Agency
Data measured in
Budapest collected by
the Central
Environmental Agency
urban background monitoring
urban monitoring
Measurements
no
no
Modeling
no
no
Human judgment
no
no
Central Environmental Agency
Budapest Local
Authority Hungarian
Meteorological Service
yes
yes
yes
yes
Regional data collected

Name
by the Central
1. Typology:
Combination
2. Owner and
Maintenance
Text
Graphs
no
no
Short messages
yes
yes
AQ indexes
yes
yes
Colored messages
no
no
SMS
no
no
MMS
no
yes
Street panels
no
no
Voice servers
Other
4. User groups
no
tables
Public specialists
Public smog alarm
no
no
5. Statistics
6. Cost estimations
no
no
Web server used

Content manag.
107
Page left blank by intention
108
6. Italy (1/4)
Name
ARPA VdA
ARIAWEB
ARIANOVA
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional Local
Environmental
Office
Measurements
Regional data
(Valle d'Aosta)
Regional data
(Piemonte)
Regional
(Piemonte)
Modeling
MINERVE
no
LAMI+SURFPRO FARM+CHIMERE
Human judgment
yes
yes
yes
Combination
yes
yes
yes
ARPA
Valle
d'Aosta
ARPA
Piemonte
Provincia di Novara
Maintenance
ARPA
Valle
d'Aosta
SIRA
SIRA
Text
yes
yes
yes
Graphs
no
yes
no
Short messages
yes
yes
no
AQ indexes
no
yes
no
Colored messages
yes
yes
no
SMS
no
no
no
MMS
no
no
no
Street panels
no
no
yes
Voice servers
no
no
no
Other
maps
maps
maps
4. User groups
Public,
Loc.
Authorities
Public,
Loc.
Authorities
Public,
Authorities
5. Statistics
no
no
no
6. Cost estimations
INTERREG
FUMAPEX
Web server used
Content manag.
web pages
web pages
web pages
1. Typology:
2. Owner and
data
Loc.
109
ARPA-Lomb.
AMA-MI
ARPA Ven.
Prov. Bolz.
Prov. Trento
ARPA FVG
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional
Local
Environmental
Office
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional
Local
Environmental
Office
Institutional
Local
Environmental
Office
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Local Data
(Milano)
Regional data
(Veneto)
Local data
(Prov.Bolzano)
Local data
(Prov. Trento)
Regional data
(Friuli Venezia
Giulia)
ECMWF+SURFPRO
- FARM+CHIMERE
no
MM5 +
CHIMERE
no
no
no
yes
no
yes
no
no
no
yes
no
yes
no
no
no
APPA Trentino
ARPA Friuli
Venezia Giulia
Regional
(Lombardia)
data
ARPA Lombardia
Comune di
Milano
ARPA Veneto
Provincia
Autonoma di
Bolzano
ARPA Lombardia
Comune
Milano
ARPA Veneto
CMT
Provincia
Autonoma di
Bolzano
APPA AGF-TN
ARPA FVG
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
yes
no
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
maps
maps
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
no
no
yes
yes
yes
no
web pages
web pages
web pages
web pages
web p., DB
web p., GIS
maps
Public,
Authorities
Loc.
110
Italy (2/4)
Name
ARPA Lig.
NINFA
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Measurements
Regional data
(Liguria)
Regional data
(Emilia
Romagna)
Regional data
(Toscana)
Modeling
no
ECMWF+LAMI
- CHIMERE
no
Human judgment
no
no
yes
Combination
no
no
no
ARPA Liguria
ARPA Emilia
Romagna
ARPA Toscana
Maintenance
ARPA Liguria
Servizio IdroMeteo-Clima
ARPA Toscana
Text
yes
yes
yes
Graphs
yes
yes
yes
Short messages
no
no
yes
AQ indexes
no
no
yes
Colored messages
no
no
yes
SMS
no
no
no
MMS
no
no
no
Street panels
no
no
no
Voice servers
no
no
no
Other
maps
maps
maps
4. User groups
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
5. Statistics
no
no
no
6. Cost estimations
Web server used
Content manag.
web p., GIS
web pages
web pages
1. Typology:
2. Owner and
ARPA Tosc.
111
ARPA Umb.
ARPA Mar.
ARTA Abr.
ARPA Mol.
ARPA Lazio
ARPA Camp.
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Regional data
(Marche)
Regional data
(Abruzzo)
Regional data
(Molise)
Regional data
(Lazio)
Regional data
(Campania)
no
no
no
no
no
no
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
ARPA Umbria
ARPA Marche
ARPA Abruzzo
ARPA Molise
ARPA Lazio
ARPA
Campania
ARPA Umbria
ARPA Marche
ARTA Abruzzo
ARPA Molise
ARPA Lazio
ARPA
Campania
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
yes
no
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
web pages
web p., query
web pages
web p., query
web pages
web p., query
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Regional
(Umbria)
data
/
Public,
Authorities
Loc.
112
Italy (3/4)
Name
ARPA Pug.
Reggio Calabria
ARPA Bas.
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Institutional
local Agency
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Measurements
Regional data
(Puglia)
Local data
(Reggio
Calabria)
Regional data
(Basilicata)
Modeling
no
no
PREV'AIR
Human judgment
no
no
no
Combination
no
no
no
ARPA Puglia
Comune di
Reggio Calabria
ARPA Basilicata
Maintenance
ARPA Puglia
Comune di
Reggio Calabria
ARPA Basilicata
Text
yes
yes
yes
Graphs
yes
no
yes
Short messages
yes
yes
yes
AQ indexes
yes
no
no
Colored messages
yes
yes
yes
SMS
no
no
no
MMS
no
no
no
Street panels
no
no
no
Voice servers
no
no
no
Other
maps
4. User groups
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
5. Statistics
no
no
no
6. Cost estimations
1. Typology:
2. Owner and
Web server used
Content manag.
web
query
pages,
web
query
pages,
web
query
pages,
113
AMIANET
Catania
ARPA Sard.
MINNI
QualeAria
Institutional long period

