Air Pollution Monitoring Using Earth Observation & GIS

Air pollution has received considerable attention by local and global communities (Wald et al, 1999). Many major cities have established air quality monitoring stations but these stations tend to be scarcely distributed and do not provide sufficient tools for mapping atmospheric pollution since air quality is highly variable (Wald et al, 1999). Satellite remote sensing is a valuable tool for assessing and mapping air pollution as satellite images are able to provide synoptic views of large areas in one image on a systematic basis due to the temporal resolution of the satellite sensors. Blending together earth observation with ground supporting campaigns enables the users or governmental authorities to validate air pollution measurements from space. New state-of-the-art ground systems are used to undertake field measurements such as Lidar system, automatic and hand held sunphotometers etc. The rise of GIS technology and its use in a wide range of disciplines enables air quality modellers with a powerful tool for developing new analysis capability. Indeed, thematic air pollution maps can be developed. Moreover, the organization of data by location allows data from a variety of sources to be easily combined in a uniform framework. GIS provides the opportunity to fill the technical gap between the need of analysts and decision-makers for easy understanding of the information.