Urban Air Pollution Around the World

Two interesting blogs and a website for all issues cocnerning atmospheric pollution can be found at urbanemission.blogspot.co.uk/ , aipollutionalerts.blogspot.co.uk/ and at urbanemissions.info/ . All of these sties are run by Sarath Guttikunda from New Delhi. An important aspect of these sites are reports from all over the globe concern atmospheric pollution in urban areas. The reports highlight that atmospheric pollution is a global issue, a world-wide problem that needs action. Taking action, however, requires information that can inform decision-makers about the extent of the problem. These sties also provide this by linking through to monitoring information from urban areas from around the world. These sites also highlight that local populations, communities and neighbourhoods, are not just passively sitting there waiting for decision-makers to make decisions. The volume of reports and community awareness show the concern and impetus for changes driven by the local-level certainly exists. Enabling those changes is another issue that is dependent on local conditions and their context, political, economic and social. The information and data provided by these websites, however, does permit individuals and communities from all over the world to compare their conditions with others in similar circumstances and to exchange ideas and plans for pressuring decision-makers for change.

The Urban Emissions website is worth a look as well for the modelling tools that are available for download. An interesting one, given my last blog, is the Air Quality Indicator download. This simple calculator helps you work out the air quality for an urban area based on daily observations or modelled values. It does, of course, assume that the data will be available in the first place!