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bavAIRia and partners to start the obsAIRveYourBusiness project

Germany, September 18, 2014: The obsAIRveYourBusiness project, funded by the European Commission (EC) will be started by bavAIRia and its partners GAF AG, DLR and Regio Augsburg Wirtschaft from Germany, Airparif from France, and the research networks CORILA and INNOVA from Italy.

The project will provide a customer-specific service for cities and regions by offering high-resolution air quality forecasts EC has given funding for this project in order to further develop the Copernicus downstream service obsAIRve. While obsAIRve already disseminates European-wide air quality information, obsAIRveYourBusiness will enhance the service with high resolution air quality model data for selected cities. An key aim of the project is to provide detailed air quality information on the city level. Using the latest mobile technology and numerical models, the service will translate environmental data into individually localised information for citizens.

The air quality service will deliver near real-time information via mobile apps and builds on experiences from the obsAIRve project and the European Copernicus programme.

Air pollution is one of the major health hazards faced by humans. A recent study by the WHO, released in March 2014, reports that air pollution resulted in around 7 million deaths in 2012. This is double the previous estimates and “confirms that air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk”. As Europe is no exception in this regard, the European Commission has provided funding for obsAIRveYourBusiness in order to further develop the Copernicus downstream service obsAIRve (www.obsairve.eu) and thereby address specific stakeholders and potential customers of the service in Europe. While obsAIRve already disseminates European-wide air quality information, obsAIRveYourBusiness will enhance the service with high resolution air quality model data for selected cities.

obsAIRveYourBusiness focuses on dedicated mobile apps for selected cities in Europe. An important objective of the project is to provide easily comprehensible and detailed air quality information on the city level. Using numerical models and the latest mobile technology, the service will translate environmental data into individually localised information for citizens. Key air pollutants are ozone, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. Information about and forecasting of these pollutants, as well as a general air quality index, will be accessible via each mobile app. In order to stay closely connected to the project stakeholders, workshops and user forums are planned throughout the project. This will allow the consortium to involve city representatives and other potential customers at an early stage in the service development and provide a platform to exchange information.

obsAIRveYourBusiness offers numerous possibilities for Europe by preparing the air quality service for the market. It will enable cities, regions and other stakeholders to start using high-resolution data for air quality management within cities in order to raise the awareness of citizens or for integration into other applications. In acknowledging the importance of air quality to human health, the challenge is to combine data from various sources and provide an easy to use and meaningful service for citizens and cities. The obsAIRveYourBusiness project is funded by the European Commission as part of its Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and is part of the European Mobile and Mobility Industries Alliance (EMMIA). EMMIA aims to support European’s mobile and mobility industries using policy analyses and funding instruments.

Source: GAF AG