Design and prototype of an interoperable online air quality information system

This paper focuses on the design and development of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)-compliant online system for air quality information retrieval, including support for real-time monitoring. This system assesses exposure to ambient air to mitigate potential health risks, which is crucial for susceptible individuals, health practitioners and decision makers. Particular attention is paid to the development of an interoperable, applicable and transferrable approach to the application of robust and flexible air quality modeling as required for early warning systems on the Web. Moreover, the design provides different access levels to system components for both non-expert and scientific users and supports extension with external standard compliant services. The developed Web-client Time2Maps enables the user to view, analyze and download requested air quality information and serves as a portal to the designed online system.