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First 6 - Monthly Concise Policy Progress Report
“Air Quality Communication with a Focus On the AQI”
Project Co-ordinator
Lisa Blyth Project Co-ordinator Atmospheric Modelling Group, VITO Mol, Belgium Email: [email protected] Tel: (+32-14) 33 67 57
Deputy Co-ordinator
Lei Yu Assistant Director Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R.China Email: [email protected] Tel (+86-10)84949507-801
www.ecegp.com
Page 1 of 70
EU - China
Environmental Governance Programme
Improving air quality information systems and
communication and awareness tools in pilot
cities of China to enhance public access to
environmental information and environmental
governance (AirINFORM)
FINAL REPORT
April 2015
Final Report
Contract Number DCI-ASIE/2012/299-560
Name of Beneficiary: Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek N.V. (VITO)
(Flemish Institute for Technological Research) (Belgium)
Contact Person: Ms. Lisa Blyth
Title of the action
Improving air quality information systems and communication
and awareness tools in pilot cities of China to enhance public
access to environmental information and environmental
governance (AirINFORM)
Location of the action China - Yangzhou City, Urumqi City, Taiyuan City.
Partners:
DCMR Environmental Protection Agency Rijnmond (DCMR) (the
Netherlands)
Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning (CAEP)
Urumqi City Environmental Monitoring Station (UEMC)
Shanxi Academy for Environmental Planning (SAEP)
Yangzhou Environmental Monitoring Central Station (YEMC)
Beijing Antipollution Environmental Engineering Co. (AP)
Beijing LIBOVITO Environmental Technology Co. (LIBOVITO)
Final beneficiaries &/or
target groups Pilot city EMC, EPB’s and neighbouring provincial/city EPB’s
Action Period 1 November 2012 to 31 October 2014
Final Report
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
1. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ______________________________________________________ 4
2. LIST OF FIGURES _____________________________________________________________ 5
3. LIST OF TABLES ______________________________________________________________ 6
4. ASSESSMENT OF IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTION ACTIVITIES __________________________ 7
4.1. Executive Summary of the Action _____________________________________________ 7
4.2. Activities and Results ______________________________________________________ 11
4.2.1. WP1: Co-ordination & Visibility ___________________________________________ 11
4.2.2. WP2: Air Quality Information Systems Review and User Consultations ____________ 16
4.2.3. WP3 Implementation of Air Quality Information Systems ______________________ 26
4.2.4. WP4 Development of Communication Tools _________________________________ 37
4.2.5. WP5 Dissemination & Policy Support _______________________________________ 48
4.4. Assessment of the results of the Action _______________________________________ 54
4.5. What has been the outcome on both the final beneficiaries &/or target group (if
different) and the situation in the target country or target region which the Action
addressed? ____________________________________________________________________ 58
4.6. Please list all materials (and no. of copies) produced during the Action on whatever
format 60
4.7. Describe if the Action will continue after the support from the European Union has
ended. Are there any follow up activities envisaged? What will ensure the sustainability of
the Action? ____________________________________________________________________ 63
4.8. How and by whom have the activities been monitored/evaluated ? Please
summarise the results of the feedback received, including from the beneficiaries. __________ 65
4.9. What has your organisation/partner learned from the Action and how has this
learning been utilised and disseminated? ___________________________________________ 69
5. SUPPORTING MATERIAL _____________________________________________________ 70
5.1. DELIVERABLES ___________________________________________________________ 70
Final Report
4
1. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AP Beijing Antipollution Environmental Engineering Co.
API Air Pollution Index
AQ Air Quality
AQI Air Quality Index (New Chinese version)
AURORA Chemical Transport Model: Air quality modelling in Urban Regions using
an Optimal Resolution Approach
http://pandora.meng.auth.gr/mds/showlong.php?id=167
CAEP Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning
CNEMC China National Environmental Monitoring Centre
CTM Chemistry Transport Model
DCMR Environmental Protection Agency Rijnmond (The Netherlands)
EPB Environment Protection Bureau
EGP China Environmental Governance Programme
EMC Environmental Monitoring centre
LIBOVITO Beijing LIBOVITO Environmental Technology Co.
MEP Ministry of Environment Protection
NiLU Norwegian Institute for Air Research
NO2 Nitrogen Dioxide
NRT Near Real Time
OPAQ Operational Prediction of Air Quality tool
OVL Neural network (NN) based time series forecasting model
O3 Ozone
PM2.5 Particulate Matter less than 2.5µm in diameter
PM10 Particulate Matter less than 10µm in diameter
PPAB Partnership Project Advisory Board
RIO Spatial interpolation model
SAEP Shanxi Academy for Environmental Planning
SO2 Sulphur Dioxide
VITO Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek N.V. (VITO) (Flemish
Institute for Technological Research)
WP Work package
YEMC Yangzhou Environmental Monitoring Central Station
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2. LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Left: AQI Workshop on 17th October 2013 where Mr. Ruibin Wang and Mr. Sef van
den Elshout discussed the AQI communication recommendations. Right: Screenshot of the
AQI Calculator .......................................................................................................................... 18
Figure 2 Schematic overview of the air quality management system. ................................... 23
Figure 3 : Generic conceptual design for the OPAQ framework. ............................................ 24
Figure 4: Screenshot of the public information page for the city of Yangzhou, showing above
SO2 daily averaged concentrations for 24/01/2014. .............................................................. 25
Figure 5 : Generic breakdown of the tasks involved in the development and deployment of
the OPAQ framework. ............................................................................................................. 29
Figure 6 OPAQ Clean-Up Tool .................................................................................................. 30
Figure 7 : RIO trend function optimisation tool (top) and RIO configuration tool (bottom) . 31
Figure 8: Screenshots of the OPAQ Maps (Prototypes) for the NRT (left) and forecasted
(right) AQ information at Yangzhou ........................................................................................ 33
Figure 9: Screenshot of the public information page for the city of Chengdu for 22/5/2014
displaying the AQI values and link to the next 3 day forecasts. .............................................. 40
Figure 10: Above screenshot of the public information page for the city of Yangzhou,
showing PM2.5 averaged concentrations for 8/01/2015 and below a screenshot of the login
page for YEMC staff to assess the OPAQ results. .................................................................... 41
Figure 11 Left A screenshot from the first of the 3 AirINFORM Films. Right: One of the
cartoons being shown on an Electronic Information Boards in Yangzhou. ............................ 42
Figure 12 Top left Article on accessing AQ Information. Top right: Local school children on
the roof of the monitoring centre to learn about air quality measurements Bottom left:
Project Details at YEMC entrance for visitors. Bottom right: some local residents learning
about air quality via the AirINFORM movies ........................................................................... 43
Figure 13 Left Volunteers at Taiyuan University of Science and Technology ready to speak to
students. Right: AirINFORM cartoons were played in shopping malls ................................... 45
Figure 14 Top left Article on UEPB website Bottom left: distribution of air quality
information to the public Right: AirINFORM air quality information booklet ........................ 46
Figure 15 Top left 1Conference photo of organizers of Sino-EU Air Quality Improvement
Technology Forum Bottom left: Yangzhou workshop ............................................................. 50
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3. LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Overview of the Initial Consultations and Capacity Building Workshops................... 34
Table 2 Overview of Questionnaire Survey ............................................................................. 37
Final Report
7
4. ASSESSMENT OF IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTION ACTIVITIES
4.1. Executive Summary of the Action
In China the health impact from air pollution is estimated in 2010 to have contributed to
about 1.2 million premature deaths and 25 million healthy years of life lost according to a
report published by the Global Burden of Disease project (source
http://www.healtheffects.org/international.htm). In recent years, the increased public
outcry concerning the serious air pollution problem and their concerns of the lack of public
disclosure regarding air pollution data has forced the Chinese government to ramp up its
efforts to tackle the alarming situation.
In the “12th Five-Year Plan on Air Pollution Prevention and Control in Key Regions”, the most
polluted regions are obliged to establish air pollution “Advance Warning and Emergency
Response Systems” and from 2012 to publish timely information on the air quality according
to the revised national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) (GB3095-2012). However to
this day, many of these regions and their provincial capitals still lack adequate operational
air quality monitoring and warning systems to provide credible and reliable information, to
allow them and their citizens to take appropriate measures during high pollution episodes.
Considering, as published on the Chinese Ministry of Protection’s website, that only eight
out of China's 74 biggest cities met the new NAAQS in 2014, this is not comforting news.
Lack of suitable resources, the necessary know-how, and information and support about
what types of systems are available has prevented compliance.
The core goal of the AirINFORM project was to help improve the air quality information
systems and public awareness tools in the project’s pilot cities to enhance public access to
environmental information. The project was located in three pilot cities: Yangzhou, Taiyuan,
Urumqi, which are located in regions stipulated in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) and
thus obliged to improve air quality (AQ) and set up AQ warning systems during the 5 year
period.
At the start of the project numerous stakeholders consultations were undertaken in order
to evaluate the existing AQ information and disclosure systems, and to ascertain the
expectations of the stakeholders concerning the core objectives of the project which where:
Evaluation of the revised Chinese AQI (HJ633-2012, on trial) and existing air quality
information systems
Implementation of a state-of-the-art web based air quality information system based on
EU expertise
Development of communication and awareness tools to improve public understanding
and encourage participation in air quality issues; and,
Dissemination and demonstration of the air quality information system to other Chinese
cities and provision of policy recommendations to the Ministry of Environmental
Protection (MEP)
Feedback from the consultations was used to prepare the design report for the air quality
information system that would be developed. Considering the short project duration, the
goal was to use existing EU technologies and experience, and to build on the existing air
quality forecasting test model established at Yangzhou EMC before the project started. So
Final Report
8
that hopefully by the end of the project an operational version would be running at
Yangzhou EMC as a demo case. Considering the needs of the Chinese pilot cities, and the
2013 National Airborne Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan that was released
during the action period, it was decided to expand the design to include not only forecasting
but also other essential elements of air quality management (e.g. emission source
assessments, impact of emission reduction scenarios). Although the actual system
established still only focuses on the monitoring (near-real time monitoring data & maps) and
forecasting parts as originally planned and also requested by the stakeholders.
Based on the stakeholder feedback and driven by the lack of good (emissions) data, it was
decided to switch to a statistical based forecast modelling system (rather than building on
the existing chemical transport based forecasting test model established at Yangzhou),
which makes use of the limited input data that is available. Furthermore, the skills and costs
required to run such models compared to the complex chemical transport forecasting
models are less. But most importantly their performance is comparable, and even better for
high pollution episode forecasting than more complex chemical transport models. The
system developed for AirINFORM is called OPAQ, an ‘Operational Prediction Air Quality’
system.
The performance of air quality models are directly related to the quality of the input data.
Although the data collection task was made a little easier by the models switch, it was still
one of the most challenging and time consuming tasks. The models used need historic
measurement data, local meteorological data and some proxy data, such as land use data.
Although acquiring the former was easy as this data is controlled by the EPB themselves the
quality of this data was not always good. The rest of the input data had to be obtained
either from open source or bought from other governmental institutes which is not always
evident. In the end we used the best available open source data we could get.
Once the first set of decent data was available, the models could be configured. This
entailed a number of challenges that had to be overcome to adapt the models (OVL1 and
RIO2) to suit the Chinese situation. Since the quality of the input data was a concern, user
friendly optimisation and quality control and time series clean-up tools were developed.
These proved to be invaluable tools to show the end users how ‘poor’ their data was. They
also helped simplify the model set-up step for the Chinese implementing partner, LIBOVITO.
Alongside development of the tools, the OPAQ framework itself had to be built.
The next task was implementation of the newly adapted models within the OPAQ
framework for Yangzhou and other interested cities. This entailed intensive capacity training
for both LIBOVITO and the staff at Yangzhou monitoring centre. Due to the system’s ease of
use, an application can be configured in less than 3 months which includes the learning
period to obtain optimal performance. This is considerably shorter than the systems based
1 OVL is a statistical model for forecasting high particulate matter concentration episodes using
machine learning techniques (Hooyberghs et al, 2005)
2 RIO is a spatial interpolation model (Janssen et al, 2008)
Final Report
9
on CTMs, and at a much lower cost. During the project action, OPAQ was established for the
Environmental Monitoring Centres in Yangzhou, Jinan, Tianjin and Chengdu.
In tandem with the air quality system development, capacity workshops were held at all of
the pilot cities, to share examples of urban air quality management and communication in
the EU, and to share technical exchanges on setting up air quality management systems. In
late 2013, the National Airborne Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (2013-2017)
was released. Alongside this many provinces announced their own Clean Air Action Plan for
the next five year period (2013-2017). As a result, some of the proposed actions were topics
of discussion at the various workshops.
Another key task was the evaluation of the revised Chinese AQI (HJ633-2012 on trial). The
evaluation investigated not only how the AQI behaves technically but also how it works as a
communication tool. The key findings were presented during a communication workshop
(17th October 2013) and are published in three separate documents. One of the key
recommendations, advising to move from a 24hour average to an hourly Particulate Matter
(PM) averaging time, confirmed what a few provincial and municipal EPB’s had already
observed in practice. During the project period CNEMC issued a notification on the AQI,
recommending reporting the hourly PM averaging values. As part of this task, an interactive
online AQI comparison tool was made. This educative tool (AirINFORM AQI Calculator) helps
them understand the various AQI’s and the differences between them. It demonstrates
quite simply that there is not one single AQI.
The above tasks all aim at improving the AQ information that will be disseminated to the
public. The objective of the next work package was to ensure that this information is
communicated to the public in an effective, interpretable and visual way. To determine
what the baseline knowledge of the public was, an air quality questionnaire was prepared.
In total over 1000 questionnaires were distributed, providing some useful information of the
public’s knowledge and requirements regarding information on air quality.
This information helped to refine the public awareness campaign activities that were
carried out in the three pilot cities, led by a large campaign in the key pilot city Yangzhou.
The most significant sustainable communication tools created for the campaign were three
air quality information animation films which highlight the cause of air pollution in China,
where you can find information on air quality and what the government is doing regarding
air pollution.
During the initial public participation events the questionnaires were distributed directly to
the public allowing the project staff to interact one on one with the public and talk to them
about their air quality concerns and gather feedback. Later on, representatives from the
local communities and school children, were invited to the environmental monitoring centre
facilities of the pilot cities to see the air monitoring equipment and learn more about air
quality measurements and information.
All of the pilot city partners wrote articles for publishment in the local newspapers or on
their website information pages, to increase communication and dissemination of air quality
information to the public. In Yangzhou, YEMC in cooperation with Yangzhou TV produced
broadcasts aiming at encouraging public participation and openess of disclosure in
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10
environmental issues. Several broadcasts were also made by Yangzhou TV News covering
the establishment of the AirINFORM OPAQ forecasting system.
