EEA and Airparif aim to cooperate on air quality information
Airparif is in charge of air quality monitoring in and around Paris and has made a considerable effort to make its information publicly available through the web. Prof. Jacqueline McGlade says that Airparif's public information service is among the very best of its kind in Europe. Partly for this reason, Airparif is seen as an excellent partner for the EEA in connection with the Agency's growing In Your Neighbourhood project, that will enable people to find information about their local environment through a map-based internet service.
Airparif director Philippe Lameloise confirms that though the concrete details need to be fleshed out, the organisation is very positive about developing such an information-sharing cooperation with the EEA.
See for more information on air quality monitoring in and around Paris:
Airparif presented their air quality information system at a workshop on real time air pollution data exchange and forecast in Europe held on 7-8 April 2005 (at EEA). This successful first joint EEA/EUMETNET workshop attracted about 50 participants, from National Meteorological Services (NMSs), National Environmental Agencies (NEAs), the European Environment Agency (EEA) and its European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change (ETC/ACC), the European Commission (DG Environment and JRC), EUMETNET (Working group on environment), GEMS (Global Earth-system Monitoring using Space and in-situ data), PROMOTE (PROtocol MOniToring for the GMES Service Element) and various regional/local organisations. Also the US Environmental protection agency (US EPA) participated.
The workshop agreed on the the need for improved up-to-date information on air pollution for the public and for data exchange on real time monitoring and forecasting at the European level. EUMETNET and EEA will jointly prepare a proposal for a plan for a European real time and forecasting information network, incorporating the main conclusions from the workshop and building on existing systems. For EEA this is a key part of the "in your neighbourhood project". A next joint workshop is proposed to be held in autumn 2006. See for more information on the outcomes of the workshop and further background information as well as all presentations: