Comparing air quality among Italy, Germany and Poland using BC indexes

In this paper we discuss air quality assessment in three Italian, German and Polish regions using the index methodology proposed in Bruno and Cocchi (2002, 2007). This analysis focuses first on the local air quality situation of each considered country and then adopts a more general approach with a comparing purpose in terms of pollution severity and toxicity. This is interesting in a global European perspective where all countries are commonly involved in assessing air quality and taking proper measures for improving it. In this context, air quality indexes result to be a powerful data-driven tool which are easily calculated and summarize a complex phenomenon, such as air pollution, in promptly understandable indicators. In particular, the main objective of this work is to evaluate the index performances in discriminating different air pollution patterns. This kind of analysis can be particularly useful, for example, in the perspective of constructing an indicator of air pollution.