Tag Archives | API

China’s new Air Quality Index: How does it measure up?

By on March 28, 2012 in Air quality, China, Indices

Earlier this month, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) released the official (trial) revisions to the Ambient Air Quality Index (AQI, which is a notable shift from its previous form as the Air Pollution Index, or API).  I wrote last February about how the MEP was already revising the API to be more in line with the [...]

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Beijing to go coal-less in 2015

By on April 21, 2011 in Air quality, China, Policy

This post originally appeared on The City Fix. Beijing’s recent string of blue-sky days may be a more common sight to behold in 2015. This past week, the Chinese capital released the five-year “Beijing Municipal Clean Air Action Plan,” which aims to increase the number of blue-sky days (i.e. “good” or “excellent” air quality days on [...]

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China amends air quality measures but misses key pollutant – PM 2.5

China amends air quality measures but misses key pollutant – PM 2.5

By on March 22, 2011 in Air quality, China, Indices

The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection has been drafting new proposals (see rough Google translation in English here) to amend former daily reporting of the Air Pollution Index (API), which has been used the last 20 years to communicate air quality and health hazards posed by air pollution on any given day. In 2000 the MEP (then the State Environmental Protection Agency, or SEPA) began reporting a daily API for 42 cities; now, data for 113 cities are available from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center.

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