The new EuropeAir app is the best way to find out about the latest air quality across Europe. Get data from 3,500 monitoring stations in +30 countries while you’re on the go

Source: Android description / Image: gaelx CC BY-SA 2.0

Useful information

Download: Android 4.4 (6.06MB) / iOS 9.3 (24.3MB)

Price: free

Language: English / Spanish

Runs offline: no

Last update: Android 18/05/2017 (v. 1.0) – iOS 28/06/2017 (v. 2.6)

Website of the developer: 4sfera Innova

Description

EuropeAir is a tool that allows you to know the air emissions of polluting gases from your city or municipality. Its main objective is to provide updated information on air quality, incorporating also the option of consulting the data based on the geographic location of the citizen. In this way, the user does not need to browse the websites of the different administrations looking for this type of data.

The application has 3 main sections:

  • Favorites, represented in the horizontal menu by a star. In this tab you can save the air quality stations that interest you the most.
  • Map, section represented by a triptych. From here you can access to an air quality map with the different measuring stations for air pollution, symbolized by a point. Its colour is defined by one of the 5 categories adopted to represent the emission limits set by Directive 2008/50/EC (very good, good, moderate, bad and very bad). In addition, by clicking on the station information, you access a screen with detailed values of 4 main pollutants: ozone, nitrogen dioxide, PM10 and PM2.5. This section also gives you the option to filter the data, being able to search by station type or pollutant.
  • Ayuda, apartado representado por tres puntos. En esta pestaña puedes consultar aspectos relacionados, por ejemplo, con los datos, efectos de la contaminación del aire, etc.

It should be noted, however, that in the transposition of community legislation into national law, the cut-off points and therefore the categories may vary slightly. For this reason, there may be differences in the colours of representation regarding the official websites.

More information

Air Quality Viewers (in developing)

Air pollution (European Environment Agency)

Images: screenshots 16/11/2017. ©4sfera Innova

Rating
3.8

Analysis

On November 10, 2017, The New York Times’ digital edition dedicated an article to the terrible air pollution conditions endured by the inhabitants of Lahore (Pakistan), one of the most polluted countries in the world, where you can practically «touch the filth» due to the high rates of suspended particles. Fortunately, in Europe these levels, of not only environmental but also health risk, have not been achieved, although urban pollution is also an issue that increasingly arouses concern. In fact, cities such as London, Paris or Madrid have to establish protocols recurrently to limit the circulation of vehicles, one of the main sources of polluting gas emissions, in an attempt to improve air quality.

While reducing air pollution levels is a joint effort of all citizens, sometimes access to current air quality information is not always easy. For this reason, applications such as EuropeAir are particularly useful. Although it does not offer predictions or forecasts as other applications already analyzed in this website, one of its strengths is that the data it shows are official, although they have a delay of between 2 and 4 hours depending on the station and country. As aspects to improve it could be interesting to also include information on the emissions of sulfur dioxide, a pollutant that affects the respiratory system.

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Técnico de medio ambiente, community manager y content curator especializada en temas de medioambiente - Environmental technician, community manager and content curator specialised in environmental issues