The Geospatial Web

Peter A.M. de Smet • Jan Horálek • Bruce Denby

An air quality information system should offer the most complete information about air quality in a given region. AirBase contains thousands of monitoring stations across Europe, but the density varies across regions. For both public information and assessments of the exposure on human health and ecosystems, which are important indicators for air quality policy developments, the situation between stations should be known. Traditionally, assessment is based on monitoring data, but information in between stations requires accurate interpolation methods. This chapter reviews, examines and applies interpolation methodologies with special attention to the differences between urban/suburban and rural data. The methodologies are applied to ozone and PM10 indicators. Maps of annual average PM10 are shown to illustrate the recommended methodology in obtaining integrated rural- and urban-scale maps for Europe.