ISSS608 2018-19 T1 Assign Lee Yeng Ling
Spatio-temporal Analysis of Air Quality in Sofia City
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Air pollution is an important risk factor for health in Europe and worldwide. A recent review of the global burden of disease showed that it is one of the top ten risk factors for health globally. Worldwide an estimated 7 million people died prematurely because of pollution; in the European Union (EU) 400,000 people suffer a premature death. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicts that in 2050 outdoor air pollution will be the top cause of environmentally related deaths worldwide. In addition, air pollution has also been classified as the leading environmental cause of cancer.
Air quality in Bulgaria is a big concern: measurements show that citizens all over the country breathe in air that is considered harmful to health. For example, concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 are much higher than what the EU and the World Health Organization (WHO) have set to protect health.
Bulgaria had the highest PM2.5 concentrations of all EU-28 member states in urban areas over a three-year average. For PM10, Bulgaria is also leading on the top polluted countries with 77 μg/m3 on the daily mean concentration (EU limit value is 50 μg/m3).
According to the WHO, 60 percent of the urban population in Bulgaria is exposed to dangerous (unhealthy) levels of particulate matter (PM10).
To provide a user-friendly and functional visualization application that allows discovery of spatio-temporal patterns/trends of air quality in Sofia City, including:
Task 1: Spatio-temporal Analysis of Official Air Quality Measurements
Task 2: Spatio-temporal Analysis of Citizen Science Air Quality Measurements
Task 3: Relationships between the factors mentioned above and the air quality measures detected in Task 1 and Task 2
