Background
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Republic of Korea, have jointly implemented the project, “Building the Pan-Asia Partnership for Geospatial Air Pollution information (PAPGAPI)” since mid- 2020 focusing on the utilization of the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS), launched by the Republic of Korea in February 2020, and the installation of Pandora device supporting GEMS data validation and in-situ air quality monitoring. Asia and the Pacific region is increasingly recognized as the major home to the global health impacts of air pollution, resulting in about 7 million premature deaths annually. Effective air quality management requires tackling driving forces of excessive air pollution emissions in every economic sector. A key to the effective management is to measure emissions, impacts and sources of air pollution for devising more effective and efficient solutions. However, most countries lack not only data and information from in-situ measurements using ground-based air quality monitoring networks, facing heavy geographic imbalance across their territories, but also technical capacities for measuring impacts of air pollution crossing administrative and political borders, which can be mainly addressed by satellite-derived data.
Purpose and Objectives
The meeting aims to review the key outcomes of the PAPGAPI project, discuss lessons learned, and explore follow-up actions for enhancing air quality management through improved utilization of geospatial data. Your insights and contributions will be invaluable as we continue to address the pressing challenges of air pollution in our region.
