Quality of life information services towards a sustainable society for the atmospheric environment

8/17/2019 Quality of life information services towards a sustainable society for the atmospheric environment

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Editors:

Kostas Karatzas and

Jaakko Kukkonen

COST Action ES0602

Thessaloniki, 2009

Quality of life information servicestowards a sustainable society

for the atmospheric environment

COST Action ES0602 Workshop Proceedings


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Quality of life information

services towards a sustainablesociety for the atmospheric

environment

COST Action ES0602 Workshop

Proceedings

Editors:

Kostas Karatzas and

Jaakko Kukkonen


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COST ES0602 | www.chemicalweather.eu

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

funds.

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), "à 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.

Neither the COST Office nor any person acting on its behalf is responsible for the use which might

be made of the information contained in this publication. The COST Office is not responsible for

the external websites referred to in this publication.

http://www.cost.esf.org/http://www.cost.esf.org/


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prefac e .................................................................................................................7

1 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

2 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

3 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

http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159126http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159126http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159126http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159126http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159127http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159127http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159128http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159129http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159130http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159131http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159132http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159133http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159133http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159134http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159134http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159134http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159134http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159135http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159136http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159137http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159138http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159139http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159140http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159141http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159142http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159143http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159143http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159143http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159143http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159144http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159145http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159145http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159144http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159143http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159142http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159141http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159140http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159139http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159138http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159137http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159136http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159135http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukants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4 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

5 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. ................................... 525.4 Related publications ........................................................................................ 53

6 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

7 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

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7.7 References ....................................................................................................... 71

8 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

9 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 ..................................................................................................... 8710.2 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

http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159170http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159171http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159171http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159171http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159172http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159173http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159174http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159175http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159176http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159176http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159176http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159176http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159176http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159177http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159178http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159179http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159180http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159181http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159181http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159181http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159181http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159182http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159183http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159184http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159185http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159186http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159187http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159187http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159187http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159186http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159185http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159184http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159183http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159182http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159181http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159180http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159179http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159178http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159177http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159176http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159176http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159175http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159174http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159173http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159172http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159171http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Voukantsis%20Dimitris/Desktop/Thessaloniki.Book.masterdoc.III.docx%23_Toc225159170


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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 WeatherForecasting 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 forecastinginformation. 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.

http://www.chemicalweather.eu/http://www.chemicalweather.eu/


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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 COSTES0602 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


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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 aneffective 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 ofenvironmental 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 thecontemporary environmental legislation at European level, but they soon

develped a “life f their wn”, acting as utriders 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: [email protected]

* This article is based on Karatzas K. (2009), informing the public about atmospheric quality: air

pollution and pollen, Allergo Journal 3, in press.

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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by relevant authoroties, who state that “quality f air means quality f 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


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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 developmentof 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 EU’s latest amended prpsal fr a “Directive f the Eurpean Parliamentand f the Cuncil n public access t envirnmental infrmatin”, that laterbecame 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 t ensurethat public authrities rganise the envirnmental infrmatin… with a view tits active and systematic dissemination to the public, in particular by means of

cmputer telecmmunicatin and/r electrnic technlgy”.

The most important update concerning the provision of AQ information to the

general public came with the new Clean Air fr Eurpe (CAFÉ) Directive2008/50/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 bemade 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

ahttp://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32008L0050:EN:NOT

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32008L0050:EN:NOThttp://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32008L0050:EN:NOT


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thresholds are defined and calculated. Some examples on the basis of

“ppular” pllutants fllw:

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 rder f 10 μm. This is a pllutant that is directly emitted mycombustion 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

50µg/m3, not to be exceeded more than 35 times per calendar year.Another criterion exists, concerning the mean annual value, which is

40µg/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

additin can “travel” with the aid f atmspheric air. The criterionapplied for assessment is the highest 8 hour mean of hourly values,

calculated as a running average; a set of 24 values should be calculatedfor 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 120µg/m3 not to be exceeded more than 20 days per calendaryear. It worthies noting that WHO has just introduced a new guideline

value, equal t 100 µg/m3, a typical procedure in the domain of AQM,resulting from updated scientific evidence concerning consequences of

polluted air to man and the ecosystem.