To ensure that this ‘Operational Prediction Air Quality’ (OPAQ) tool would be made
accessible to other Chinese cities, the tool was demonstrated at workshops that were held
at each of the pilot cities. These workshops were attended by representatives from the
individual districts and city EMC/EPB’s in each province as well as invited experts. As well as
the demonstration, implementation of the provincial and city action plans for air pollution
were high on the agenda.
Demonstrations have also been given to over 15 other cities in the provinces of Hebei,
Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuanand Inner Mongolia. Reaching well
outside our local partner provinces of Shanxi, Jiangsu and Xinjiang. These demonstrations
and the good word of recommendations from the early adopters of the system at Yangzhou
and Jinan have led to further uptake of the OPAQ system by the Environmental Monitoring
Centres in Tianjin, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nantong, Yancheng and Zibo (at the time of
wiriting).
For EGP one of the most important outcomes for the project was the preparation of policy
orientated report to be written by CAEP for the attention of the Ministry of Environment
Protection (MEP) and the EGP component 2 team. Preparation of this report was probably
one of the most challenging aspects of the project. Mainly because the core goal of the
project was not focussed on the evaluation of policy or preparation of policy, rather on
assisting the local partners with the practical implementation of some aspects of recent air
quality legislation. However we have done our best to try to provide some key
recommendations based on our project experiences in the three partner cities Urumqi,
Yangzhou and Taiyuan and from exchanges with policy representatives of the EGP Lot 2
team.
Finally to ensure dissemination of the project’s key results, Information on the project and
the core results of the project are available on the project website: www.airinform.com.
Final Report
11
4.2. Activities and Results
4.2.1. WP1: Co-ordination & Visibility
Task 1.1: Project Co-ordination
D1.1, all partners have signed and received an original signed copy of the Partner
Agreement. The original is in English. A Chinese translated copy was prepared and
provided to the Chinese partners.
D1.2, a successful KO meeting was held in Beijing on the 27th November 2012. As well
as the project partners, distinguished stakeholder representatives, Mr. Liu Ning, Director
(MEP), Mr. Bei Tao, Director-General (MEP) and Mr. Deng Zhigeng, Vice President of
CAEP, joined the introductory discussions. Mr. Deng Zhigeng presented an overview of
the recently approved 12th 5-year plan on air quality, which states that 117 cities in the
key regions (where our pilot cities are located) will be required to issue timely air quality
information to their citizens. He also emphasised the importance of the role of CAEP in
this project, which provides technical support to MEP on environmental policy.
D1.3, approximately every 6 months, partner meetings were held in China to monitor
and steer the progress of the project:
BI-ANNUAL PARTNER MEETINGS
Date Venue Partners in Attendance
20/03/2013 Yangzhou Airport
(due to long flight delay)
VITO, LIBOVITO, DCMR, CAEP
18/10/2013 CAEP Offices, Beijing VITO, LIBOVITO, DCMR, CAEP, YEMC
29/04/2013 Urumqi Hami Hotel VITO, LIBOVITO, CAEP, YEMC, UEMC
26/05/2014 SAEP Offices, Taiyuan, Shanxi VITO, LIBOVITO, SAEP
18/06/2014 LIBOVITO Offices, Beijing VITO, LIBOVITO
10/10/2014 Skylight Hotel, Beijing VITO, LIBOVITO, CAEP, YEMC, UEMC,
SAEP, DCMR
Depending on the needs (typically monthly), Skype calls were held with CAEP to oversee
the project progress and when necessary ‘technical’ progress calls were organised with
the other work package leaders.
D1.3/1.4 Reporting: quarterly reports were prepared for the EU-China project officers.
A list of the published and submitted reports are shown below:
26/02/2013 Quarter 1
25/06/2013 Quarter 2
02/09/2013 Quarter 3
Narrative Interim Report
10/04/2014 Quarter 5 (late due to delayed Interim Financial Report)
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12
23/05/2014 Quarter 6
03/09/2014 Quarter 7
No separate annual monitoring and evaluation reports prepared. Instead all the related
comments were summarised in the Interim Report and this annual report.
Task 1.2: Communications and Visibility
News reports: as WP lead of WP4 the awareness activities, Yangzhou EPB have produced
numerous articles in the “Yangzhou Daily”, “Yangzhou Evening News” and “Yangzhou Times”
to report on AirINFORM activities in Yangzhou and to promote the progress of the AQ
forecast information for the public in Yangzhou city. The partner SAEP published articles in
Shanxi Science and Technology News and Shanxi Daily, describing some of the workshops
and awareness activities that took place in Taiyuan. Further information on all these news
reports are available in the respective Public Awareness Deliverables D4.4 (§5.1) of both
SAEP and YEMC.
Two editions of project booklets: originally it was planned to produce two project booklets
as supplements of environment protection magazines. However instead, the pilot cities
focussed on producing their own materials and booklets for the awareness campaigns in
WP4. UEMC published in May 2014 an information booklet to distribute to the public during
the communication activities. It provides them with information on how air pollution
occurs, how it is measured, what the information means and disseminated. So that they can
better understand the air pollution and air quality in Urumqi city.
Project publications and reports: the core reports and deliverables (§7.1) of the project
have been passed to the key stakeholders, CNEMC, CAEP, the local partners and their
associate partners. In addition, links to the key deliverables have been made available on
the AirINFORM website under the Results page
(http://www.airinform.com/airinform_web/airinform_en/Results.html) and brief reports of
the workshops and key news worthy items have been posted under the news section.
As planned at the concept stage of the project the following publications have been
produced:
1. Stakeholder consultation report: Deliverable D2.1
2. Evaluation report of the revised Chinese AQI and comparison to international air
quality indices: Deliverables D2.3v7p1, D2.3v7p2, D2.3v3p3,
3. Web based air quality information system user manual: Deliverable D3.1
4. Air quality information booklets for the public; Deliverable D4.4v02_UEMC
5. Yangzhou awareness campaign booklet & DVD: Deliverable D4.4v04_YEMC
6. Published articles on the air quality information system in local newspapers;
Deliverables D4.4_Partnername
7. Air quality policy recommendations report for the MEP: Deliverable D5.3v13
We had also proposed to produce some guidelines on managing air quality information. This
was not done. Instead we spent more time that envisaged on the capacity building activities
Final Report
13
which included providing advice and guidelines on air quality management. Documentation
of any recommendations can be found in the policy report (D5.3) and in some of the
capacity building event minutes.
D 1.5 Bi-annual evaluation of communication & visibility publications (CAEP)
Every quarter, in preparation of the quarterly reports a review of the communications and
awareness activities took place. Most of the activities were put on hold until the animation
films were produced (Quarter 5 of the project). Thus most of these activities took place in
the final 2 quarters of the project.
Task 1.3: EGP Visibility Network Participation
Hereunder is a list of all the EGP events in which AirINFORM has participated in and provided
input for. At the EGP Annual National Conference in 2014, AirINFORM was one of the Lot 1
“Public access to environmental information” projects chosen to present their key policy
findings.
PARTICIPATION AT EGP EVENTS
Date Event Venue
29/11/2012 1st Meeting with EGP Lot 2 Policy Team to
ascertain expectations
EGP offices, Beijing
21/03/2013 EGP 2nd Annual National Conference Xi Yuan Hotel, BEIJING
22/03/2013 EGP 1st PPAB Meeting Xi Yuan Hotel, BEIJING
16/05/2013 EGP Annual Media Workshop Beijing
19/07/2013 European Environment Commissioner Mr.
Potočnik Visit
Beijing
27/03/2014 EGP Annual Media workshop Beijing Minzu Hotel
25/04/2014 EGP Policy Meeting with Richard Hardiman
and Dimitri de Boer to discuss the final policy
report
EGP offices, Beijing
19/06/2014 2014 EGP Annual National Conference Xinjiang Plaza, Beijing
20/06/2014 EGP PPAB Meeting 2014 and media event Xinjiang Plaza, Beijing
10/10/2014 C1-4 Policy Dialogue for Lot 1 Partnership
Projects
Hotel Nikko New Century,
Beijing
In the early stages of the project a visibility and communication plan was prepared and sent
to the EGP component 2 team. Since then throughout the project, material including
brochures have been given to Ms. Huijun ZHANG for input to the EGP website and several
articles have been prepared for the periodical newsletters.
In addition representatives from AirINFORM participated at some of the EGP media
workshops as detailed above. Various media groups were particularly interested in the topic
of our project: air quality communication and information. After the media events, further
Final Report
14
information was passed to one of the media companies for inclusion in an article. These
events helped to improve the visibility of the project but they did not lead to any noticeable
increased uptake in interests from other Chinese cities regarding the software being
developed within AirINFORM.
On the 29th November 2012 a short meeting was held at the EGP offices in Beijing with Mr.
Hans Buys and the EU-China EGP component two team to discuss their expectations from a
policy standpoint. At their request, 2*6 monthly policy briefs were prepared. These policy
briefs were sent to EU policy expert, Mr Philippe Bergeron and then later to Mr Richard
Hardiman, his replacement. The third policy brief expected around June 2014 was set aside
and all efforts were spent on the final policy brief that would capture all of the policy output.
More on this report is written under section 4.2.5.
Hereunder is a list of the policy brief and related case studies documentation:
Date Policy Brief Report
21/06/2013 First 6-Monthly Concise Policy Progress Report
“Air Quality Communication With Special Reference to the AQI” Task
2.2/ D2.3 Part I
16/12/2013 Second 6-Monthly Policy Progress Report
“Feedback From the Stakeholders on AQ Communication & the Use of
Air Quality Models To Inform On Air Quality”
25/03/2014 Final Policy Report
08/03/2014 Final Case Study Report
Task 1.4: Monitoring & Evaluation (VITO)
This task is a cross-sectional activity, in which the project co-ordinator oversaw the key
performance indicators of the project activities. The results may be summarised as follows:
Enhanced public participation: several (over 10) public participation events were
organised in each of the 3 pilot cities. Almost 1000 questionnaires were completed
during the events across the 3 cities, and EPB staff and students were on hand to
provide some useful information on the cause of hazy days and what the citizens can do
to help reduce the causes. Citizens and school children were invited to the monitoring
centres and mobile monitoring units to learn about what causes air pollution and how it
is monitored. About 50 people visited the Yangzhou monitoring centre during the
awareness events.
Local & central policy impact: the key policy recommendations within this project relate
to the recommendations by the Dutch partner, DCMR following the evaluation of the
revised Chinese AQI (HJ633-2012 on trial). As described further under this task 2.2, the
key relevant stakeholders at central level, were CAEP and CNEMC. They provided their
feedback at the AQI workshop held to disseminate the core results of the evaluation
tasks after year 1 of the project.
During the capacity workshops and the regional workshops, the local partners provided
feedback on the EU partner’s recommendations regarding the use of AQ models in AQ
management during the various discussions. Further regarding the performance of the
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15
OPAQ system itself, the testimonials in annex Error! Reference source not found.
demonstrate the confidence of the local partners in the system.
Uptake of air quality information system by local partners: following the first phase of
consultations during the first six months of the project, it was agreed that the air quality
system designed within the project, would only be established in Yangzhou and not in
either of the other two pilot cities. This was mainly because by the time the project
started, driven by new AQ legislation, these cities had already initiated procedures to
set-up their own AQ forecasting systems. Instead the system being set-up at Yangzhou
would be used as a demonstration case in which they could learn from, and would be a
basis for the technical exchanges during the capacity building workshops and also the
regional demonstrational workshops to other cities outside of our pilot area.
Number of neighbouring local partners interested in uptake of air quality information
system: thanks to the intensive demonstration campaign across China, the OPAQ system
has already been approved and installed in the Environmental Protection Bureaus of
Jinan, Chengdu and Tianjin. Demonstration versions have also being established in the
cities of Zhangjiakou, Chongqing and Shijiazhuang. Furthermore, due to the good
performance of these demonstration models, the favourable recommendations from
the Chinese National Monitoring Centre (CNEMC) and the early adopters of the systems,
demonstrations have been given to approximately another 15 cities in the provinces of
Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia.
Furthermore half way during the project the EU undertook their own assessment of the
project. During April 2014, Ms. Sheng Xiangyu visited the local partners CAEP in Beijing,
YEMC in Yangzhou and SAEP in Taiyuan.
In short it was stated that the AirINFORM “project is highly relevant and project design is
sound and has good impact at local level. The impact at national level is to be developed.
The visibility of the project is good, but it can be improved by enhancing its website. If more
training can be provided to local partners, it can help the sustainability of the project.”
Since that evaluation and in-line with the deliverables of the project, improvements were
made in the key areas mentioned:
1. The website was significantly improved to increase visibility and dissemination
2. LIBOVITO and VITO provided more technical training to the local partners
3. As explained in the main policy report (D5.3), establishing AQ monitoring and warning
systems requires very experienced staff. In contrast to the complex chemical transport
models which are typically at the core of these systems, OPAQ requires much less
expertise to operate
4. OPAQ has exceeded our expectations and regarding sustainability is already operational
in Yangzhou, Jinan, Chengdu and Tianjin. With demonstration versions being established
in the cities of Zhangjiakou, Chongqing and Shijiazhuang.
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Concerning the problem in reaching the right stakeholders at central level. This is still a
concern and we rely on CAEP and the EGP component 2 team to ensure that the outputs are
translated upwards to the relevant stakeholders.
4.2.2. WP2: Air Quality Information Systems Review and User Consultations
Task 2.1: Consultation with Stakeholders
The key stakeholders of the project are the AirINFORM Chinese partners and pilot cities:
Beijing Antipollution Environmental Engineering Co. (Antipollution)
Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning (CAEP)
Beijing LIBOVITO Environmental Technology Co. (LIBOVITO)
Urumqi City Environmental Monitoring Station (UEMC)
Shanxi Academy for Environmental Planning (SAEP)
Yangzhou Environmental Monitoring Central Station (YEMC)
And their associate partners:
Ministry of Environmental Protection of P.R. China (MEP)
China National Environmental Monitoring Centre (CNEMC)
Taiyuan Environment Protection Bureau (TEPB)
Yangzhou Environmental Protection Bureau (YEPB)
Urumqi Environment Protection Bureau (UEPB)
During the first year of the project, 3 sets (Phases I, II & II) of stakeholder consultations took
place. These consultations were carried out in China in November 2012, March 2013, May
2013 and October 2013. All of the key stakeholders were involved and often also the
associate stakeholders. The associate stakeholders of the three pilot cities also participated
in the consultations that took place within their city.
