A local dynamic multipollutant air quality indicator

Given the worldwide concern on urban air pollution and its impact on public health and damage to the environment, we aim to contribute to a better reporting of information about air quality by suggesting a methodological procedure leading to the estimation of a local pollution indicator. The suggested procedure combines daily measurements of air pollutants with the observed meteorological conditions, taking into account also the effects of lagged pollution. The advantage of the dynamic factor model used for the empirical analysis is that we can consider the dynamics of local air pollution as a main determinant, together with the weather conditions, of what we actually observe, and we can use the same estimated model for forecasting future air pollution, given the meteorological predictions. The application regards pollution data collected at some monitoring sites in the alpine province of Trento.