A graphical tool for eliciting knowledge of air pollution sources

Abstract

With tens of thousands of air quality monitoring stations installed in the world, this source of information has become the standard in air quality measuring. Air pollution becoming a growing concern for decades now, the need for an easy way to visualise pollution data arose. Extensive maps have been created to represent air pollution using data collected from monitoring stations, as well as other sources of information, such as traffic density or weather forecasts. This paper introduces a complementary source: direct environmental expert knowledge. By using the developed tool, the goal is to allow experts to express their knowledge about air pollution emission and diffusion as a function of the presence of key topological elements in a map, such as buildings or roads. The results of the usability tests performed with a sample of 30 participants are promising. Participants provided useful feedback regarding key application features to be implemented in future iterations.