Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Mapping Europe's Nitrogen Oxide Pollution


The recent controversy around Volkswagen's fraudulent diesel emissions tracking has helped to highlight the dangers of nitrogen oxide. For a change the normally regulation-lite United States actually has much better testing procedures for NOx emissions than the European Union. The result of this lax testing regime is that many of Europe's cities have very dangerous levels of NO2.

The Wall Street Journal has published an interactive map of Europe’s Diesel Pollution Problem. The map plots the annual NO2 concentration levels of over 4,000 monitoring stations for 2013. The stations on the map are shown on the map with colored markers. The colors of the markers indicate the annual NO2 concentration level recorded at the station and you can also mouse-over a marker to view the exact recorded level.

The map sidebar initially shows the top ten most polluted areas in Europe. However, as you zoom in on the map, the map sidebar updates to show the results for the monitoring stations in the current map bounds.

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