THE city’s human habitat and environment commission put its air quality monitoring system, which covers 74 subdistricts across the city, online at a ceremony Wednesday.

Starting July 1, the commission will release the rankings and PM2.5 concentration levels of the 74 subdistricts through the commission’s app, miniapp and WeChat account.

In the decade following 2006, the PM2.5 concentration in the city dropped by 55 percent. In 2017, the average concentration was 28 micrograms per cubic meters.

Shenzhen is the only city among the top 20 local economies in China that has met the air quality standards in all six categories. However, compared to world cities, such as London, Tokyo and New York, Shenzhen’s air quality still lags behind.

To narrow the differences, the city government has unveiled the 2018 Shenzhen Blue Sky Sustainable Development Action Plan and set a target to control the average PM2.5 concentration to within 26 micrograms per cubic meter.

To meet the target, the city decided at a meeting in March to build an air quality monitoring network. This grid system will monitor every subdistrict in the city.

Among the city’s 10 districts and new areas, 37 subdistricts had built PM2.5 monitoring stations by the end of March. To reach the target of each subdistrict having one monitoring station, the commission finished the remaining 37 monitoring stations in 50 days. The system linking 74 monitoring stations was put through a test at the end of May and was officially launched Wednesday.

Statistics showed the air quality in the city’s eastern area is generally better than that in the western region of the city. The data will provide solid scientific evidence for improving air quality. (Han Ximin)