Vehicles run amid heavy smog and thick fog in Beijing, Dec. 25, 2015. (Photo: China News Service/Jin Shuo)
(ECNS) -- Beijing's environmental protection department plans to double the number of air quality monitoring stations in the city to about 60 or 70, Beijing Times reports.
These stations will also be located in villages and mountain areas to further develop the network of such services.
The newly created atmospheric environmental quality monitoring network system will cover four sub-networks, and their respective functions include overall evaluation, pollution monitoring, regional evaluation, and trend monitoring.
Project site selection has been completed; and relevant departments will actively carry out follow-up work, according to authorities.
Beijing's existing network covers 35 stations that comprehensively monitor the real-time Air Quality Index (AQI) of PM2.5 and five other major contaminants. The network has contributed to methods of atmospheric environmental assessment, pollution prevention and control countermeasures, and trend forecasting, the report states.
The new monitoring network will be able to retrieve comprehensive and accurate data on environmental quality conditions, and reflect the status of and trends related to this objectively, it was added.
There has been increasing concern regarding air quality at schools, so some deputies to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress have proposed to build a number of air monitoring stations here.
