Belgian Air Quality App

Enhancing the Air Quality App for the Belgian Interregional Environment Agency

Over the last several years, 52°North has worked closely with the Belgian Interregional Environment Agency (IRCEL – CELINE) to develop the BelAir air quality app. Interested citizens can use the app to access information about several air quality parameters and an air quality index in Belgium. The app can create time-dependent map visualizations and present historic changes of different air quality parameters as diagrams. A set of personalization functionalities (e.g., setting user-defined locations) allows the user to adjust the app to individual information needs. Additional push notifications inform users of critical air quality situations.

We use the Ionic framework to build and deploy the JavaScript-based implementation as an app for Android and iPhone platforms.

Our activities in 2020 focused mainly on the BelAir 2.0 version. In cooperation with design experts, we contributed to updating the app’s business logic for the 2.0 release. This included enhancing the caching mechanism and developing strategies to improve the user experience in an offline mode. We also worked on enhancing certain functionalities, such as user-based notification (e.g., in case of air quality issues at user-defined locations), and a feedback mechanism to collect user-generated input on air quality.