AURA Monitoring Station for Atmospheric Dynamics and Quality, at Aglantzia Site Visit
The Technical Committee on Environment (TCE) has a mandate to create a network of communication and collaboration among all environmental stakeholders in Cyprus. This network is expected to enable the experts to share their experiences, good practices, challenges, and ideas for tackling environmental problems island-wide. TCE has identified a series of thematic areas to concentrate efforts on and has been organizing site visits in these priority areas aiming to illustrate the environmental problems of the island.
Under this framework, on 22nd September 2022, the TCE organized a site visit at the AURA monitoring station at Aglantzia, to call attention on the Air Quality thematic area. Led by the co-chairs, the members of the Technical Committee, the UN Facilitator, and the technical experts in meteorology, chemical, electrical, environmental engineering, ecology and epidemiology, visited the Monitoring Station for Atmospheric Dynamics and Quality, during which the hosts of the station made a presentation to outline their work in air quality and dynamics monitoring and the relation of air quality to general public health/wellbeing. The team was then guided through the facilities and were offered a demonstration of the tools and measured parameters of the station.
The guided tour was followed by a workshop moderated by the co-chairs of the TCE during which all participants had a chance to discuss their observations, suggestions and make proposals. Following the opening of the workshop, a public health specialist briefed the participants on the correlation between the air quality and the potential effects of pollutants on the diseases such as cancers and respiratory problems. The experts contributed to the discussions by providing background information in their areas of expertise such as the number of monitoring stations the type of pollutants measured, which are the main anthropogenic sources of pollution in Cyprus, and which are the best practices applied in to minimize air pollution.
The workshop closed with an open call for proposals to address pressing environmental issues in the field of air quality, working together for a common future. The members of the TCE thanked all participants for their contribution to this visit and the opportunity given to discuss and share views for immediate and future common actions on urgent environmental issues that need to be addressed. Suggested actions in the air quality priority thematic area, for the common future and wellbeing of all habitants of Cyprus, concentrated on the following subjects:
- Awareness-raising campaigns targeting different demographic groups such as children, the general community, local communities, the private sector and specific interest groups
- Specific demonstrations for indoor air quality, peripheral monitoring and industrial pollutants
- Create a stable route of communication between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots experts on air quality aiming to create a common protocol which will be applied throughout the island.
