The Air Quality Monitoring Stations Network of the Dubai Municipality has received the prestigious European Standard Compliance certificate, making it the first government entity at the national and the regional level to get this high-level certificate.

Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director-General of Dubai Municipality explained that the certificate of compliance covered the overall management of the monitoring network with relevance to the current locations of the stations, the efficiency of the maintenance and calibration processes, quality and accuracy of the data captured from the monitoring system, efficient connections and software attached to the stations and the quality of communication systems of the Municipality’s air quality database, as well as the quality of the data base management of its various applications.

"During the past period we have been keen to implement an integrated project to develop and upgrade the air quality network monitoring system of the emirate, in accordance with the approved international standards. The project has included the replacement of the existing monitoring stations with the ones certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), as the new stations distinguish itself with high accuracy and resistance to the extreme climatic conditions prevailing in the region," he said.

"We were also keen to develop and upgrade the software and communication systems used for transferring the data from the network of stations to the database, by improving the time it takes to process the data and the efficiency of technical processes associated with the transfer. In addition to this, we also developed the maintenance and calibration processes and added new applications making it possible to follow-up on-site in a remotely visible way," he added.

Lootah stressed that Dubai Municipality has been keen to enhance air quality database on an ongoing basis with reliable data from different sources.

"Dubai Municipality has recently been communicating and coordinating with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States (NASA), in order to provide us with information on concentrations of different air pollutants found with the upper layers of the atmosphere in the Emirate captured by NASA’s satellites," he said.

Alya Al Harmoudi, Director of the Environment Department at Dubai Municipality said that the European Standard Compliance certificate was obtained through the German Environmental Inspection Agency, TUV, after its evaluation committee visited the emirate and conducted on-site inspections of all monitoring stations continuously for a month.

"We are currently working on the expansion of the existing monitoring network to keep pace with the rapid urbanisation of the city of Dubai. The expansion will cover all new urban development areas in the Emirate, including the Expo 2020 site," she explained.