Pllen: A persn’s reactin t pllen varies, is unique fr each citizen, isbased n many different factrs including an individual’s sensitivity tparticular 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


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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 airpollutants), (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 anyEnvironmental 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-verbal-

multimedia 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. geo-

references 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


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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/), “stakehlders prefer infrmatin t bepresented in short overviews using non-specialist language”. Inaddition, 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 relatedinformation, 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 asthmapatients (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.

a Was presented by Commissioner Mrs Reding as one of the three success stories out of the total

of ICT projects under the 5th

FP.

http://airnet.iras.uu.nl/http://www.sussex-air.net/airalert_seminar.htmlhttp://www.apnee.org/http://www.apnee.org/http://www.sussex-air.net/airalert_seminar.htmlhttp://airnet.iras.uu.nl/


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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 therecipients. 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 accesswas 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.

http://www.cabq.gov/airquality/index.htmlhttp://www.polleninfo.org/http://www.eupollen.eu/http://www.kafun-info.jp/http://pollen.fmi.fi/pics/index_2008.htmlhttp://www.zirtek.co.uk/Home.aspxhttp://www.zirtek.co.uk/Home.aspxhttp://pollen.fmi.fi/pics/index_2008.htmlhttp://www.kafun-info.jp/http://www.eupollen.eu/http://www.polleninfo.org/http://www.cabq.gov/airquality/index.html


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1.4 THE FUTURE OF AQ INFORMATION SERVICES

It has already been suggested that the usage of telecommunication networks

and mdern mbile devices can help in the “transfrmatin” f the citizenfrom a passive receiver of information to an actor (Karatzas, 2005). It has alsobeen 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 theenvironment 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 informationservices has been extended and enriched via the Ubiquitous Sustainability

concept (Paulos et. al., 2008) and it’s relatinship t envirnmental quality andsustainability, 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 inthe 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

“dsage” may be supprted by chemicalweather services and devices attached

http://peir.cens.ucla.edu/http://bioinf.ncl.ac.uk/%20message/http://bioinf.ncl.ac.uk/%20message/http://bioinf.ncl.ac.uk/%20message/http://bioinf.ncl.ac.uk/%20message/http://bioinf.ncl.ac.uk/%20message/http://peir.cens.ucla.edu/


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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 reductionin 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 thedecision 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, andtaking into account individual sensitisation and exposure.

1.6 REFERENCES

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pollution, pollens, and daily admissions for asthma in London 1987-92. Thorax 1998;

53, 842 –848.

Bohler T, Karatzas K, Peinel G, Rose Th. San-Jose R. Providing multi-modal access to

environmental data-customisable information services for disseminating urban airquality information in APNEE. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 2002;

26(1): 39-61

Bush A, Karagiannis G, Stamatopoulos V. Kotis T. Public perception of realtime

information services for environmental monitoring and management of asthma.

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Cariñans P, Galán C, Alcázar P. Dmínguez E. An Analysis f slid particulate mattersuspended in the air f CórdbA, suthweastern Spain. Ann Agric Envirn Med2007; 14: 219-224.

Chehregani A, Moin AMM, Gholami M, Shariatzadeh MA, Nassiri H. Increasing allergypotency of Zinnia pollen grains in polluted areas. Ecotoxicology and Environmental

Safety 2004;58: 267 –272.

D’amat G., Liccardi G, D’amat M, Cazzila M. The role of outdoor air pollution andclimatic changes on the rising trends in respiratory allergy. Respiratory Medicine

2001; 95: 606 –611

Delaunay J.J., Fedra K., Kubat M. Cedar pollen forecasting in the Kanto region. Archives

of Complex Environmental Studies 2002;14: 34: 59-64, available via http://lelab.t.u-

tokyo.ac.jp/~jean/research/researchProjects/pollen/PollenInformationSystem_ICCE

F2002.pdf (accessed 18.03.2009).

Endregard G, Karatzas K, Skaanes BI, Fløisand I, Larssen S. EEA air quality webdissemination solution - recommendations for further development, ETC/ACC

Technical Paper 2006/9. 2007; Report prepared for the European Environment

Agency, http://air-climate.eionet.europa.eu/docs/ETCACC_TechnPaper_2006_9_

AQ_web_dessim.pdf (accessed 18.03.2009).

Holmen A, Blomqvist J, Frindberg H, Johnelius Y, Eriksson NE Henricsn KÅ , HerrströmP, Högstedt B. Frequency f patients with acute asthma in relatin t zne,nitrogen dioxide, other pollutants of ambient air and meteorological observations.

Int Arch Occup Environ Health 1996; 69: 317-322.IEEE Spectrum. Cell phones for Science, p. 12, Feb. 2009.

