New web portal to share European air quality data

A new application to provide businesses and individuals with information on air quality across Europe was launched this week, alongside the promise that it could become a central database for a wide range of environmental information.

The Eye on Earth site, which was developed as part of a joint initiative between the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft, provides interactive information on air and water quality from country-wide to street level, based on data from environmental measurement stations and citizen input.

Microsoft said that it planned to expand the site to add other environmental information from across Europe, providing data on biodiversity and noise levels, for example.

Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the EEA, said the site will help raise environmental awareness and encourage people in areas with low environmental quality to push for improvements. "As more people understand what is happening in their area, more will contribute to solving environmental problems," she said.

While information at a local level comes from specific real-time citizen and station measurements, an overview of air quality at national and Europe-wide level is obtained by feeding information through climate models and expressing changes to air quality in simple terms.

Eye On Earth also includes an SMS service that can instantly send a message to more than three billion people across nearly 200 countries. The data can also be shared by people on social networking sites such as Facebook.

Microsoft said it was also planning to make the site available in 24 additional European languages over the coming weeks.