Global Air Quality Monitoring

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the global air quality monitoring. The second session of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council in 1974 authorized the implementation of the Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS). The basic principle underlying GEMS involves a world-wide linkage of national and regional monitoring networks thus providing the basis for responsible environmental management on an international scale. The role of GEMS is to provide a framework for coordination and synthesis of international monitoring efforts and to stimulate the formation of the necessary linkages. The WHO air quality monitoring project serves to illustrate the impact of participation in GEMS on the scope and depth of an international program. From 1972 until 1975, this project was operated on a pilot basis during which operational procedures were established and tested with fourteen countries participating. Starting in 1976, the project was included in the framework of UNEP's Global Environmental Monitoring System and plans were developed to expand the project in terms of the number of countries participating and the number of pollutants measured. The World Meteorological Organization became a cooperating Agency in the implementation of the project. Today, some 50 cities in about 35 countries are participating in the project. It is expected that it will continue to grow to an ultimate size of about 60–70 countries.