Johansen PH, Karatzas K, Lindberg JE, Peinel G, Rose Th. Citizen-centred information

dissemination on multimodal information channels and GIS. Proceedings of the

“Sustainability in the Infrmatin Sciety”-15th International Symposium forEnvironmental 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 viahttp://www.towntology.net/Meetings/0512-BXL/presentations/

C21_towntology_karatzas_brussels.pdf), Brussels, 12-13 Dec. 2005 (accessed

18.03.2009)

Karatzas K. Environmental Information Service Web, available via

ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/ist/docs/environment/karatzas_en.pdf (accessed

18.03.2009): meeting on Information and Communication Technologies for the

Management of Natural Resources and Environmental Risks, 21.03.2006

http://lelab.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~jean/research/researchProjects/pollen/PollenInformationSystem_ICCEF2002.pdfhttp://lelab.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~jean/research/researchProjects/pollen/PollenInformationSystem_ICCEF2002.pdfhttp://lelab.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~jean/research/researchProjects/pollen/PollenInformationSystem_ICCEF2002.pdfhttp://air-climate.eionet.europa.eu/docs/ETCACC_TechnPaper_2006_9_%20AQ_web_dessim.pdfhttp://air-climate.eionet.europa.eu/docs/ETCACC_TechnPaper_2006_9_%20AQ_web_dessim.pdfhttp://www.towntology.net/Meetings/0512-BXL/presentations/%20C21_towntology_karatzas_brussels.pdfhttp://www.towntology.net/Meetings/0512-BXL/presentations/%20C21_towntology_karatzas_brussels.pdfftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/ist/docs/environment/karatzas_en.pdfftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/ist/docs/environment/karatzas_en.pdfhttp://www.towntology.net/Meetings/0512-BXL/presentations/%20C21_towntology_karatzas_brussels.pdfhttp://www.towntology.net/Meetings/0512-BXL/presentations/%20C21_towntology_karatzas_brussels.pdfhttp://air-climate.eionet.europa.eu/docs/ETCACC_TechnPaper_2006_9_%20AQ_web_dessim.pdfhttp://air-climate.eionet.europa.eu/docs/ETCACC_TechnPaper_2006_9_%20AQ_web_dessim.pdfhttp://lelab.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~jean/research/researchProjects/pollen/PollenInformationSystem_ICCEF2002.pdfhttp://lelab.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~jean/research/researchProjects/pollen/PollenInformationSystem_ICCEF2002.pdfhttp://lelab.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~jean/research/researchProjects/pollen/PollenInformationSystem_ICCEF2002.pdf


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Karatzas K., Endregard G, Fløisand I. Citizen-oriented environmental informationservices: usage and impact mdelling. Prceedings f “Infrmatics frEnvironmental Protection- Networking Environmental Information”-19th

International EnviroInfo Conference, Brno, Czech Republic. 2005; 872-878Karatzas K, Moussiopoulos N. Urban air quality management and information systems

in Europe: legal framework and information access. Journal of Environmental

Assessment Policy and Management. 2002; 2: 263-272

Karatzas K, Nikolaou K. Moussiopoulos N. Timely and valid air quality information: The

APNEE-TU project. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin. 2004; 13(9): 874-878

Karatzas K. (2007) Session on Environmental Engineering Education and Presentation of

Environmental Information to Non Scientists, ISESS2007, http://www.isess.org/

Paulos E., Foth M., Satchell Ch., Kim Y., Dourish P. Hee-jeong Choi J. Ubiquitous

Sustainability: Citizen Science & Activism, Workshop at UbiComp, September 2008,

paper available via http://www.paulos.net/papers/2008/Ubiquitous%

20Sustainability%20(UbiComp%202008).pdf (accessed 18.03.2009)

Peinel G, Rose Th. Dissemination of Air Quality Information: Lessons Learned in

European Field Trials, EnviroInfo 2004, Environmental Communication in the

Information Society, 18th International Conference "Informatics for Environmental

Protection", CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, October 21-23, 2004

http://www.apnee.org/documents/papers/Rose_Peinel_EnviroInfo2004_APNEE-

TU.pdf (accessed 18.03.2009)

Pope CA 3rd, Ezzati M, Dockery DW. Fine-particulate air pollution and life expectancy inthe United States. N Engl J Med. 2009 Jan 22; 360(4):413-5.

Ritz T, Kullowatz A, Kanniess F, Dahme B, Magnussen H. Perceived triggers of asthma:

Evaluation of a German version of the Asthma Trigger Inventory. Respiratory

Medicine 2008;102: 390 –398.

Trausan-Matu S., Karatzas K., Chiru C. Environmental information perception, analysis

and communication with the aid of natural language processing, Proceedings of the

21st International Conference on Informatics for Environmental Protection -

EnvirInf2007, (Hryniewicz O., Studzioski J. and Rmaniuk M., eds.), Shaker Verlag,

Aachen, ISBN 978-3-8322-6397-3. 2007; Vol 1: 299-306.

