How can it be accessed and used?

You can access all the SAAQIS portal services via the home page.

Current air quality status by location

On the home page, you can get a quick view of current air quality status for individual sites by clicking on the coloured map bubbles. This will show air quality information at that location over the past day.

Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Data

SAAQIS provides Level 2 air quality monitoring data from monitoring stations in near real-time. These stations are operated by district municipalities, metros and the DEA itself. Level 2 data is explained in this pdf from DEA on slide 13 as "Data is evaluate[d] using default data management system algorithms e.g., to remove suspicious data spikes before display"; Level 3 data is processed further by DEA and other data scientists according to "acceptable quality control procedures". You can access Level 2 monitoring data by:

1. Selecting "Station Report" drop down from the "Ambient Monitoring" main menu item.
2. When the Station Report page loads you will be able to select a monitoring site closest to you and pollutants you want to view. The most common pollutants are SO2 (related to the burning of coal), PM10 and PM2.5 (related to the burning of biomass) and CO, NO and NO2 (related to vehicle emissions)
3. You will be able to "Select Period" (e.g. Last Year), the sampling period under "Time Base" (e.g. 1 Hour) and the "Report Type" (e.g. Average). Do not select a small time base or period greater than 6 months to avoid system timeout.
4. After clicking "Display"; a header and content table should show. You can download this as .xlsx file by clicking on the icon on the right side of the table window.

Note that API access for SAAQIS is only available on request from the Department of Environmental Affairs. See the resource contact information below.You may also generate graph views of data directly on the portal via the "Custom Graphs" page.

Air Quality Legislation
From the ‘Legislation’ main menu item, you can access a page with documents covering Acts and Regulation, Draft Notices, Municipal By-laws, Guidelines and Policies.

Air Quality Management Plans (AQMP)
The portal provides pdf documents related to Air Quality Management Plans (AQMP) for provinces and districts through a clickable map of South Africa, along with a Manual for Air Quality Management Planning.

Air Quality Monitoring Reports
The portal provides pdf versions of National Air Quality Officer's Annual Reports and Annual State of Air Reports.