The key outcomes from these consultations have been published (in both English and
Chinese) in the consultations report (Ref: Consultation / User Requirements Report,
Deliverable 2.1 – Version 05) which was issued in July 2013. It presents an overview on
what AQ information systems the pilot cities currently have available (monitoring network,
measurement data, modelling tools, AQ management systems, tools to inform the public),
what they want to improve on, and what they expect from the AirINFORM project. Some
important conclusions from that report:
The pilot city EPB’s are required to set up ‘heavy pollution’ weather monitoring and
early warning systems. However many cities are still waiting for further concrete
guidance from central government on the what system types should be established.
The local EPB’s, (mid-sized cities) like to follow in the footsteps of the larger more
advanced cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. From the project’s perspective this
means that they want to establish their regional and city air quality forecasting and
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warning systems using an ensemble of models based on chemical transport models
(CTMs)
Not unlike many areas in the EU, critical input data to set-up these complex models at
local level, in particular certain emissions and proxy data was/is either missing or of poor
quality.
From the pilot city’s perspectives, the tools that will be developed within AirINFORM
should help the pilot cities to provide AQ information to their citizens which cover both
variability in time and space as well as providing alerts.
Considering the above, the project duration and the lack of experience of the local EPB
staff in running meteorological and CTMs (as well as staff in the other local EPB’s), it was
decided to develop the air quality forecasting part of the system that would be built on
data that is available and can provide a good forecast performance. This would be
based on statistical techniques and be implemented in the pilot city of Yangzhou.
Since we had a demonstrative CTM based forecasting service (based on VITO’s AURORA
model) already set-up but not operational at YEMC, we would still try to improve that
forecasting system.
Furthermore, this would provide a valuable opportunity to compare this forecasting
service to the service provided by the statistical model which would further highlight the
deficiencies. Also, in the long run an ensemble system with both numerical and
statistical models would be set-up in most cities.
UEMC were already running their own statistical model and wanted to learn and
compare theirs with the ‘Operational Prediction of Air Quality (OPAQ)’ system.
TEPB were already establishing their own numerical forecasting model and were eager
to learn more about how it is done in Europe.
For the AQI evaluation task, although measurement data was available, it was learned
early on that it would be difficult or even impossible to provide the data to the EU
partners due to data security issues.
The User Consultations also gave us an insight into the basic needs of the pilot cities
regarding AQ information and communication.
Using this information, the AQ information system design document (D2.4) was drafted.
The consultations report also provided valuable input to the pilot cities for consideration in
their communication and awareness campaigns that are described under WP4. In general
during the latter consultations from the autumn of 2013 until mid-2014, most of the
feedback received related to the pending awareness activities and how YEMC, VITO and
DCMR could offer support and guidance. Furthermore, the consultations in late 2013 and
2014 took the form of the capacity building workshops. More information on these is
available under WP3, §4.2.3.
The views and feedback from the stakeholders, in particular the central stakeholders such as
CNEMC were very important drivers for the AQI evaluation task which is discussed next.
Based on the consultations, it was decided to start the AQI evaluation process with a
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discussion paper to enable some important policy information to feedback to the EGP
component 2 team after 6 months.
CNEMC are also interested in the AQ system being designed under AirINFORM and indeed
VITO’s expertise in helping the Flemish government and the Flemish industries tackle the air
pollution problem. Over the project period they requested a demonstration on the
statistical forecasting component to evaluate it for their own uses. Now at the end of the
project they have informed VITO and LIBOVITO that they would like to include the model in
the new forecasting platform that they are establishing for China. VITO and LIBOVITO are
still in contact with CNEMC regarding. During the most recent communications it was
agreed that VITO would welcome a guest researcher from the forecasting department to the
air quality modelling department at VITO in Belgium for a few months in 2015 as part of a
technical exchange agreement.
Finally, it is worth noting that we have also discussed the proposed AQ information system
with many other stakeholders (other city EPB’s) outside the project as part of the
dissemination and demonstration work package 5, (§3.2.5). In these consultations and
demonstrations, the city EPBs have shared their requirements helping us to feed this into
further improvements of the system for Chinese cities. In total over the project period
about 18 cities in the provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Shandong
and Inner Mongolia have been visited and been shown the AirINFORM OPAQ system.
Figure 1 Left: AQI Workshop on 17th
October 2013 where Mr. Ruibin Wang and Mr. Sef van den
Elshout discussed the AQI communication recommendations. Right: Screenshot of the AQI
Calculator
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Task 2.2 AQI Evaluation:
The work in this task comprised a few different steps
a) Theoretical evaluation of the AQI and comparison of the AQI to other AQI-s; analyse
the AQI design in view of the communication objectives of the AQI.
b) Acquiring Chinese monitoring data to test actual AQI behaviour.
c) Test practical technical AQI behaviour and suggest improvements.
d) Make AQI calculators
A. Theoretical evaluation of the AQI
The revised Chinese AQI (HJ633-2012- on trial) was analysed from a communication
perspective. AQI-s are communication tools so apart from more technical evaluations this is
an important aspect to consider. To be able to this analysis a short introduction to air quality
communication and communication objectives was provided. Subsequently the current AQI
was analysed against this background and several recommendations were made. The
analysis and recommendations are presented in the deliverable “Air Quality Communication
with special reference to the AQI, Task 2.2 Part I”. The findings were presented during a
communication workshop (17th October 2013) that included national level staff (CNEMC as
stakeholder) as the AQI is a national level subject that cannot be altered at local (project
city) level. Recommendations included:
PM averaging times should be changed (note: we were not the only ones to recommend
this). This was partly implemented during the project.
The Chinese AQI resembles the US AQI; this is a source of confusion and controversy. If
the difference s between the Chinese and US AQI are increased this can be overcome.
The messages associated to the AQI are related to short term risk communication. The
Chinese air quality is currently not good enough for this to be a good communication
strategy; hence the current messages are not practical. This undermines the relevance of
the AQI as a communication tool.
Indoor air quality is usually as poor as outdoor air quality or even worse. Add
information on indoor air quality to the AQI messages.
Lastly it was observed that considerable AQI style air quality information is available on
the internet or as apps. This implies that the government has to make a big effort to get
their information and messages across to the public. They are in stiff competition with
some very well designed websites/apps.
In addition to the deliverable on AQ Communication (Part I), a separate document was
prepared “Air Quality Communication with special reference to the AQI, Task 2.2 Part II”
which provides background information on various types of AQI-s and their role in air quality
communication.
B. Chinese monitoring data
At the end of year one it became evident that it was not possible for project partners
(local/national) to provide some sort of access to monitoring data. Various constructions
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were explored but it turned out that using the live data feed from the CNEMC website was
the only option. Eventually this download was started via a third party and towards the end
of the second year a sufficiently large sample of un-validated data from all over China was
available for analysis. Apart from being un-validated it has another shortcoming: it is far
from complete. Due to the various intermediary real-time download steps data were lost.
Nevertheless we obtained a sufficiently large sample to draw conclusions on the AQI
behaviour.
C. AQI technical behaviour
Technical behaviour was tested by applying the AQI to Chinese monitoring data. This way
we compared the old Air Pollution Index (API) and the new AQI, as well as the Chinese AQI
and the US, Hongkong and two EU AQI-s. The findings are documented in the part III of the
deliverable D2.3 “AQI applied to Chinese monitoring data”.
It turns out that internationally the EU and Hongkong AQI-s rate China’s air quality as quite
poor. The Chinese and US AQI-s are somewhat more optimistic with the Chinese yielding the
lowest AQI readings. Compared to the old API the air quality is worse with the new AQI (as
expected).
The most important findings of this analysis deal with technical consistency of the AQI. We
studied the relation between the two PM pollutants and whether the AQI grid fits the actual
behaviour of the two pollutants. We discovered that there was room for improvement.
We also looked at the relation between the hourly and the daily AQI report. Currently they
produce very different results and this is not desirable from a communication point of view.
This issue is overwhelmingly related to the fact that hourly PM concentrations are measured
against a 24hour AQI grid. It is highly recommended to change this. Currently the
government has taken the first (important!) step in moving from 24hour average to hourly
PM readings but the second step (developing an hourly grid for PM) is still lacking.
Recommendations:
Develop an hourly PM grid (we recommended an hourly PM grid in D2.3 part III).
Make the AQI grids between PM10 and PM2.5 consistent with the frequency of their
occurrence (results given in D2.3 part III).
Change to an hourly grid for O3 as well. This will improve the timeliness of the AQI
information.
The changes proposed in D2.3 part III are relative to the existing daily grid. Implementing
these changes will not affect (on average) the official daily AQI report but will improve the
hourly information supply. More importantly they will avoid the occasionally very high
hourly PM iAQI-s that are not correct and a public communication hazard.
D. AQI calculators
A web based (java) calculator was made that allows people to input air quality data and get
the calculation results for a few AQI-s all at the same time. It is educational tool to make
people aware about air quality but it also highlights that there are many different AQI-s and
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it shows that there is not just ONE standard AQI (usually implicitly refers to the US AQI). All
AQI-s use different concepts and different pollutants and produce different results.
Problems encountered:
The local Chinese partners were originally supposed to provide actual measured (and
modelled if available) air quality data for use in the AQI evaluation study. This was
deliverable D2.2 ‘Database of air quality data from local partners (UEMC, YEMC, SAEP)’.
However, this was not possible as the data was not allowed to be given to third parties.
Several options were explored to overcome this problem. For example, the evaluation
spreadsheet was developed in such a way that calculations of summary statistics could be
done without the need to transmit Chinese data to a foreign expert. However this was also
not possible. In the end the only viable way to obtain relevant Chinese air quality data was
by using the live data feed from the CNEMC website.
The emissions inventory and ancillary data needed to establish the CTM at Yangzhou was
very poor. The demonstration test version that was established before the project started,
for which we hoped to build on during the project, was producing very poor results. The
only way to improve it was to provide a new detailed emissions inventory. However this was
way above the scope of the project. It is worth noting that there are task groups and
projects in China working on improving the emissions inventories. In addition, some current
European funded FP7 projects, such as MarcoPolo and Panda are also aiming at improving
the Chinese emission inventories.
Hence it was decided to develop a simple but effective ‘Operational Prediction of Air Quality
(OPAQ)’ system based on statistical techniques and measurement data which was available
and accessible to LIBOVITO.
Task 2.3 Design of the Air Quality System:
A. The Overall System Design
As explained under the consultations task 2.1, the consultations process resulted in some
very important conclusions in view of the development and implementation of air quality
information (with a focus on air quality forecasting) systems in the AirINFORM pilot cities
(Yangzhou, Taiyuan, and Urumqi).
This information was used to prepare the Design Report for the Air Quality Information
Systems for the Pilot Cities, Deliverable 2.4 – V04 which was completed in January 2014.
Feedback from consultations with both the end users and the implementing engineers that
took place after the design report was completed were taken into consideration during any
iterations of the ‘Operational Prediction Air Quality’ (OPAQ) software framework prototype.
The design report presents an overview of a comprehensive air quality management
information system based on both, the immediate AirINFORM user requirements and the
expected requirements in view of air quality management in the future. Thus it focuses not
only on air quality forecasting but also on tools for air quality management e.g. assessing the
source of a pollution or predicting the air quality for a year in the future based on certain
emission reduction plans. However, it is important to realize that it was not possible to
design and develop the whole system within the AirINFORM project. Hence in the report,
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after the basic description of the system (section 3.0) it clearly outlines in section 4.0 what
was being designed and developed within AirINFORM. One core requirement of the system
design was to make it as generic as possible to allow easy plug-in of those other components
that most probably will gain importance in the future.
The basic principles of system is based on the ATMOSYS air quality platform (demo:
www.atmosys.eu)3, developed in Europe. Put simply the system consists of three major
parts:
1. Front-end air quality management/monitoring dashboard, which is a web-based
visualization/control platform for air quality management.
2. Back-end components, which are the central driving elements of the system and provide
most of the monitoring, assessment, validation and analysis functionality of the
management dashboard. The core components are listed as follows:
a. System database, which integrates all data sources required;
b. Forecast and assessment components, which allow calculation of the current
and near future state of the air quality;
c. Decision support components, which provide support in deciding which
measures to take when problems with air quality occur.
3. Public information interface, which is the general public entry to the information that is
made available (based on EPB expert’s opinion) to the public.
3 ATMOSYS is a LIFE+ Environment Policy & Governance project co-financed by the European
Commission. The project ran from 1st September 2010 until December 2013
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Figure 2 Schematic overview of the air quality management system.
B. Design of the OPAQ Framework
An overview of the total air quality information system is given above. For AirINFORM we
have focussed only on the Operational Monitoring (assessing measurement data and
making near-real time maps) and Forecasting elements (producing air quality forecasts
based on statistical techniques), as requested by the stakeholders.
The core of which was the design and development of a new ‘Operational Prediction Air
Quality’ (OPAQ) framework which is intended to provide the EPB staff and the public they
have to inform, with reliable near real time and forecasted air quality data for 3-4 days
ahead. The basic idea behind OPAQ is to provide a standalone generic software framework
for producing near real time and statistical air quality predictions, that can also serve as one
of the core calculation kernels of any larger operational air quality service.
The statistical models that will be used for the air quality prediction calculations are based
on a number of operational air quality prediction models actively used by the Belgian
authorities for day to day air quality information dissemination to the public. These models
are RIO (Janssen et al., 2008; Hooyberghs et al., 2006), which is a spatial interpolation model
using a residual kriging technique with land use based information as proxy and OVL
(Hooyberghs et al., 2005), which is a neural network based time series forecasting model.
RIO is used to provide air quality maps based on air quality monitoring data, which can be
past, real-time or forecasted measurement data. Going forward we call these the OPAQ
models.
As well as the document Design Report for the Air Quality Information Systems for the Pilot
Cities, Deliverable 2.4 – V04, a separate comprehensive (confidential) design document was
prepared for the OPAQ framework. This document describes the conceptual and technical
design of the OPAQ “Operational Prediction of Air Quality” framework. In its most generic
form, the OPAQ framework looks as depicted in Figure 3 overleaf.
For the overall design the following key factors were taken into consideration:
- Modularity: importance to have all the components implemented as separate core
libraries without external dependencies to maximize their usability and their potential for
integration into more general air quality forecast systems.
- Genericity and extendibility: e.g. to ensure that existing algorithms can be integrated
easily into the framework.
- Ensemble prediction capabilities: should be able to run a number of different forecast
and mapping models in an ensemble in order to benefit from the strengths of each different
statistical modelling approach.
- Ease of configuration: Next to a set of low level library functions which encode the
mapping and the statistical forecasting algorithms, the framework will need to have a set of
user friendly configuration tools that will allow easier set-up in a new deployment.