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2 AN OVERVIEW OF THE COST ACTION “TOWARDS A

EUROPEAN NETWORK ON CHEMICAL WEATHERFORECASTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS”

Jaakko Kukkonena, Kostas Karatzas

b, Kjetil Tørsethc, Aasmund Fahre Vikc,Thomas Klein

d, Rbert San Jsée, Taru Balka and Mikhail Sofieva

Abstract

This action provides a forum for benchmarking approaches and practices in dataexchange 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 inter-

compared 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

b 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 Meterlgical and Hydrlgical Institute, Flkbrgsvägen 1, SE-601 76 Nrrköping

e Computer Science School, Technical University of Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo - Boadilla

del Monte-28660, Madrid, Spain

http://www.chemicalweather.eu/http://www.chemicalweather.eu/


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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 decision-

makers 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 aforum 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 indicatingexceedances 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.


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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

Infrmatin Systems (AQFIS’s) have specific characteristics, address variusspatial and temporal scales, and consequently, have different strengths and

limitations.

National Meteorological Services (NMS) have a strong expertise on handlingand 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

infrmatin transfer, and the “Ozneweb” infrmatin system as a piltdemonstrating seamless, near real time (NRT), air quality information access

and dissemination. There are several institutes and organisations that are

Israel

http://www.chemicalweather.eu/http://www.chemicalweather.eu/http://www.chemicalweather.eu/http://air-climate.eionet.eu.int/http://air-climate.eionet.eu.int/http://www.chemicalweather.eu/


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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 authoritiesresponsible for environmental issues, universities, research centres, and the

NMS’s. They als have the respnsibility f infrming the public n current aswell as on forecasted air pollution situation, and taking subsequent measures in

case of exceedances.

There are currently numerous local, regional and continental-scale AQFIS’s inEurope. Some prominent examples are the following: the EURAD modelling

system in Germany (Elbern et al. 2007, http://www.eurad.uni-

koeln.de/index_e.html), the PREVAIR consortium in France (Menut et al. 2005,

http://www.prevair.org/en/index.html), the “Yur Air-” system in England andWales (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 higher-

resolution 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. AEuropean 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

http://www.eurad.uni-koeln.de/index_e.htmlhttp://www.eurad.uni-koeln.de/index_e.htmlhttp://www.prevair.org/en/index.htmlhttp://www.prevair.org/en/index.htmlhttp://www.cerc.co.uk/YourAirhttp://silam.fmi.fi/http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/mm5/http://www.lmd.polytechnique.fr/chimere/http://www.airthess.gr/http://verde.lma.fi.upm.es/cmaq_eu/http://www.airviro.smhi.se/MATCH-AQ/maqshttp://www.airviro.smhi.se/MATCH-AQ/maqshttp://verde.lma.fi.upm.es/cmaq_eu/http://www.airthess.gr/http://www.lmd.polytechnique.fr/chimere/http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/mm5/http://silam.fmi.fi/http://www.cerc.co.uk/YourAirhttp://www.prevair.org/en/index.htmlhttp://www.eurad.uni-koeln.de/index_e.htmlhttp://www.eurad.uni-koeln.de/index_e.html


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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 NMS’s), envirnmental agencies, the bservatinand 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, ensembles-

eu.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

http://airnow.gov/http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/%20space/gmes/index_en.htmhttp://www.europa.eu.int/comm/%20space/gmes/index_en.htmhttp://gems.ecmwf.int/http://gems.ecmwf.int/http://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/TEM/XGTS/gts.htmlhttp://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/TEM/XGTS/gts.htmlhttp://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/TEM/XGTS/gts.htmlhttp://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/TEM/XGTS/gts.htmlhttp://gems.ecmwf.int/http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/%20space/gmes/index_en.htmhttp://www.europa.eu.int/comm/%20space/gmes/index_en.htmhttp://www.europa.eu.int/comm/%20space/gmes/index_en.htmhttp://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/http://airnow.gov/


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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; thisportal 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 qualityservices 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-fundedprojects, 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

http://www.apnee.org/http://www.gse-promote.org/http://www.ecmwf.int/http://www.atm.helsinki.fi/eucaari/http://www.eusaar.net/http://www.geomon.eu/http://www.geomon.eu/http://www.eusaar.net/http://www.atm.helsinki.fi/eucaari/http://www.ecmwf.int/http://www.gse-promote.org/http://www.apnee.org/


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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 compositiondata), and the dissemination of data and data products through user friendly

tools.

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

fore