(Photo : City planners' vision of Shanghai in 2020 at the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center museum)

Through the full cooperation between Shanghai Environmental Department and Shanghai Meteorological Department, 24-hour forecast of air quality in Shanghai will be published from September 1st, 2013. According to both Environmental Department and Meteorological Department, the current forecast period is set to be the following 24 hours and is expected to be increased to 48 hours or even longer period in the near future.

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Since Shanghai began to publish Air Quality Index (AQI) according to the latest air quality standard on November 16th, 2012, while paying high attention to real-time air quality report every day, the public have been looking forward to getting air quality forecast as well.

It is reported that, considering general public's exercise habits and travel arrangements, the air quality forecast will be published around 17:00 pm every day. The forecast period will be the following 24 hours, which will be divided into three periods: 20:00 pm - 6:00 am (night), 6:00 am-12:00 pm (next morning) and 12:00 pm - 20:00 pm (next afternoon and evening). The forecast will include the Air Quality Index range, air pollution level and major pollutants for each time period.

The air quality forecast will be together published around 17:00 pm everyday by Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center and Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory. It will also be published through additional channels such as portals, Weibo, WeChat and radio channels. In the future, the forecast is expected to be published through television channels and mobile Apps.

According to the environmental and meteorological departments, since air quality is related to real-time pollution and weather conditions, it is hard to provide accurate air quality forecast. However, the departments will spare no effort to increase the accuracy of the forecast by monitoring data and accumulating technological methods. They are looking forward to providing the public with air quality forecast for the following 48 hours or even longer period in the near future.