In addition, the IT developer prepared a software architecture document: “Operational
Prediction of Air Quality (OPAQ): Software architecture (confidential)” which provides for
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the IT team, a clear overview of the software product that needs to be delivered. It begins
by describing the functional (models, data handlers, core workflow etc.) and non-functional
requirements, and then provides various architectural views (logical, development, process,
deployment) for the software.
Figure 3 : Generic conceptual design for the OPAQ framework.
C. Design of the User Interface
OPAQ is only the scientific kernel in a large air quality information system. Thus as shown in
Figure 3 above, a user friendly graphical interface (GUI) is required so that the users can
easily view the AQ maps (NRT and forecast), assess the raw data and evaluate the
performance of the system using the post processing tools.
For the AirINFORM system at Yangzhou, a front-end web service was designed by
Antipollution with some help from LIBOVITO and the staff at YEMC, which would act as a
dashboard or visualization/control platform. The key requirements were to enable the
YEMC staff:
to monitor the near-real-time air quality concentrations (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, O3, CO)
and AQIs on an hourly basis, and visualise the results on a map.
to monitor and visualise the forecasted concentrations - 72 hours ahead
to assess and download history forecasted data
The public would be shown the near-real-time air quality and forecasted AQI and pollutant
concentrations but would not have the analysis functions that YEMC have to assess and
download the historic data.
OPAQ core libraries
opaqMap
opaqForecast
opaqValidate
opaqPostProcess
DeployedOperational core toolsExpert
ConfigurationTools
Web service
Desktop GUI
…
Mo
del co
nfig
files
System config file (XML) : operational network, fc model, mapping model….
NN training…
Trend fitting…
. . .
Library for spatial interpolation…
Neural network library…
Interface library : ioHandler, AQ network representation, run manager…
Error/warning/log handler routines…
Model plugin handler…
Analysis routines, postproc…
…
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In Figure 4, a screenshot of the public part of the air quality dashboard of the air quality
management system for Yangzhou, developed by Antipollution is shown.
The on line website is available from this link:
http://218.91.157.58:8100/yz_airinform_web/cn/index.jsp
Figure 4: Screenshot of the public information page for the city of Yangzhou, showing above
SO2 daily averaged concentrations for 24/01/2014.
List of references
Hooyberghs, J., Mensink, C., Dumont, G., Fierens, F., Brasseur, O., 2005. A neural network
forecast for daily average PM concentrations in Belgium. Atmos. Environ. 39, 3279–3289.
doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.01.050
Hooyberghs, J., Mensink, C., Dumont, G., Fierens, F., 2006. Spatial interpolation of ambient
ozone concentrations from sparse monitoring points in Belgium. J. Environ. Monit. 8, 1129–
35. doi:10.1039/b612607n
Janssen, S., Dumont, G., Fierens, F., Mensink, C., 2008. Spatial interpolation of air pollution
measurements using CORINE land cover data. Atmos. Environ. 42, 4884–4903.
doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2008.02.043
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4.2.3. WP3 Implementation of Air Quality Information Systems
Task 3.1 Collection and Assessment of AQ Data
Air quality models require specific input data to provide the pollutant concentrations as
output.
As explained under task 2.4, the core of forecasting component is OVL, a Neural Network
forecasting model and RIO, an interpolation (Detrended Kriging) mapping model with uses
land cover information as covariate. The OVL model requires (i) historic and near-real-time
monitoring data, which was collected from the measurement network database of Yangzhou
Monitoring Centre and (ii) historic and forecasted meteo data, which was extracted from the
US NCEP Global Forecast system (GFS) by VITO and LIBOVITO. Ideally local meteorological
forecast data should be used. However this data is owned by the local meteorological
institutes and is not easily available. At the time of writing LIBOVITO together with
Yangzhou EMC have still not been able to get access to local meteo forecasts.
For the RIO model, land use/cover data is required. A good land use dataset needs to be
adequate and representative of the real situation (e.g. industrial areas noted in the correct
areas and up to date considering China’s rapid development). During the first configuration
LIBOVITO could only access an outdated Chinese land use dataset from 2001
(http://www.geodata.cn/Portal/metadata), which contributed to the poor performance of
the model. After several assessments it was decided to use Population density data instead
of land use data which was also downloaded from the same Chinese geodata website.
Recently local land use data was provided from Jiangsu Province Environmental Bureau for
use by YEMC but the model still has to be updated with this information.
The performance of air quality models are directly related to the quality of the input data.
During the configuration stage as described under the next task, the historic measurement
data is thoroughly assessed. In early 2013, the first set of historic measurement data was
obtained from YEMC for configuration of the statistical forecast model (OVL). However on
analysis of the data, it was found that the quality of data was poor (missing days, negative
values, outliers etc.) and there were many inconsistencies with the data being reported for
the city on the national monitoring site (Chinese National Monitoring Centre). It took
several iterations of testing the data using the data clean-up tools developed, and many
consultations with YEMC to try to establish the authenticity of the data and the source of the
inconsistencies (measurement station instrument itself, the recording devices, transmission
to the database or human error etc..). In the end new data was provided which was also
again thoroughly assessed and updated by YEMC after numerous consultations. This work,
which was part of the capacity building and technical training, took a lot more time and
effort that envisaged. However it shows how important this capacity building element was.
This process and the importance of good quality monitoring data was shared with the other
local partners during the subsequent capacity building and regional workshop
demonstrations.
As stated earlier (§4.2.2), we also decided to try to improve the CTM based forecasting
service already set-up Yangzhou. At that time, the performance of the model was low and
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the results were not acceptable for the client. Thus the following data was retrieved to try to
help improve the model:
Replaced the INTEX-B 2006 Asian Emissions with the newer emissions inventory for
China being developed by Tsinghua University - MEIC v1.0 emissions
(http://www.meicmodel.org)
Prepared fire emissions data
Performed a comparison of the MM5 model results against ECMWF data, which is
meteorological data available in Europe
Problems encountered:
As listed previously the accessibility of good reliable data was a problem for configuration of
the models and for evaluation of the AQI.
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Task 3.2 Configuration of the Modelling Tools
In the original proposal it was envisaged that software development would be minimal. That
most of the work would be in adapting the existing models for the Chinese situation. To aid
this adaptation it was decided to also develop a software framework that would streamline
and professionalise any further model (RIO, OVL…) developments and be able to manage
different statistical air quality prediction applications more efficiently.
Thus this task was split into 5 main sub-tasks as follows:
1. Clear definition of work between VITO and LIBOVITO
2. Development of the OPAQ framework
3. Adaptation of the scientific OPAQ models to the Chinese “environment” and integration
of the algorithms into the OPAQ software
4. Configuration of the numerical chemical transport forecasting model, AURORA at
Yangzhou.
5. The provision of capacity building during this task.
A. Definition of work between VITO and LIBOVITO
For efficient execution of this task and the following task 3.3, a clear task division between
VITO and LIBOVITO was defined. Hereunder is a broad overview of the division:
VITO were responsible for:
→ Development of the OPAQ framework
→ Development of the configuration tools for the prediction models
→ Adaptation and integration of the RIO & OVL models into the framework
LIBOVITO
→ Link to task 3.1: Check availability / search for local meteo forecasts & relevant land
cover data
→ Testing of the data
→ Set-up of OPAQ models for Yangzhou and any other demonstration cities (task 3.4)
→ Integrate the OPAQ models into the Yangzhou system and any other demonstration
cities (task 3.4)
→ Configuration of the numerical chemical transport forecasting model, AURORA at
Yangzhou with some technical support from VITO
Once the broad design concept was agreed, two VITO technicians visited LIBOVITO to
demonstrate the basic principles of the OPAQ framework (inclusive of the models and the
user friendly tools) to the LIBOVITO implementation team.
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Figure 5 : Generic breakdown of the tasks involved in the development and deployment of the
OPAQ framework.
B. Development of the OPAQ framework
The OPAQ framework is basically an abstract engine which enables the execution of various
statistical and machine learning prediction models which all make use of air quality
measurement data as well as meteorological forecasts. The framework is built around the
concept of a forecasting model ensemble and adequate ensemble post-processing in order
to yield better results than any of the individual statistical models. One of the first steps
after design of the framework was to translate it into generic computer code (OPAQ
software). As much as possible a modular approach was used, where different components
of the framework, such as data handlers, forecast model calculation components and air
quality network architecture providers, were implemented as plugins, deriving from abstract
interfaces in a fully object oriented approach. This task was done by an IT expert in
conjunction with the scientific air quality modelling expert who was in charge of the next
task.
Considering all the technical capacity building requirements and the efforts needed by the
scientific modellers to adapt the models to the Chinese environment and build the
optimisation tools, not enough time was leftover to finalize this task. Thus although an
operational demonstration-version has been developed it is still not 100% completed. The
final version should be ready for mid to late 2015 using some resources within another
project focussing on the RIO and OVL models. The execution of the project however did not
suffer from this delay. The OPAQ models installed in China were run as standalone
components, making the installation a little more cumbersome, but still operational. What
was most important in terms of development and sustainability of OPAQ was the next two
sub-tasks, which is where we dedicated most of our time in this task.
Design of OPAQ framework
Integration RIO mapping model
Integration of OVL/SMOGSTOP forecast model
Proxy data search and
analysis
Integration into AirINFORMInformation System
Development of OPAQ framework
Deployment for Chinese CitiesDevelopmentconfiguration
toolsVITO
LIBOVITO
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C. Adaptation of the scientific RIO, OVL models to the Chinese “Environment”
One of the tasks during the initial capacity building and technical discussions with LIBOVITO
was to assess what adaptations should be made to the existing models to suit the Chinese
situation. In other wards to handle issues with poor (proxy) data availability, rough terrain
and other specific conditions.
As a result user friendly optimisation tools were developed to aid and simplify the
configuration and implementation process of the models. These tools are used to configure
the OPAQ model components RIO and OVL. One of the key new tools developed is the
measurement data time series clean-up tool. It is used to clean-up the time series data
before it is use to train the various models. Given the inconsistency and poor quality of the
measurement data available and the requirement for good quality data to provide reliable
results, this tool was one the most important design aspects that resulted from
consultations with end users and the LIBOVITO engineers after the first design phase! The
clean-up tool allows to visualise time series of concentration data and flag/correct
measurements using a number of supervised and unsupervised algorithms such as: Gaussian
anomaly detection and a Hampel filter for outlier detection and removal.
Figure 6 OPAQ Clean-Up Tool
The other two key new optimisation tools (rioConfigTool, rioOptimizeGUI, depicted in the
figure below) were related to the mapping model, RIO which is used to spatially visualise the
near real time and forecasting results over the entire modelling domain. A first tool allowed
for user friendly setup of the RIO model parameter when using land use/land cover as a
proxy. Given the poor quality of land cover datasets available, this proved a very useful tool
to quickly investigate the feasibility of using land cover data to drive the RIO interpolations.
A second tool was a graphical user interface for setting up a RIO model on a new area, given
a spatial proxy. The tool allowed easy fitting of trend functions and a spatial correlation
model for mapping new pollutants/aggregation times.
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Figure 7 : RIO trend function optimisation tool (top) and RIO configuration tool (bottom)
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D. Configuration of the numerical chemical transport forecasting model, AURORA.
Ultimately we want to use both the statistical and deterministic (CTM) modelling techniques
to provide the air quality forecasting information. By evaluating both against each other it
could be used as a demonstration system (e.g. to the other pilot cities and beyond), to show
the advantages of one type over the other.
AURORA was already configured before the project started. However as inferred already,
the configuration was tweaked during the project to try to improve its performance. As well
as updating the input data, some modifications were made such as lowering the model
domain to increase the speed of the application’s performance. However, at the end of the
project the performance was still not good enough for YEMC and it was put on hold
primarily until better emissions data could be sourced, but also because further testing of
the operational forecasted meteorological data was required. This was also because most of
the efforts were put into the development of OPAQ and adaptation of the statistical models.
Now that OPAQ is running quite well, attention will be turned to try to improve the AURORA
results. One of the improvement options available is the use of simple data assimilation
techniques. Put simply, data assimilation techniques combine actual real-time measured
pollutant concentrations with the model results to obtain better estimates of the true
(unknown) concentration levels.
E. The provision of capacity building during this task.
The goal was to ensure that the Chinese implementing partner, LIBOVITO can configure the
operational models for other Chinese cities in the future with minimal support (or better
still none) from the EU implementing partner, VITO. Further that the Yangzhou technical
staff that will operate OPAQ and the other pilot partners’ technicians involved in air quality
forecasting, understand the basic principles of the models and how important the quality of
the data is. As described above various optimisation tools were developed to aid them in
this task and they comprise the bulk of the effort involved in setting up the operational
prediction models on a new domain. The actual capacity building is discussed further under
task 3.3.
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Task 3.3 Implementation of the Modelling Tools
Following on from the model development stage and adaptation task above, the next task
was implementation of the newly adapted OPAQ models for Yangzhou and any other
demonstration cities. This work took place from June 2013 until September 2014 and ran in
conjunction with the adaption of the models. During the project it was decided to focus
most of the development effort on the optimisation and user friendly setup tools, which
proved much more valuable to the Chinese partners. The roll-out of the overarching OPAQ
framework is still planned in order to deliver additional efficiency in the operational
deployment and configuration procedure of the models.
The first step was collection of the data from Yangzhou monitoring centre as described
under task 3.1. Early on in the process Yangzhou technical personnel received training for 3
days on the core aspects of the system. As implied under task 3.1 above, this took about 8
months due to the inconsistencies with the data. Various test model versions were set-up
until it was agreed on the final data set and model set-ups that would lead the best results.
By the end of September 2014, a final version of the models was established at YEMC.
In tandem with the data analysis and testing of various versions of the statistical models, the
graphical user interface was implemented at YEMC. This was done by LIBOVITO in close
contact with YEMC IT engineers. A screenshot of the visualisation of the NRT and forecasted
results for Yangzhou are provided below. This visualisation is based on the prototype
models running at Yangzhou.
Figure 8: Screenshots of the OPAQ Maps (Prototypes) for the NRT (left) and forecasted (right) AQ
information at Yangzhou
From early 2013 until now, LIBOVITO have also set-up various test demonstrations of the
statistical models for numerous other pilot cities. Four of these are providing forecasts for
the cities to inform the public on their air quality.
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Task 3.4 Capacity Building Workshops
Capacity building workshops were planned for the start and towards the end of the project.
