The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday unveiled an upgraded version of its real-time environmental data app, which incorporates data provided by a number of government agencies through the administration’s open data platform, enabling the public to obtain real-time environmental information about their surroundings, such as the ultraviolet index and air quality.
EPA Environmental Monitoring and Data Processing Bureau Director Chu Yu-chi (朱雨其) said that governments worldwide are placing more emphasis on open data policies, which not only make government data available to the public, but enable people to use the data in value-added applications via machine-readable data sets.
Government agencies that upload data to the platform are the Central Weather Bureau, the Water Resources Agency, the Bureau of Mines, the Central Geological Survey, the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, the Forestry Bureau, the Endemic Species Research Institute and the Construction and Planning Agency, which jointly provide 75 data sets containing information ranging from controlled toxic substances and endangered species to precipitation over the past 24 hours.
The app, which was introduced in March last year and upgraded last week, uses the same pool of data as the platform, Chu said.
Information available through the upgraded version includes the pollutant standards index, the ultraviolet index, weather information and water quality, which are respectively displayed in four boxes which, when opened, reveal pages containing more detailed measurements.
For instance, after touching the air quality box, a chart detailing ozone, carbon, nitrogen and sulfur dioxide levels, as well as particulate matter density is displayed.
The upgraded version also allows users to keep track of torrential rain and flood warnings.
As a location-based service, the app enables users to look up real-time statistics in their surrounding area, produced by the survey station closest to them.
The app also provides them with the same information gathered from survey stations in municipalities across the nation, including from the outlying islands of Kinmen and Lanyu (蘭嶼, also known as Orchid Island), should the user wish to obtain such information.
Chu said the app is currently only available for Android users, as the iOS-compatible version is still pending Apple Inc’s approval.
Chu said the essence of open data is to leverage the use of information through the collective wisdom of the masses, thereby creating value-added application and services.
He encouraged the general public to visit the EPA’s open data platform at opendata.epa.gov.tw.
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