The European Air quality dataBase

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This page provides a description and a link to a "The European Air quality dataBase" database that provides information needed when modeling exposure levels or performing exposure assessment.

Short description

The European Air quality dataBase - AirBase is maintained by the European Topic Centre for Air and Climate Change A total of 34 countries (until 2004) have reported air quality data to this monitoring network, including all from the European Union with 1320 sites across Europe. Most common pollutants reported are CO, NOx (NO and NO2), ozone, PM10, PM2.5, SO2 and TSP, with a minor number of countries also reporting on metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) and various organic compounds. Level of information is dependable of the year and country and data can be presented as statistics, raw data or meta-information. The statistics and raw data are shown either as a table or in a graph (where one can choose between daily or hourly values). Statistical values indicate annual mean, maximum, and the 50, 95 and 98 percentile values.

Link

http://air-climate.eionet.europa.eu/databases/airbase/

Long description

AirBase is a public air quality database system supplied by countries throughout Europe to the EEA (European Environment Agency). Its main task is to provide a large intercomparable and coherent database trying to eliminate gaps and overlap that existed in previous EU databases such as APIS (Air Pollution Information System; air quality data) and GIRAFE (meta-information on air quality networks and stations). A total of 34 countries (until 2004) have reported air quality data to this monitoring network, including all from the European Union (who are obliged to report according to the guidelines developed under the Commission Decision 97/101/EC and its Annex 2000/752/EC on the EU Exchange of information of ambient air measurements), the EEA member countries and some EEA candidate countries.

Although there are raw data on black carbon reported from one site as far back as 1968, most sites have been supplying data for less than 10 years. By 1990 the number of reporting sites had reached 1000, this increasing to 1320 sites across Europe by 2004. Most common pollutants reported are CO, NOx (NO and NO2), ozone, PM10, PM2.5, SO2 and TSP, with a minor number of countries also reporting on metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) and various organic compounds.

AirBase provides information on

  • air quality data from a wide range of stations and pollutants, and
  • meta-information on the air quality monitoring networks and stations in 34 countries.

The data are freely accessible from the cited web page, through AirView , a web-application that allows you to query AirBase and visualise air quality data. One needs to download this application into your PC the first time, after which one is presented with a new window where the amount of information required needs to be selected. To do this one needs to select:

  • name of the country/ies,
  • pollutants or parameters measured
  • type of area (urban, suburban or rural), and
  • type of station (traffic, industry or background)

To obtained the air quality data selected it is possible to choose between presenting statistics, raw data or meta-information. The statistics and raw data are shown either as a table or in a graph (where one can choose between daily or hourly values). Statistical values indicate annual mean, maximum, and the 50, 95 and 98 percentile values as well as the number of exceedences of the recommended value for a specific contaminant that specific year.

The main success of the AirBase database is the large amount of data available. As mentioned previously the information system contains a web-application to facilitate free access to all the information contained in the database (AirView). Data shown can be exported either as CSV or as XML files, and afterwards be manipulated using XML compatible applications, such as web browsers and MS Excel (XP), where the information can be organised more easily.

Bearing in mind the amount of data available in this database, the programme is very fast and easy to access and work with. On the other hand the manipulation of such a vast amount of information is inevitably time consuming, even if the webpage offers you a guidance document (pdf) explaining the XML (metadata) and ASCII (raw data) file structures, and how to interpret and import them into excel columns. Files available are generally very large, and therefore are presented as .zip files, taking in many cases a long time to be downloaded (e.g. Germany, XML file 4.5 Mb, ASCII file 217 Mb). A detailed description about how to manipulate the data can be found on this site (Guidance document): http://air-climate.eionet.europa.eu/databases/airbase/airbasexml/index_html

Regional coverage

Europe: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia FYR of, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom

Keywords

nitrogen dioxide, NO2, nitrogen monoxide, NO, ozone, O3, PM, particles, particulate matter, TSP, total suspended particles, PM2.5, PM10, black smoke, sulfur dioxide, SO2, carbon monoxide, CO, VOCs, volatile organic compounds, metals, arsenic, cadmium, lead, nickel, manganese, strong acidity, outdoor air, urban, suburban, rural

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