The aim of the capacity workshops at the start of the project was twofold, firstly to present
EU examples of how AQ information is gathered and processed to suit various users (central
government, local government, general public, the media…) and secondly, to find out what
the various stakeholders expected from the project and the role they currently play in the
AQ information management process, particularly at local level. These workshops were
called the consultations phase workshops and are listed hereunder:
First Round of Consultations and Capacity Building Date & Location
User Consultations with pilot cities Yangzhou & Taiyuan November 28, 2012, Beijing
User Consultations with pilot city Urumqi November 30, 2012, Urumqi
Technical Review of First Consultations Feedback: Core
Implementation Partner Consultations
December 3, 2012, Beijing
Meeting with Associate Partner CNEMC March 18, 2013, Beijing
Follow up User Consultation with key pilot city Yangzhou March 19, 2013, Yangzhou
Core Implementation Partner Consultations March 21-22, 2013, Beijing
Table 1 Overview of the Initial Consultations and Capacity Building Workshops
An overview of the conclusions of these workshops is presented under Task 2.1 (§4.2.2) and
in Deliverable D2.1 Consultation/User Requirements Report.
As a result of these workshops, it was agreed that the air quality system designed within the
project, would only be established in Yangzhou and not in either of the other two pilot cities.
This was mainly because by the time the project started, driven by new AQ legislation,
Urumqi EMC and Taiyuan EPB had already initiated procedures to set-up their own AQ
forecasting systems. Instead the system being set-up at Yangzhou would be used as a
demonstration case in which they could learn from, and would be a basis for the technical
exchanges during the capacity building workshops and also the demonstrational workshops
to other cities outside of our pilot area.
The second set of workshops consisted of a key capacity event which was held at each pilot
city and various training and technical exchange workshops. The latter workshops are as
follows.
→ VITO to LIBOVITO: from month 7 of the project until the very end of the project
numerous (6) focussed technical capacity events were held to ensure transfer of the
technical knowledge from EU to China, via VITO to LIBOVITO.
→ LIBOVITO to YEMC: since Yangzhou was the only demonstration city, several training
events were planned with Yangzhou EMC staff from September 2013 until the end of the
project.
→ VITO/LIBOVITO to other interested local EPBs: by late 2013, other cities
(Jinan/Chengdu..) were also interested in the OPAQ tool for air quality forecasting.
LIBOVITO with VITO’s support provided some training
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Chinese cities are obliged to set-up and have operational air quality forecasting and warning
systems by 2017 and according to the 2013 Action Plan on Air cities located in hotspot areas
have to reduce their emissions significantly (5-25%). During the project, several technical
exchange workshops and visits were organized throughout the project to discuss these
topics and learn from the EU’s experiences.
→ Visit of YEMC Staff to Chengdu EMC (June 2014) to inspect the AQ forecasting
technology at Chengdu and exchange experiences
→ Visit of Beijing Monitoring Centre experts to UEMC to exchange experiences on
establishing air quality forecasting systems (4th July 2014)
→ Urumqi Monitoring Centre workshop with Xinjiang autonomous region environmental
monitoring centre and other Urumqi EPB technical personnel (July 1, 2014) to discuss
the air quality forecasting system model selection and development
→ Training of SAEP staff at Beijing University on modelling software
For the final capacity building workshops, one major capacity workshop took place in each of
the secondary pilot cities, Urumqi and Taiyuan.
Workshop & consultations with pilot city Taiyuan on October 15 & 16 2013
This workshop took place a year into the project. VITO, CAEP and Yangzhou presented
feedback on the project activities made to-date, so that SAEP and Taiyuan EPB could assess
and learn about the statistical models being used in OPAQ and exchange experiences of
setting up an AQ forecasting and warning system. Also to discuss the planned awareness
activities. As an action after the meeting VITO sent some EU examples of raising awareness
activities (car free days, demonstration days using the monitoring vans etc…) and links to
various EU projects with valuable information on this regard. This information was also sent
to the other two pilot cities.
Workshop & consultations with pilot city’s Urumqi and Yangzhou, April 29 2014 Urumqi
VITO presented a detailed technical presentation of the statistical models used in OPAQ,
including examples from Europe and China (Yangzhou & Jinan). Since this workshop was
over 6 months since the one at Taiyuan, more valuable results were available to share
concerning the practicalities of setting up the models at Yangzhou and the problems
concerning the data. The validation reports from the models running in Europe and also in
China were very interesting for UEMC. They are in the process of setting up the more
complex chemical transport forecasting models and would like to be able to compare both
the statistical and CTM’s. Several important recommendations were confirmed during this
visit that have fed into the final policy report.
Finally, meetings were also held at central level with the Associate Partner CNEMC on May
28 2013 and October 10, 2014 in Beijing. CNEMC is the body responsible for AQ information
at central level. These visits focused on the technical aspects of AQ monitoring and
modelling. CNEMC were very interested in how VITO and Europe assess air quality spatially
considering the limitations of air monitoring stations and the strong gradient variances in
concentrations across a city. As a result of these discussions, VITO and LIBOVITO have and
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will continue to provide support to CNEMC on air quality information issues. Furthermore,
CNEMC are very interested in investigating the possibility of installing the OPAQ system on
their new air quality forecasting platform which is being established.
Some further details of all the workshops are given in the deliverable, D3.3 Capacity Building
Report. In the project expected outputs it was written that we would produce “Training
toolkits and 1 training course for local EPBs and other related stakeholders on how to
interpret and act on the information generated by AirINFORM”. No standard toolkit was
provided for the local partner EPB’s, or the stakeholders mentioned above. At each of the
training events, the attendees were provided with training materials and for the technical
trainings at Yangzhou and Jinan who implemented OPAQ, manuals were provided on how to
operate OPAQ and interpret the information.
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4.2.4. WP4 Development of Communication Tools
Task 4.1 Communication Strategies
To ensure that the AQ information generated by the local partners is communicated to the
public in an effective, interpretable and visual way, an air quality communication strategy
was being developed for the key pilot city, Yangzhou. This strategy can also be considered
as an campaign to raise awareness of air quality issues amongst the public in the city. This
strategy (plan) and the experiences of Yangzhou were shared with the other pilot cities so
they can set-up their own campaign, albeit at a smaller level.
A first version of the communication plan for the key pilot city, Yangzhou was published in
August 2013, (Ref: Communication Plan Report, Deliverable 4.1v03). This plan was
reviewed in October 2013 during the local partner and stakeholder consultations, during
which it was decided that for the local stakeholders a small animation film would be more
effective and sustainable compared to a once-off TV broadcast. What was carried out for
the plan is detailed further on under the task 4.3.
Before proceeding with the key communication events, it was important to determine the
public’s current knowledge and awareness of Air Quality and how AQ information can be
accessed in the city. As a result Yangzhou prepared an air quality questionnaire that was
also given to the other pilot city partners of UEMC and SAEP, for distribution. In total almost
1000 questionnaires were distributed as detailed in the table below.
City Target Group Questionnaires
Distributed
Completed When Deliverable
Yangzhou Public at
supermarket,
and University
students
200 154 July to Sept
2013
“Awareness
Campaign
Evaluation
Report”, D4.4 V01.
Taiyuan University
students; public
at shopping
mall and at
home
(residential)
570 554 (537
validated)
June 2014 D4.4 / D4.5 Local
Partner Awareness
Activities (SAEP).
Urumqi Retired EPB
staff and public
200 160 May & June
2014
D4.4 / D4.5 Local
Partner Awareness
Activities (UEMC).
Table 2 Overview of Questionnaire Survey
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Some conclusions gathered regarding the questionnaire issued initially by Yangzhou in 2013
and the survey process are as follows:
1. Some parts of the questionnaire were too technical. To assess how much the target
group knew about air quality, they asked some questions about PM10 and the AQI, which
was clearly much too technical for the readers. As a result, these questions were altered
for the campaign in 2014 at Taiyuan.
2. Guidance on the preparation of questionnaires and indeed AQ communication in
general and raising awareness is required. This was a focus of the AQI workshop given
on the 17th October 2013
3. The public needed to be enticed to participate in the surveys – gifts had to be
purchased.
4. As a result it was not possible to get a broader cross section of the public and thus the
opinions of many university students were only captured
5. The questionnaire was multiple choice. Sometimes not enough varied options were
available.
6. If would be advisable if this campaign was repeated at national level to hire
communication experts with experience in surveys and humour behaviour to set up a
web based survey that would allow the extraction of more relevant information
On the 17th October 2013, the results of the questionnaire survey carried out at Yangzhou
were shared with the stakeholders during the “AQ Information Tools for Local Chinese Cities
Workshop” held in Beijing. The conclusions drawn fed into the upcoming awareness
campaigns in all 3 pilot cities and were used to produce adapted questionnaires for the
other local partners. Please read the “Awareness Campaign Evaluation Report”, for further
information. In general, it has given YEMC more understanding of the public’s knowledge
and requirements regarding information on Air Quality.
The general key findings of the campaign across the 3 cities (based mainly on SAEP and
YEMC results) may be summarised as follows:
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Contents Results Comments
Public’s concern
of AQ
Most people pay attention to the
air quality especially on hazy days.
Concern was directly related to
educational levels →higher
educated = more concern about
the air quality. Mostly concerned
about the impact on their health →
respiratory problems as main
health problem
In general the public are concerned and
anxious about the effect on their health.
They need to be informed on what is
happening to reduce the air pollution
and told how they can help (e.g. not
using their cars on heavy pollution days )
Knowledge
about AQ
This varied and is bias as in general
a larger % of higher educated
(university students) participants
filled in the questionnaires.
Very little knowledge as expected on the
technical terms (PM10, AQI etc) used.
Clear message that the information
needs to be very simple to understand.
Red = unhealthy etc.
Main causes of
urban air
pollution
In decreasing order: car exhausts,
industrial emissions, waste
incineration, cooking (roadside),
general roadside dust and coal
Only the first three were given as
options for the YEMC survey. So not
clear if the public are aware of these
sources without the choices being given.
How to improve
air pollution:
In decreasing order: plant more
trees, greener travel, reduce
private cars usage
EPB’s need to educate the public
regarding pollution prevention & the
causes - pollution source
prevention/reduction is better than
mitigation measures
How to access
AQ information
In decreasing order : Internet, TV,
Smartphone, Newspaper, Other
Need to ensure all communication
channels are used but with high focus on
fast information channels via internet
What is the
media’s role in
communicating
AQ information
In Yangzhou 73% felt that the
media was helpful, whereas in
Taiyuan this was less than 50%
Media information comes from various
data sources. EPB’s should ensure their
message reaches the public & that the
differences with other data sources are
clear to prevent public distrust
Is the local AQ
information in
line with your
perception of it
In Yangzhou just over 50% agreed,
whilst in Taiyuan only 17%.
Ensure that the daily AQ information is
accurate; clearly inform the public of the
differences between reality and the data
(eg daily AQI instead of hourly; emission
source not accounted in model)
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Task 4.2: Development of customised, interactive web pages for each pilot city
Under WP3, it was pointed out that a graphical user interface would have to be developed
to visualise the results of the air quality information. As explained under task 3.3 the
partner AP developed web pages for Yangzhou as well as new acquired cities Chengdu
(OPAQ website: http://111.9.44.173:8800/cd_opaq_web/) and Tianjin (OPAQ website:
http://60.28.63.210:8080/tj_opaq_web/cn/firstDay.jsp).
All of these interfaces are running and being shown to the public. Yangzhou Environmental
Monitoring Centre report daily forecasted AQI values to the public up to 3 days ahead for
the 6 key pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, O3, CO)
http://218.91.157.54:8100/yz_airinform_web/cn/index.jsp. As explained before, the web
pages were only developed for Yangzhou not the other 2 AirINFORM pilot cities as they were
establishing their own systems.
Figure 9: Screenshot of the public information page for the city of Chengdu for 22/5/2014 displaying
the AQI values and link to the next 3 day forecasts.
For Yangzhou a separate dashboard was developed for the YEMC staff so they could assess
the OPAQ results and download historic forecasted data:
http://218.91.157.54:8100/yz_opaq_management/face/cn/login.jsp
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Figure 10: Above screenshot of the public information page for the city of Yangzhou, showing
PM2.5 averaged concentrations for 8/01/2015 and below a screenshot of the login page for YEMC
staff to assess the OPAQ results.
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Task 4.3 Awareness Campaign
Following on from task 4.1, Yangzhou EPB as leader of the awareness campaign activities
was responsible for the design of an awareness campaign and implementation of a
comprehensive campaign in the city of Yangzhou. The core activities that took place may be
summarised as follows:
1. Preparation of a AirINFORM project factsheet – this was prepared by CAEP with support
from the other partners as part of their WP1 visibility tasks
2. Preparation of Air Quality Information Movies (instead of TV documentary) - an Air
Quality animation film was created that highlights the cause of air pollution in China,
where you can find information on air quality and what the government is doing
regarding air pollution. It comprises of 3 cartoon movies. The animations were the key
sustainable dissemination output of this work package. Links to the movies which are
freely available on YOUKU are given below:
1: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzI1ODExMTYw.html: explains the main causes of
air pollution
2: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzI1ODY1NzU2.html: explains in broad terms the
main health effects of air pollution, where to find information on the air quality & how
to react based on the AQ information
3: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzI1ODcwNjMy.html: shows what we can do to help
reduce air pollution
3. Display of the movies on information panels and dissemination across the pilot cities
The cartoons have been broadcast by Yangzhou in kindergartens, schools as well on
outdoor LED screens across Yangzhou city to disseminate the basic knowledge of air
pollution. They were also distributed to the other local partners who used it for their
awareness campaigns. In addition it was distributed to the EGP component 2 team, and
the other project partnerships in the programme to help widen the distribution net
across China. At the end of the movies the project is acknowledged.
Figure 11 Left A screenshot from the first of the 3 AirINFORM Films. Right: One of the cartoons
being shown on an Electronic Information Boards in Yangzhou.
4. Public participation events: Several public awareness events were organised where the
the questionnaires mentioned under task 4.1 were distributed and collected. The EPB’s
used this opportunity to speak directly to the public about their air quality concerns and
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gather feedback. Later on in the project members of the local community, kindergarten
and young school children, were invited to the environmental monitoring centre
facilities to see the monitoring equipment, receive some basic lessons on air quality
pollution and learn how the information can be accessed. In total 4 key events were
organised between June 2013 until September 2014.
5. Compose articles on air quality awareness in various newspaper articles
Various articles (8 in total) were written in “Yangzhou Daily”, “Yangzhou Evening News”
and “Yangzhou Time” to promote the progress of the AQ forecast information for the
public in Yangzhou city.