model simulation of
scenarios at national scale
Experimental
forecast modeling at
national scale
Local public
company
Institutional
local Agency
Institutional
Regional
Environmental
Agency
Local
data
(Palermo)
Local data
(Catania)
Regional data
(Sardegna)
no
no
no
no
no
ECMWF+RAMS - FARM
NCEP GFS+RAMS FARM
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
Comune di
Catania
ARPA Sardegna
Ministero dell'Ambiente ENEA
Ministero
dell'Ambiente ENEA
Amianet
Comune di
Catania
ARPA Sardegna
ENEA
ARIANET
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
maps
maps
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Public, Loc.
Authorities
Envir. Authority
Public, Nat.
Authorities
no
no
no
no
no
IIASA
ENEA
web pages,
query
web
query
web pages
web pages
Comune
Palermo
di
pages,
web
download
pages,
114
Italy (4/4)
Name
BOLCHEM
FORECHEM
Experimental forecast
modeling at european scale
Centre of Excellence
Measurements
no
no
Modeling
BOLCHEM
NCEP GFS+MM5 CHIMERE
Human judgment
no
no
Combination
no
no
CNR/ISAC, ECMWF
CETEMPS (Universit
dell'Aquila + PSTdA)
Maintenance
ECMWF
CETEMPS
Text
no
yes
Graphs
no
yes
Short messages
no
no
AQ indexes
no
no
Colored messages
no
no
SMS
no
no
MMS
no
no
Street panels
no
no
Voice servers
no
no
Other
maps
maps
Public, GEMS participants
Public, Authorities
5. Statistics
no
yes
6. Cost estimations
GEMS
Chimere
Web server used
Content manag.
web pages
web pages
1. Typology:
2. Owner and
4. User groups
115
LaMMa
UrbanAria
BRACE
Experimental forecast modeling

at regional/local scale
National site linking to data collected by

Regional or Local Agencies (mostly ARPAs)
no
yes
yes
NCEP GFS + RAMS - FARM
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
Regione
Toscana CNR IBIMET-FCS
ARPA Lazio
ISPRA (ex APAT)
LaMMa
ARIANET
ISPRA (ex APAT)
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
maps
maps
Nat. Authorities, Experts, Public
no
no
yes
EEA EIONET -Airbase
web pages
web pages
web pages, interact. query
Public
Consortium
Regional
(Toscana)
regional
data
116
6. Spain
Name
EOAQF
European Air Quality Information System (provides

service to Google Earth)
1. Typology:
Measurements
MM5-CMAQ
Modeling
No
Human judgment
No
Combination
UPM
2. Owner and
UPM
Maintenance
yes
Text
yes
Graphs
no
Short messages
no
AQ indexes
no
Colored messages
no
SMS
no
MMS
no
Street panels
no
Voice servers
Other
4. User groups
Open to General Public

No
5. Statistics
6. Cost estimations
Google and many private air quality forecasts
PHP web site wrapped with several open source

applications
Web server used
automatic
Content manag.
EOAQF
117
Madrid AQF System
Leicester City AQFS
Industrial Air Quality Forecasting Systems (IAQFS)
Madrid Air Quality

Forecasting System
Leicester
AQFS
Industrial Air Quality Forecasting Systems
OPANA
V2
(REMEST+CHEMA)
1999
OPANA V3
CMAQ) 2007
No
No
No
No
No
No
UPM
UPM
UPM
UPM
UPM
UPM
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
yes
yes
yes
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
City Authorities (closed

to Public)
Open
public
No
no
yes
web
web
web
automatic
automatic
automatic
Madrid AQF System
Leicester City AQFS
Industrial Air Quality Forecasting Systems (IAQFS)
City
to
(UK)
(MM5-
TEAP
(Tool
to
evaluate
the
air
quality
impact of industrial plants) EUREKA project
based on MM5-CMAQ in a powerful cluster platform
General
Private industrial partners and Authorities
COST is supported
by the EU RTD
Framework programme
ESF provides
the COST Office
through an EC
contract

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Quality of life information services

towards a sustainable society

Quality of life information

COST Action ES0602 Workshop

Publisher: Sofia Publications S.A., Thessaloniki, Greece

COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

Atmospheric quality information for quality of life

Atmospheric quality information and its dissemination ..................................10

Air quality information services (AQIS) ............................................................13

The future of AQ Information services .............................................................16

An overview of the COST action Towards a European Network on

The objectives and expected benefits of this COST action ...............................27

Participation, working groups and organization .............................................29

Overview of the progress of the action ............................................................30

The future perspectives....................................................................................35

Selected relevant web site addresses ..............................................................37

An overview of WG1 : Exchange of AQ forecasts and input data

Other relevant activities and contributions of this action ...............................40

COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

An overview of WG 2: Multi-scale forecasting, multi-model ensemble,

Forecasting, model development and boundary data .....................................45

Status of the activity ........................................................................................46

An overview of WP3: Dissemination and visualization

The basics ........................................................................................................49

Dissemination and visualisation solutions per country. ...................................52

Related publications ........................................................................................53

Delivering preventative health information to vulnerable people: Airalert

AirAlert empowering vulnerable people with directed information. ............57

Getting air pollution information out there .....................................................58

Air pollution forecasts to air alerts ..................................................................58

The airAlert service aims ..................................................................................60

airAlert service information (2006 & 2007 summer services) ..........................60

The future of intervention systems ..................................................................63

Towards an international real-time data and forecast system for public

The air quality index ........................................................................................66

Airnow-international (airnow-i) .......................................................................68

Group on earth observations (geo) societal benefits .......................................70

Future endeavors .............................................................................................71

COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

Results in 2008 .................................................................................................75

Next steps ........................................................................................................75

Relevant web-links ...........................................................................................76

AIRTHESS: the Thessaloniki system for early warning air pollution

Air Quality monitoring in Thessaloniki .............................................................79

The early warning information system ............................................................80

The Cyprus AQ Information Portal

Public information and awareness ..................................................................88

Sahara dust episodes .......................................................................................89

Air quality simulation and nowcasting / forecasting .......................................90

COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

1 ATMOSPHERIC QUALITY INFORMATION FOR

Informatics Applications and Systems Group, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle

COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

1.2 ATMOSPHERIC QUALITY INFORMATION AND ITS DISSEMINATION

COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

Particulate matter. This is a category of pollutants, which is further

Pollen: A persons reaction to pollen varies, is unique for each citizen, is

The above examples demonstrate the differences in the way that an

1.3 AIR QUALITY INFORMATION SERVICES (AQIS)