SMHI contributes to new air quality management system in Macedonia

SMHI is taking part in an EU-funded project to strengthen national air quality management in Macedonia. The project aims to build up a system for better handling of air quality data in the country.

The Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, MoEPP, in Macedonia is being supported by SMHI in building a national system to handle the collection of data from measuring stations for air quality and meteorology. The EU project began in March 2011 and will continue until October 2011.

The air quality management system is based on the Swedish system Airviro, developed by SMHI and Apertum IT AB.

Training the Ministry of Environment in air modelling

In early June, representatives of SMHI travelled to Skopje to train MoEPP personnel in how to use Airviro to monitor emissions and describe the air environment using dispersion models.

“We have several planned training initiatives during the summer and autumn,” says David Segersson, who is co-ordinating the project. He goes on to say:
“Users and system administrators will have further training also once the project has formally ended.”

In addition to SMHI’s contribution, measuring stations are being installed for air quality and meteorology.

Experience from three continents

SMHI has previously been involved in and built up national air quality systems in Sweden, the UK, Singapore, Chile and Estonia, where the Airviro system is used for data storage, statistics, air environment modelling and presentations for various purposes.

Airviro is also used on a local level and in industrial areas. The Swedish modelling system SIMAIR, which helps municipalities and regional players control air quality in densely populated areas, is run by SMHI and is based on Airviro.

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