Figure 12 Top left Article on accessing AQ Information. Top right: Local school children on the
roof of the monitoring centre to learn about air quality measurements Bottom left: Project
Details at YEMC entrance for visitors. Bottom right: some local residents learning about air
quality via the AirINFORM movies
6. TV Broadcasts on the AirINFORM Project and OPAQ: On the 29th September 2014,
Yangzhou EMC hosted a workshop in which the AirINFORM OPAQ system operational at
Yangzhou was officially launched. A general “AirINFORM” project interview was given
for Yangzhou TV channel to promote the AirINFORM” project and disseminate how to
get AQ information to the public (Oct. 1, 2014). The TV broadcast clip can be viewed
here: http://www.yzntv.com/news/folder1/2014/09/2014-09-3085911.html:
In addition several other broadcasts were made by Yangzhou News covering the
establishment of the AirINFORM OPAQ forecasting system at YEMC. Here are some of
those clips:
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http://www.yzntv.com/news/folder1/2014/11/2014-11-0488492.html: announcement
that Yangzhou held a technical monitoring seminar in March
http://www.yzntv.com/news/folder1/2014/11/2014-11-2190199.html; announcement
that the OPAQ forecasting system is in the pre-operation testing phase
http://www.yzntv.com/news/folder1/2014/12/2014-12-0991961.html: announcement
that the OPAQ forecasting system is now publishing information to the public AQ
information website
7. TV Broadcasts on the Today’s Life Programme
YEMC cooperated with Yangzhou TV, to produce several broadcasts aiming at
encouraging public participation. To encourage citizens to disclose information on
damage to the environment that they have witnessed. The program series is called: “爱
家园，随手拍” — “Love home/earth, readily take(pictures)”.
Here under some examples of the broadcasts on Yangzhou News.
http://www.yzntv.com/news/folder1/2014/01/2014-01-0864753.html
http://www.yzntv.com/news/folder1/2014/04/2014-04-0570152.html
http://www.yzntv.com/news/folder1/2014/05/2014-05-0572010.html
http://www.yzntv.com/news/folder1/2014/05/2014-05-2873370.html
http://www.yzntv.com/news/folder1/2014/06/2014-06-1374307.html
8. The movies and questionnaire were distributed to the other local partners, SAEP and
UEMC, so that they could carry out their own smaller awareness campaign. Yangzhou
also travelled to both cities during the capacity building workshops in October 2013 and
April 2014 respectively to share feedback on their experiences during their awareness
activities.
A full description is provided in the deliverable D4.3 / D4.4 Local Partner Awareness
Activities: Yangzhou Environmental Monitoring Central Station (YEMC).
Instead of producing an awareness campaign DVD, the various dissemination material
(questionnaire, animations, project factsheets, logos) were given to the pilot cities Urumqi
and Shanxi by Yangzhou. Once Shanxi Academy for Environmental Planning (SAEP) received
the questionnaire from Yangzhou EPB, they organised 5 public participation events on the
5th and 6th June 2014, and on the 6th August 2014. The core activities were:
to distribute the questionnaire and gather feedback
to raise awareness with the campaign “Raise your voice, and declare war against
pollution" by talking to the public about the causes of haze, how to help tackle the
problem and what to do during haze episodes
to raise awareness with the AirINFORM movie
As described in task 4.1, they visited a residential community in Taiyuan, large popular
shopping malls in the city and the campus of the two universities, Taiyuan University of
Science and Technology College and Taiyuan University of Technology.
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Figure 13 Left Volunteers at Taiyuan University of Science and Technology ready to speak to
students. Right: AirINFORM cartoons were played in shopping malls
They also wrote articles for the Shanxi Daily and Shanxi Science and Technology News,
describing the Sino - EU Air Quality Improvement Technology Forum that took place on the
20th May 2014 (task 5.3) and also the awareness events on June 5th 2014.
Likewise at Urumqi, UEMC organised 2 events public participation events on the 9th May
and 5th June 2014. Retired EPB staff were invited to the monitoring centre to view the
progress being made over the past years regarding air quality monitoring and the air quality
situation and information disclosure in Urumqi. This target group have an important say in
the local community and should ensure further dissemination of the information with the
community. For the national Environment Day Awareness Event, on June 5th, air pollution
brochures were handed out to the public, the movie was played at various locations and
about 100 participants filled out the air quality questionnaire.
Instead of the other public participation events, UEMC produced an Air Quality booklet for
Urumqi city citizens during the project. This booklet provides information for the public on
what is air pollution and how the public can access Air Quality Information in Urumqi, as well
as explaining the AQI. They also produced several articles on the main EPB website
explaining about the new AQI.
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Figure 14 Top left Article on UEPB website Bottom left: distribution of air quality information
to the public Right: AirINFORM air quality information booklet
Task 4.4 Local Stakeholder Workshops
As the key demonstration city, several small workshops were organised by Yangzhou
Environmental Monitoring Centre for their engineers and leaders. These events were
organised to introduce the AirINFORM project and to demonstrate the AirINFORM OPAQ
framework and the underlying forecasting and mapping models to the engineers. An
overview of the main 3 workshops is given overleaf. More information is given in the
deliverable D4.6 Local Stakeholder Workshops at Yangzhou.
Concerning YEMC and UEMC, the final capacity building workshops as shown in deliverable
3.3 were used to share the project findings and exchange technical information on AQ
forecasting systems with the other local representatives.
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Participants Date & Location Key Aim
Engineers from Yangzhou monitoring
group
March 3rd 2014, Yizheng county,
Yangzhou
Present an overview of the AirINFORM project and to demonstrate the
OPAQ framework and the underlying forecasting and mapping models.
Discuss what information from the models will be used to calculate the
AQI and present information to the public.
Engineers from Yangzhou Monitoring
group
July 24th 2014 Yangzhou Discussion forum on the AQ forecast technology (by AirINFORM) being
developed for Yangzhou. Aside from evaluating the performance of the
forecasting results, one of the goals was to discuss the air quality
information page that would be shown to the public.
Leaders and engineers from Yangzhou
EPB
September 4th 2014 Yangzhou By end 2014, the air quality forecasting information page should be
open to the public. This workshop was organised to review the
performance of the AirINFORM OPAQ system and to try to define a
schedule to reach a public launch date. Leaders were also given a brief
overview of the whole system.
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4.2.5. WP5 Dissemination & Policy Support
Task 5.1: During the first few months of the project a project website was established:
www.airinform.com. The website has the following main areas:
AirINFORM project information
Partners
News
Results
The most dynamic parts are the news and results section. These sections were given a
major upgrade approximately every 6 months of the project. In between, articles were
updated and results added when they became available. It was hoped to update the
website monthly, but practically this was not necessary. Now that the project is complete,
details of the core results can be found under the results page.
Tasks 5.2 Demonstration to neighbouring cities:
The key goal of WP5 is knowledge transfer. For task 5.2, the objective was to host a final
one-day dissemination event in each pilot city, with the some or all of the following goals:
to demonstrate the new ‘Operational Prediction Air Quality’ (OPAQ) tool which provides
reliable near real time and forecasted air quality data for 3-4 days ahead.
to receive feedback and suggestions to improve the tool
to share experiences (EU and China) in establishing air quality forecasting systems
to discuss provincial and city action plans for air pollution considering the New Action
Plan on Air legislation released in 2013, and share experiences from EU experience
In the table hereunder a list of the 3 regional workshops is given.
Regional Workshop at each Partner City Date & Location
Sino-EU Air Quality Improvement Technology Forum May 20th, 2014, Taiyuan
Air Quality Forecasting Systems July 1st and September 11th 2014,
Urumqi
Workshop on Air Quality Standards September 29th , Yangzhou
Almost 100 participants attended the regional events at Yangzhou and Shanxi, whilst about
half that at Urumqi, where two workshops were held. Representatives from the individual
districts and city EMC/EPB’s in the province concerned as well as invited experts from cities
with more established forecasting systems (such as Beijing, Quanzhou and Hubei) were in
attendance. They were joined by air quality experts and researchers from local universities
and scientific institutions, together with EU experts and the media. Information on these
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workshops is provided in the deliverable report: D5.2 Regional Demonstration Workshops.
The recent
In conclusion, for the three cities, even given their varied economic and air pollution
problem, they were all experiencing similar problems in establishing the air quality
forecasting systems and reaching the targets set down in the 2013 action plan. The
following general points could be noted:
Progress is being made but significant work is still required
Access to reliable data to run the models is a critical factor, particularly regional and
local meteorological, boundary conditions and emissions data; collaborations between
data providers and the EPB’s is required
Capabilities and implementation tools vary across the cities, and provinces
Many cities are looking to central level and particularly CNEMC for guidance on which
forecasting models/systems to establish. CNEMC are establishing an air quality
forecasting platform in 2015-2016 for China that will serve as a demonstration platform
hosting several recommended models.
Many of the city/regional EPB’s are setting up chemistry transport air quality models not
only to gain insight into the complex physico-chemical nature of the air pollution
phenomenon and to diagnose what causes a specific situation, but also for the
forecasting systems. However these complex models are very demanding in terms of
input data and personnel skills, and require a lot of effort to be ready in time. For most
of the cities, much more support in understanding and implementation of these complex
systems is required.
Following on from the above, it is important to consider for which application (e.g.
provide forecasts to the public or assessing emission reductions for the action plan) they
wish to apply the models for policy support. Sometimes a simpler model may actually
be more suitable.
Cities with less expertise would benefit considerably from collaboration with more
experienced cities across the province ensuring that the efforts and funds required are
maximized across the provinces.
The new ‘Operational Prediction Air Quality’ (OPAQ) tool was presented at all workshops,
but at the workshop at Yangzhou it featured as one of the highlights of the workshop. Ms.
Chen, the deputy director of Yangzhou EMC demonstrated that just a year since the first
version was established, that they now have a system that meets their requirement to
provide timely and reliable air quality forecast information for both them and the public.
She shared what they learned throughout this process , stating the high importance of
having reliable good quality air quality measurement data for establishment and validation
of good air quality modelling systems. Parts of the workshop were recorded by the local
Yangzhou TV company and broadcast to the public during the Chinese national holidays.
Representatives from the Chinese National Monitoring Centre (CNEMC), were present to
review and provide their generally positive feedback on the system. After the workshop Nan
Tong EMC (also in JiangSu province) representatives approached LIBOVITO about setting up
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OPAQ for their city. 4 months later LIBOVITO was operational at Nantong. Here is the link to
their OPAQ website: http://218.91.209.251:28805/ntc_opaq_web/cn/firstDay.jsp
Through their comprehensive network, LIBOVITO and VITO were able to organise meetings
in 2013 with the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES), Jinan EPB,
Tianjin EPB and Chengdu EPB to demonstrate the potential and functionalities of OPAQ. As
a result of numerous communications and presentations, it was agreed to set-up test
versions of OPAQ for each of these organisations. Now, at the end of the project, the OPAQ
system is operational in Jinan, Chengdu and Tianjin, with positive results. The system will be
continually improved as better input data becomes available from the cities.
In 2014, demonstrations have also been given to approximately another 12 cities in the
provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Shandong and Inner Mongolia.
Reaching well outside our local partner provinces of Shanxi, Jiangsu and Xinjiang.
Figure 15 Top left 1Conference photo of organizers of Sino-EU Air Quality Improvement
Technology Forum Bottom left: Yangzhou workshop
Task 5.3 Dissemination to Central Stakeholders:
For EGP one of the most important outcomes for the project was the preparation of policy
orientated report to be written by CAEP for the attention of MEP and the EGP component 2
team. At the start of the project, the EGP component two team requested the preparation
of 6 monthly policy briefs. The original idea was to use the outputs of these documents as
input for the main policy brief.
Initially CAEP were responsible for preparation of the policy reports. However it became
clear that CAEP would need a lot of input from the EU partners, VITO and DCMR to help
them document the recommendations based on the practical experiences and findings
during the project. It also became evident that preparation of this report was probably one
of the most challenging aspects of the project. Mainly because the core goal of the project
was not focussed on the evaluation of policy or preparation of policy, rather on assisting the
local partners with the practical implementation of some aspects of recent air quality
legislation. However we have done our best to try to provide some key recommendations
based on our project experiences in the three partner cities Urumqi, Yangzhou and Taiyuan
and from exchanges with policy representatives of the EGP Lot 2 team. In general the
recommendations are directed at local level policy, and local policy implementation.
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AirINFORM proposes the following major policy recommendations:
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
a) Enhance future air quality legislation with specific targets and measures sharply defined
to meet the objectives set-down
b) Define what Best Available Technology (BAT) is across the country and set emission
ceilings for provinces and monitor annual progress.
c) Enhance future air quality legislation with mechanisms to support local governments
implement local air policy and meet their targets
RECOMMENDATIONS RELATING TO AIR QUALITY COMMUNICATION
d) Ensure that communication of air quality information is included as part of a
comprehensive policy on air quality management
e) Enhance implementation of this policy at local level by providing guidance (by the
Ministry of Environment Protection’s (MEP) department of Education and
Communications) on:
engaging communication specialists or even (private sector) marketing experts to
assure that the messages are credible and reach their target audience
encouraging NGO’s and private sector to contribute to the development of a civil
society that can act as a government counterpart.
f) Technical Regulation on the AQI (HJ633-2012- on trial): improvements are
recommended for the AQI daily calculation grids for most importantly, PM10 and PM2.5,
but also NO2 and O3. There is need for temporal and spatial AQ information to
supplement the AQI in order to allow interested public understand the values origin
RECOMMENDATIONS RELATING TO USING AIR QUALITY MODELS
g) Establish a platform (on air quality monitoring & modelling) for sharing and exchanging
experiences and information on national and provincial level. Consider that:
A supporting organisation within or apart from the ministry could
provide/coordinate these services
When applying models for policy support, the type of model should be selected
based on the fit-for-purpose criteria.
Significant technical support to local Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB)’s in
understanding and implementation of complex air quality information (emergency
response) systems is required
To assist in implementation of action plans aimed at reducing air pollution, capacity
building and the acquisition of scenario modelling tools, reliable emission data (of
all sectors, not just the industry and power) and data on the cost of emission
reduction strategies are needed
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Most of the recommendations have already being passed to the stakeholders though the
various capacity workshops (see task 3.3) and at the AQI workshop which was held in Beijing
on the 17th October 2013 (see task 3.1).
Task 5.4 End Conference:
The final conference was held in the Grand Skylight Catic Hotel in Beijing, on the 9th October
2014. The attendance numbers expected for this conference are significantly less than first
budgeted since we already incurred costs for the hosting of the AQI communication
workshop (17th October 2013) which had not been budgeted. It was felt that a mid-term
workshop would be beneficial for the central level stakeholders to share the findings of the
AQI evaluation task and to introduce the OPAQ air quality prediction tool. In addition, some
of funds were also used to invite non-project participants to some of the capacity events.
