The air quality for all of Türkiye’s 81 provinces has improved by 16% on average in the last five years, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change has noted recently.
According to the statement issued by the ministry on Friday, Türkiye’s air, water and soil quality is monitored constantly at the Department of Laboratory, Measurement and Monitoring affiliated to the Directorate General of Environmental Impact Assessment, Permit and Inspection (SIM).
In this context, while the air quality of all provinces is monitored round-the-clock with a total of 365 air quality monitoring stations after which a five-year air quality is evaluated, an average improvement of 16% in air quality was noted, including 4% in particulate matter parameter, 46% in sulfur dioxide parameter, 18% in carbon monoxide parameter, 3% in nitrogen dioxide parameter and 8% in ozone parameter, the ministry stated.
Preliminary air quality assessment projects for establishing air quality monitoring stations began in Türkiye in 2008.
As of 2016, the air quality monitoring network in the country has been completed, excluding provinces affiliated with the Southeastern Anatolia Clean Air Center.
With the classification system called Air Quality Index (AQI), which is widely used all over the world, air quality can be graded as “good, moderate, bad and dangerous” according to the concentrations of pollutants in the air.
Since Türkiye became a member of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Information and Observation Network in 2003, data obtained from air quality monitoring stations are also reported yearly to the EEA.
