Service to launch at City Hall, March 28th

The London wide expansion of the airTEXT project was launched at the Greater London Authority City Hall on March 28th. Speakers will include the Deputy Mayor, Nicky Gavron, Steven Briggs from ESA and Lord Hunt from CERC, the developers of the yourair forecasting system that powers airTEXT.

The London wide scheme includes two thirds of London boroughs and Slough, with the involvement of the Environment Agency and Health Protection Agency. The project is paid for by the European Space Agency and CERC with financial support from the Greater London Authority and Dept of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs.

Questions about yourair and airTEXT?
Please send your questions in to questions@airtext.info

Accuracy of the system
You can download an Excel file that tracks the accuracy of the system here. Overall, the current system correctly forecasts pollution episodes 73% of the time, with 76% of alerts being issued correctly (eg 25% of alerts are false alerts).

A short report outlining the accuracy of the Croydon airTEXT pilot service that ran from 5.5.05-28.3.07 can be downloaded here.

Known issues
Traffic model
The system currently depends on a simple model of traffic variation that assumes daily and weekly variations, but does not include live traffic data or forecasts. It is proposed to improve this model by including variations by monthly mean and for public and school holidays. It does not include the effects of local random traffic congestion.

Unpredicted events
The system does not include the effects of unpredictable events, such as major fires like the Bunsfield Fire, major traffic incidents or spillages. It is unlikely that such an improvement to the system will be developed on the timescale of this project.