Furthermore, since the second project payment was delayed, the partners had very little
cash left to invite or pay for external participants.
Each of the project partners presented an overview of their key activities and conclusions.
Mr. Sef van Elshout (DCMR) presented the on-line AQI evaluation tool which can be used to
compare various AQI’s based on the same input data. This was the final output of task 2.1.
He also presented some interesting new information on the recent changes in AQI’s across
the world and re-iterated this key recommendations in using the AQI.
LIBOVITO presented the an overview of the new ‘Operational Prediction Air Quality’ (OPAQ)
tool which provides reliable near real time and forecasted air quality data for 3-4 days
ahead. Results of the performance set-ups in Yangzhou, Jinan and Chengdu were presented.
All in all the results are very good when compared to some of the other air quality
forecasting methodologies being used.
The local partners presented an overview of their awareness campaign work and the status
of their own air quality forecasting and information systems. In addition, since the local
partners and stakeholders were very interested in the 2013 Action Plan, an expert from
CAEP was invited to present the Performance Evaluation Indicators and Methodology that is
being proposed for the Action Plan at central level. This provided very interesting
information how central level government are using models to evaluate the impact of the
action plans . CNEMC have released in May 2014 a Forecast Evaluation Guidebook to help
those setting up forecasting systems evaluate the performance of their models. This was
discussed at the meeting.
Furthermore, VITO presented an overview of the recent air quality policy review in the EU
and presented some recommendations for consideration in the Chinese situation. An
overview of the sustainability of the OPZAQ service going forward was discussed. On
overview of the conference programme is presented overleaf.
Mr. Dimitri de Boer was present from EGP component 2. He emphasised that CAEP should
ensure that the output of the project’s findings should reach central level.
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4.3. List of activities that were planned but unable to implement
1. WP1, Task 1.2, Communications and Visibility: News reports on this action were not
published in China Environment News. Instead much more focus was given to local
mass media (TVs, newspapers etc.) to report on activities being implemented at local
level.
2. WP3, Task 3.3 we had hoped to implement the ‘Operational Prediction Air Quality’
(OPAQ) tool providing forecasted air quality information in all the pilot cities. However
by the time the project started, driven by the legislation the pilot cities of UEMC and
SAEP had already initiated steps to install their own forecasting systems. OPAQ was
then offered as an additional tool to those local partners. Both partners first wanted to
wait for more information on the quality of the performance of the models before
deciding on the next step. In addition, when they found out what data would be needed
by LIBOVITO to configure the models, they said that it would not be possible to release
that data to LIBOVITO as a third party during the project.
On a positive note, other cities (Jinan, Tianjin, Chengdu..) outside of the project were
interested in the model and thus the time was used to help these configurations and
demonstration models.
3. WP3, Task 3.1: collection of actual measured (and modelled if available) air quality data
for use in the AQI evaluation study. For the same reason above the data was not
allowed to be given to third parties. Instead data was downloaded from the CNEMC
website.
4.4. Assessment of the results of the Action
In assessing the results of the action, I shall focus on the key specific objectives that were
listed in the action application and logical framework.
The first objective was to “Evaluate existing air quality information systems and public
access to information in China, including an evaluation of the revised Air Pollution Index
(API)”.
First let’s focus on the system design. The aim of the consultation process was to determine
what air quality information systems are in use in China at the moment and to ensure that
the design of any new system incorporates as many stakeholder views as possible to ensure
that the uptake after release is high. The consultation process in total took almost a year
from October 2012 until October 2013, with the intensive work carried out during the first 6
months. However you can say in fact that it spanned the whole length of the project. This is
because air quality management is such a hot topic in China, and due to new pieces of
legislation coming out during the project period, the needs of the stakeholders was not
static. However to keep a focus, we agreed after the first consultation process to focus on
air quality forecasting information for the public for the design, but to provide capacity
building support if we could on other aspects of air quality management where it was
needed. Air quality models are the core calculation kernels of any air quality forecasting and
management system. From the consultation rounds, we got a good view of the types of that
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are being used in China and some good general views on who is using them, for what
applications and what kind of experience they have. We also gathered some vital
information on the status of the input data needed to set-up, and run these models. This
information was not only helpful for this project, but also for any subsequent projects or
collaborations in guiding and supporting Chinese partners to establish air quality forecasting
and management systems.
One important indicator of the success of this task, is that we believe we have designed a
system that has met the requirements of our core pilot city, to provide reliable air quality
forecasting results to the public. Furthermore this system has been taken up by several
cities by the end of the project. Concerning the concrete documentation results, the
consultations report and the design report were both delivered.
By the time the project started the revised Chinese AQI (HJ633-2012 – on trial) had just been
published in legislation. Which meant that it was just being applied in practice by many of
our city EPB’s. Thus the recommendations given as a result of this evaluation were of
immediate value for these cities when implementing the new AQI calculation scheme. The
evaluation study resulted in some very useful conclusions for both the local partners and
CNEMC who issued the guideline. Although the local partners have absorbed the
recommendations, it is hard to measure how much of the communication tips given, will be
incorporated into their future air quality communication plans. They did all agree to one of
the recommendations, which was that the governmental bodies need to make a big effort to
ensure that their air quality information (and make it as accurate as they can) reaches their
public and is found to be trustworthy to compete with all the other providers out there. This
has been taken up by the local partners who are improving their information channels
(adding apps etc.) and the quality of their reported data.
One of the key recommendations regarding the performance of the AQI related to the
reporting of the daily PM AQI value instead of the hourly. This was in line with the
experiences of some EPB’s, such as Shanghai EPB, who were already running the new AQI.
Based on all of these recommendations, in late 2013, CNEMC issued an amendment to the
guidelines, stating that it was advisable to report the hourly PM AQI instead of the daily.
Late 2014 our project partner, DCMR made an update to the recommendations. These have
been presented at the final partner meeting and included in the deliverable 2.1 part III. It is
the responsibility of CAEP to ensure that these recommendations reach the relevant central
level authority. Our partner also developed a web based educational calculator that allows
the user to compare the AQI values for several types of AQI in use across the world, at the
same time. For example to compare the new legislative Chinese AQI to the AQI that the US
embassy uses, which was the source of so much controversy in recent years. Since the
calculator was only uploaded at the end of the project we cannot assess its uptake but we
will monitor it even though the project has ended. We are hoping that it will help the public
understand that there are many different AQI, each giving different results but none of them
are right or wrong. Helping to give some clarity why there is a difference between various
AQIs reported on various different websites and apps.
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The second objective was to “Implement state-of-the-art web based air quality information
systems such as those developed in Europe, enhancing public accessibility, and improving
the capabilities of local Environmental Protection Bureaus (EPBs)”.
This pertains mainly to the work in WP3 and is probably the most successful of the
objectives. By the end of the project, the new ‘Operational Prediction Air Quality’ (OPAQ)
tool which was developed within the project has been implemented in Yangzhou EPB, Jinan
EPB, Tianjin EPB and Chengdu EPB. More importantly, yielding positive results so that
reliable information can be made available to the public. Helping to improve the credibility
of the EPB’s with the public which further helps their participation in efforts in the future to
help reduce the causes of air pollution. To quote Ms Chen ‘we now have a system that
meets our requirement to provide timely and reliable air quality forecast information for the
public’. Yangzhou are reporting daily forecasted AQI values to the public up to 3 days ahead
and also providing concentration maps for the 6 key pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO
and Ozone) using the public information page that was developed by the local partner,
Antipollution. Based on feedback from the awareness campaign, it was clear that the
information needs to reach the public through a multitude of channels with the internet and
smart-phone apps being the most important. Taiyuan EPB have worked over the project
period to ensure that they are using all these channels. YEMC also show the air quality on
WEIBO(microblog) and on mobile apps.
For Jinan EPB and other cities that are also setting up CTM based forecasting systems, the
OPAQ tool provides valuable extra information for evaluation and indeed validation of their
own forecasting systems. Standard practice if possible is to use an ensemble of models to
provide the forecasting information so that the best composite information can be used to
inform the public. The OPAQ set-ups running at each of the cities will be continually
improved as more recent historic measurement and better meteorological and land use data
becomes available. Finally, CNEMC are also very interested in establishing the tool with
their new demonstrative forecasting platform in 2015 and steps have been taken in this
direction. In establishing OPAQ, training was provided to the local EPB staff that would
monitor the models and a user manual that was produced within the project was made
available.
During the various technical exchanges and capacity building events, the EU partners, VITO
and DCMR have shared experiences from the EU on topics such as air quality
communication, EU policy regarding air quality, the use of AQI’s, the applications of various
air quality models including the underlying statistical models in OPAQ and the OPAQ
framework itself. Given that air pollution is such a hot topic and that the 2013 Action Plan
On Air was released during the project period, I think that it fair to say that our help was
really appreciated. Shanxi Academy of Planning would like to use VITO’s assistance in
implementing this action plan but it is yet to be seen if financial funding can be provided.
The various meetings and exchanges also provided an opportunity for the local partner EPB’s
to discuss their concerns regarding air quality management and information with the central
event through CNEMC and CAEP. Furthermore many valuable technical discussions were
shared with EPB’s from more advanced cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.
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The third objective was to develop communication and awareness tools to improve public
understanding and encourage participation in air quality issues.
In my opinion the key sustainable communication and awareness tool output was the
production of the set of three small animations that explains simply the causes of air
pollution, where you find information on the quality, how it can be reduced and what to do
if there are high PM episodes. These animations have been made publicly available on the
Chinese Utube site – Youku.com, our project website, via the local EPB’s and also given to
the EGP component 2 team. As of the 8th January 2015, the first film had been viewed 77
times on Youku.com, whilst the 2nd and 3rd clips had been viewed 152 and 96 times. During
the awareness campaigns they were shown to the visitors to the monitoring centres,
displayed in public shopping malls and on electronic boards. Feedback from EPB staff and
the public has been positive. It has definitely raised further questions from interested
citizens on air pollution and some citizens in Urumqi even wanted to know how they could
analyse the data themselves. As well as the animations, Urumqi produced an air quality
booklet that was distributed to their citizens. The other important communication tools are
the public information web page that Yangzhou, LIBOVITO and Antipollution developed as
well as the various apps that the local partners have developed to communicate to their
public.
Ultimately the goal for this objective was to increase the public’s awareness of air quality
issues. Although it is difficult to measure how much we have improved people’s
understanding or indeed how many people we have reached with the public awareness
events on the streets and publication of various articles in the local newspapers, we do know
that almost 1000 citizens completed the air quality questionnaire, which in itself, makes
them aware of air pollution and many of them where given the opportunity to ask questions
and discuss their air quality concerns with local air quality experts. Furthermore, over 200
people (school children and citizens) visited the monitoring centres of Urumqi, Yangzhou
and Taiyuan, where educational tours were provided on air pollution, air quality monitoring
and accessing air quality information.
Disseminate and demonstrate these state-of-the-art air quality information systems to
other Chinese cities, provide policy recommendations to the Ministry of Environmental
Protection (MEP) and demonstrate best practices.
By now it is fairly obvious that our demonstration activities of the OPAQ tool have been very
successful. Mainly thanks to LIBOVITO. As well as the demonstrations to the project
stakeholders, demonstrations have also been given to approximately another 12 cities in the
provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Shandong and Inner Mongolia.
Reaching well outside our local partner provinces of Shanxi, Jiangsu and Xinjiang. These
demonstrations, and the good word of recommendation from Yangzhou EPB and Jinan EPB,
as the first EPB’s to use the tool, have led to the uptake of the tool at Tianjin EPB, Chengdu
EPB and now Chongqing and Nantong EPB’s.
Throughout the various technical exchanges and capacity building events, the EU partners
have shared information on recent standard practices in the EU regarding the development
of AQI’s and the use of air quality models to support air quality management. Most of these
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recommendations have been incorporated into the final policy report that was delivered. In
general the recommendations are directed at local level policy, and local policy
implementation. Since air quality actions and legislation is changing so rapidly in China, we
found that most of our recommendations aimed at central level (e.g. working on better
emission inventories, .. ) during the first year were already being incorporated into new
guidelines and practices. Not really thanks to our project, but down to outputs of many
projects and initiatives on air quality across China. Thus it is difficult to assess what kind of
impact our recommendations have and will make. This also depends on the influential
power of CAEP and this EGP programme as a whole. We do know however that CNEMC
have changed to using hourly PM readings for the AQI. Furthermore, that the local partners
are now very aware of some of the most important criteria for establishing reliable air
quality forecasting systems.
Regardless we feel that regarding policy our most important work was to guide the local
partners and any other interested EPB’s in implementing the guidelines and legislation
related to air quality. VITO are still in contact with Shanxi Academy of Planning to try to look
at options to continue to support them with some aspects of the implementation of their
action plan until 2017.
4.5. What has been the outcome on both the final beneficiaries &/or target group (if
different) and the situation in the target country or target region which the Action
addressed?
Target groups: Public communities, Local government and EPBs of pilot cities, MEP, CAEP
Our local government target group, are obliged to establish air pollution “Monitoring, Early
Warning and Emergency Response Systems” and from 2012 to publish timely information on
the air quality. Definite targets (by 2017) for establishment of these systems was stipulated
under the 2013 Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan. Many of these regions still
lack adequate operational air quality monitoring and warning systems to provide credible
and reliable information, to allow them and their citizens to take appropriate measures
during high pollution episodes.
Lack of suitable resources, the necessary know-how, availability of simple systems, and
information and support about what types of systems are available has prevented
compliance. In general, most of the air quality warning systems used in China are based on
complex chemical transport models which require significant scientific know-how for both
installation and operation, lots of input data and are computationally very expensive which
results in a very costly system.
The AirINFORM OPAQ system offers local government and their EPBs an easy to use,
affordable, reliable, operational air quality prediction system enabling them to conform to
the regulation, but most importantly to warn the public of high pollution episodes so they
can take appropriate action. It also prompts the EPB to take appropriate measures.
Furthermore the capacity building provided in this project, has enhanced the ability of the
Chinese partners in air quality management and given them some direction on where they
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need to focus their efforts. A summary of the key recommendations are provided in the
Policy report (Deliverable 5.3).
Some of these recommendations are also very useful for the policy makers at central level.
Given that the National People’s Congress is in the process of making an amendment to the
Air Pollution Law, the timing is quiet apt.
The local partners have already taken the knowledge and material gained from the
awareness campaigns into planning their future events. As described in deliverable
D4.3/D4.4 Local Partner Awareness Activities at YEMC, YEMC will continue cooperation with
other divisions of Yangzhou EPB to improve the communication of information to the public.
They will also continue to join to arrange an annual public awareness event during the
annual World Environment Day which is organised by Yangzhou EPB.
Finally, alongside the improvement of the information to the public (mainly in Yangzhou),
public communities and schools were actively involved in the public awareness campaigns.
They gained first-hand knowledge on what the information means and were also able to
voice their concerns and become aware of what role they could play in helping tackle the
pollution problem (e.g. disclosing environmental problems, using greener transport..). They
can also use the animations to help distribute the knowledge throughout their communities.
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4.6. Please list all materials (and no. of copies) produced during the Action on whatever format
Please find below a list of the key materials, and the relevant deliverables which have been produced. Unless otherwise stated most of the reports have
been provided in pdf versions. Some of the reports and meeting materials have been published/printing by external companies. As part of WP4
(awareness campaigns), several TV interviews and broadcasts were made. These are not included as materials. Materials such as the hard display
panels are not included, but are provided as pictures in the annex.
Name Deliverable Distributed by Distributed to Produced By
Consultation Report D2.1 VITO Partners, Interested Stakeholders, EU-China Project Officer, VITO
AQI Evaluation Reports (*3) D2.3 DCMR Partners, Interested Stakeholders, EGP Component 2 Team DCMR
AQI On-line Calculator D2.3 Freely available on web
http://www.airinform.com/airinform_web/AQI_calcualtor/AQI_calcualtor.htm
DCMR
AQ System Design Report D2.4 VITO Partners, Interested Stakeholders, EU-China Project Officer, VITO
AQ System User Manual D3.1 LIBOVITO End Users of OPAQ (Confidential Document) LIBOVITO
OPAQ D3.2 LIBOVITO
End Users of OPAQ (Yangzhou EMC, Tianjin EPB, Chengdu EPB,
Jinan EPB)
VITO / LIBOVITO
Capacity Workshop Report D3.3 VITO
Partners, Interested Stakeholders VITO (using input from all local
partners)
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Name Deliverable Distributed by Distributed to Produced By
Communication Plan D4.1 YEMC Partners, EU-China Project Officer, EGP Component 2
Team
YEMC
AQ Questionnaire D4.4 YEMC Partners, Public in the 3 pilot cities of Yangzhou, Taiyuan
and Urumqi
YEMC
Project Fact Sheet D4.3 CAEP (VITO) Partners, Interested Stakeholders 北京林峰艺海印刷设计有限公司
Air Quality Animations D4.4 LIBOVITO Freely available on web
http://www.airinform.com/airinform_web/airinform_e
n/results/1_4.html
External Contractor – Beijing Miller
Sunshine TV Culture Media Ltd.
Public Awareness Reports
per Partner
D4.4 Pilot Cities Partners, Interested Stakeholders The individual local partners (YEMC,
SAEP, UEMC)
UEMC AQ Booklet D4.4 UEMC The public during Urumqi EPB communication activities UEMC
Propaganda album for Sino-
EU Air Quality Improvement
Technology Forum
D4.4 SAEP To attendees of the Sino-EU Air Quality Improvement
Technology Forum
山西光明图文系统有限公司
(Shanxi light graphic system co., LTD); 太
原读图文化传播有限公司 (Taiyuan
map reading culture communication co.,
LTD) 35 copies
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62
Name Deliverable Distributed by Distributed to Produced By
AirINFORM "6.5
environment day" red
banner
D4.4 SAEP Shown at 2014.6.5 environment day public awareness
events to public
太原百利科贸有限公司(Taiyuan
Cadbury Trade Co., LTD)
Awareness activity hard
panels
D4.4 YEMC Shown at 2013, 6,5, AirINFORM Event to public Yangzhou Hong Dao Culture
Communication Co., Ltd.
Awareness activity banner D4.4 YEMC Shown at 2014, 6,5, AirINFORM School Charity Event to
public
'邗江区星和辰图文设计中心'---
'Hanjiang District Xing He Chen Design
Centre'
AQ System Demonstration
Report
D5.2 VITO Partners, Interested Stakeholders VITO (using input from all local partners)
Policy Guidance Report D5.3 CAEP, VITO Partners, Interested Stakeholders, EGP Component 2
Team
VITO, DCMR, CAEP
AQI workshop report D2.3
parts 1 & 2 print
N/A CAEP Workshop & partner attendees 北京环图设计广告有限公司 and 北京
科华联创咨询有限公司
Final Workshop materials N/A CAEP Workshop & partner attendees 北京林峰艺海印刷设计有限公司
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4.7. Describe if the Action will continue after the support from the European Union
has ended. Are there any follow up activities envisaged? What will ensure the
sustainability of the Action?
The complete action as it is defined in the contract will not continue after the support has
ended. However some follow-up activities will continue to ensure the sustainability of the
short to long term objectives which were defined at the action concept stage. Here below is
a brief status of some of these activities:
1. Sustainability of the air quality information system after the life time of the project: as
described earlier in the report, it is quite clear that the air quality information system
established at Yangzhou is being used after the project has ended. Furthermore YEMC
will continue to improve the system and bring to the attention of the local and central
government, the issue of data which is hindering improvements not only to this
particular air quality forecasting and mapping system (OPAQ) system, but also to other
systems that rely heavily on emissions data. The OPAQ system has also been established
in other local cities who were not directly part of the project. LIBOVITO will continue to
promote the system to other cities to help more cities fulfil their air quality forecasting
(warning) reporting requirements to the public.
2. Increased levels of public awareness leading to positive feedback loops for policy
implementation: in general public awareness on air quality has increased over the past
few years, predominantly due to the very high SMOG episodes during the same period
coupled with the public’s increase in knowledge regarding and the intensive internet
communications globally on the subject. This has already put pressure on the
government to accelerate specific policy regarding air quality. From our project’s
perspective, the awareness activities have resulted in 2 core sustainable results. Firstly,
the partners plan to repeat some of the awareness activities (visits to monitoring
station, play the movies) on an annual basis and secondly, the campaigns themselves
have reached the public and made if even small, an increase in the awareness of people
in the city regarding air quality.
3. Sustainable communication and awareness tool: the set of three small animations that
were produced to increase the awareness of the public on air quality issues are the most
sustainable output of the public awareness activities. They have been made freely
available to all stakeholders and will be used by the local partners in continuing public
awareness campaigns.
4. Provision of policy recommendations to MEP for consideration in future air quality
legislation: some of the recommendations regarding calculation of the new AQI (e.g.
reporting the hourly PM10 values instead of the daily) were already considered by
CNEMC4 These considerations led to CNEMC to issue a statement in regarding the
reporting of hourly PM10 values. All recommendations concerning air quality policy
4 Similar recommendations were made external to this project by Shanghai EMC.
Final Report
64
learned over the project have been collected and published in the Policy Report
(Deliverable 5.4). This report has been given to the EGP component 2 team and also
CAEP to ensure further dissemination of the recommendations to the appropriate
stakeholders.
5. Impact on environmental management abilities at local government level: the central
government is increasingly putting pressure on the local governments to solve the local,
regional and national air quality problems. According to the Action Plan on Air, each
region and city has to implement action plans to significantly reduce the emissions of air
pollutants. The capacity building workshops and the recommendations made by the EU
partners, have provided the local partners with valuable information on how these plans
are established in the EU. SAEP have sought advice from VITO at the project end, for
further assistance on some of their tasks relating to this plan.
.
Final Report
4.8. How and by whom have the activities been monitored/evaluated ? Please summarise the results of the feedback received, including from the
beneficiaries.
Monitored/Evaluated By How Feedback
Project co-ordinator: VITO Periodical skype calls and frequent e-mails to
partners and WP leaders. Status reports for
preparation of the quarterly reports. Bi-annual
partner meetings in Beijing or at local partner
facilities. Various user consultation and workshops
in the pilot cities.
Enhanced public participation
Local & Central Policy Impact
Uptake of air quality information system by local
partners:
Number of neighbouring local partners interested in
uptake of air quality information system:
Local partners (end users) in
the pilot cities and
representatives from their
regional and city level EPBs
Participation at the user consultation, capacity
building workshops and dissemination workshops
arranged in their city. For some, participation at
the AQI workshop, October 2013.
User consultation: local partners defined their needs for
the air quality information system. Preference for
statistical forecasting models (rather than CTMs) as the
emissions data is too unreliable. All partners wanted
detailed examples of air management processes used in
the EU. YEMC: mainly interested in having a reliable
system that helps them report their daily AQI values as
stipulated in recent legislation. Need dedicated technical
training so they can run the models themselves.
The initial public questionnaires were too technical; CAEP
need to provide support to YEMC to assist YEMC in
development of any future public awareness flyers and
questionnaires
Final Report
For the new action plan on air many local governments
need to establish complex models but they do not have the
technical experience or the required reliable input data.
Central level government needs to provide support on this.
Central level beneficiaries:
MEP, CNEMC, CAEP
Participation at the project K.O., user consultations
and capacity building workshops for the pilot cities.
Participation at the AQI communication workshop,
October 2013.
CNEMC & MEP would appreciate support on how they can
build up a better credibility with the public. For example
advice on how the public can understand the story behind
the complex AQ problem. They recommend that CAEP
ensures that the project recommendations are passed on
to MEP.
MEP: to ensure that the project outputs reach other cities
not just the 3 cities involved and that there is some co-
operation with the other Lot 1 air project ran by NiLU.
There is a lot of pressure on the government at central
level to improve the environmental situation top-down.
Final Report
Monitored/Evaluated By How Feedback
EGP Component 2 Team Organisation of one to one meetings (at start and
during year 2), the annual PPAB meetings and the
final Policy Dialogue for Lot 1 Partnership Projects
(Oct 2014). Discussions through skype calls and
mails with the project co-ordinator and key project
representatives. Participation at the project K.O.,
the AQI workshop and final conference.
For final policy report:
Report structure: should be concise and useful to the
target group:
Content: stick to our project tasks, not necessary to diverge
to add more material, as our objective was not to examine
particular legislation. Instead provide examples of Case
studies where you tested some of the recommendations
for the Chinese case
Use input from first 2 policy briefs
Include project successes but also difficulties
Ensure that EU experience is brought in
EU-China Project Evaluation
Team / Officer
Attendance at the project K.O., the AQI workshop,
final conference and annual PPAB meetings
No specific feedback
EU-China External Evaluation
Team
As part of the mid-term evaluation of the EU China
Environmental Governance Programme, Dr Sheng
Xiang Yu visited the local partners of SAEP, in
Taiyuan and YEMC in Yangzhou in April 2014. Dr
Sheng Xiang Yu also contacted the AirINFORM
project co-ordinator by e-mail and visited Mr. Wei
Liu from CAEP in Beijing to discuss the project
Observations
SAEP has expressed its wish to be trained in an EU country,
in order to obtain first-hand experience. YEMC is concerned
that they don’t have technical capabilities to operate the
models independently hence they would like more in-
depth training. VITO-AirINFORM team needs some
assistance in identifying the target groups (especially at
Final Report
MEP) regarding the policy. EPG office should be able to
help.
Recommendations
Make full use of the services that may be provided by
Component II
Analyse whether this project is mainly testing issues
already included in policy principles or whether the project
sees itself as paving new ways. For issues, where it has
been testing principles and methodologies, it is a matter of
simple feed-back of experience whether the methodologies
were useful. In the case of experimental methodologies, it
is more complex as the policy implications must be derived.
Consider more technical training to Chinese partners such
as operating system training, in addition to air quality
models.
Strengthen the sustainability of the project. For example:
enable YEMC to operate and maintain the modelling
process independently.
Improve the quality of project website
Final Report
69
4.9. What has your organisation/partner learned from the Action and how has this
learning been utilised and disseminated?
For all of the Chinese partners, this was the first time that they, their team or the
organisation itself had participated in a large EU funded project. This meant that VITO had
much more demanding management burdens than is typical for an EU funded project where
most of the partners have a history in participating in these projects. Although we were
aware this was going to be the case, even more efforts than envisaged were needed to
explain and follow-up the administrative side (production of quarterly reports and
deliverables, tracking of expenditure, preparations for the audits… ) of the project. This was
amplified due to the number of Chinese partners.
As a result after the first few months of the project, more communications, guidelines and
support (as was practically possible) was provided to the local partners on these issues. This
issue was also noted in our quarterly reports and fed back to the EGP mid-term evaluation
team.
As well as the administrative support, the capacity building needs of the local partners
changed slightly throughout the project to match the release of new air quality legislation,
such as the 2013 Air Plan on Air. To meet their needs we tried to be as flexible as possible
without harming the ultimate core objectives of the project.
One of the core activities in the project was the establishment of an air quality forecasting
system. These systems rely on reliable input data. We knew that access to data would be
tricky for the EU partners and maybe also for LIBOVITO as a non-governmental organisation.
However we thought that we would have some sort of access through non-disclosure
agreements and the partner agreement. This was not the case. Put simply, Chinese data
cannot be made available to foreign parties.
VITO is also involved in another EU-China project, METALert, that runs from September 2013
until August 2016. These observations were quickly passed on to that project co-ordinator
for consideration in their project.
Name of the contact person for the Action: Lisa Blyth
Location: VITO, Belgium
Final Report
70
5. SUPPORTING MATERIAL
5.1. DELIVERABLES
Name Deliverable Partner No.
7.1.xx Included
Partner Agreement D1.1 VITO 1 Yes
Consultation Report D2.1v5 D2.1 VITO 2 No (previously
provided)
AQI Evaluation Report Parts
1, 2 & 3 D2.3 DCMR 3, 4, 5 Yes
AQ System Design Report D2.4 VITO - No (previously
provided)
AQ System User Manual D3.2 LIBOVITO - No (previously
provided)
Capacity Workshop Report D3.3 VITO 6 Yes
Communication Plan
Report D4.1v3 D4.1 YEMC -
No (previously
provided)
Project Fact Sheet D4.3 VITO,
CAEP 7 Yes
Air Quality Animations D4.4 YEMC,
LIBOVITO 8,9,10 Yes
Awareness Campaign
Evaluation Report D4.4 V04
(Year 1)
D4.4 YEMC 11 Yes
Public Awareness Reports
per Partner D4.4 Pilot Cities 12,13,14 Yes
Local Stakeholder
Workshops at Yangzhou D4.6 YEMC 15 Yes
AQ System Demonstration
Report D5.2 VITO 16 Yes
Policy Guidance Report D5.3 VITO,
DCMR
CAEP
17 Yes
AirINFORM EGP 1st 6M
Policy Brief - VITO,
CAEP -
No (previously
provided)
AirINFORM EGP 2nd 6M
Policy Brief - VITO,
CAEP -
No (previously
provided)
