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A Publication Featuring The Information Services Technology of Maine State Government
| Volume V, Issue 9 | September 2002 |
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By Jennifer Desimone and Mike Karagiannes
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The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Bureau of Air Quality (BAQ) was established to clean up, control, and ultimately prevent air pollution. The BAQ is also responsible for educating and alerting citizens of potential outdoor air quality health issues. Historically alerts have been promulgated through the media and hotlines. Although the BAQ had few resources, or in-house expertise, it wanted to develop a Web site to provide future (forecasts), current and historic air quality data. Read on to learn how BAQ designed and deployed http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/ozone/. |
This site provides current air quality data, forecasts, and education material regarding health information on certain pollutants to US and Canadian citizens, educators, local media, etc. Air quality forecasts are updated twice daily (prior to 10:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m.), to ensure TV stations and newspapers receive the forecasts prior to their respective afternoon and evening newscasts, and print deadlines. Forecasts also enable citizens to plan their day according to the level of pollutants expected. Current air quality conditions data is updated hourly and historical data is updated weekly.
Since its late May inception, visits to this site have increased dramatically as follows:
May - 304,
June - 769,
July - 2,198!
The site’s design incorporated color code and descriptors based on the Air Quality Index (AQI), which lead to an easily understood, visually appealing, and intuitive site. Along with the colors, it was important to use text descriptors (or values that correspond to the colors) to ensure color blind individuals could correctly interpret data. Additionally, text font size was increased to assist visually impaired users. Raw, detailed data from individual pollutant monitors is also available.
The site incorporates the departmental logo, headers and footers that are consistent on all pages, a navigation toolbar, graphics that quickly load, a search engine (which searches all DEP pages), site map, and a color scheme that does not use any color in the AQI. A new feature under the header, shows users the page they are on, and allows them to easily return to previous pages. Users can e-mail questions or comments directed to the DEP and/or BAQ webmaster, or call individuals listed on the site.
Outsourcing The decision to outsource the BAQ’s web site was made easily, since the Maine Legislature enacted the InforME Electronic Access to Public Information Act, in 1998. InforME (http://www.maine.gov/informe/) manages and hosts the official State of Maine web site, builds service applications that interface public information to businesses and citizens, designs state agency web sites with a focus on users' needs, provides technical support, and delivers e-government services to citizens through strategic and practiced marketing campaigns.
InforME provides web hosting, on a UNIX server, without cost to state agencies. Because the BAQ wanted to redesign its web site, a small cost was incurred. InforME deliverables included 1) a site architecture and map, 2) a home page using the existing logo, header, navigation, graphic designs, and 3) up to thirteen additional web pages, and all content placements. Backend programming and development of any administration pages was free. The BAQ supplies InforME with all pages’ content, and has access to all pages through FTP. Static pages are maintained and updated regularly by the BAQ. InforME maintains dynamic pages, which include programming.
Web Site Design When developing the site, the BAQ adhered to the following guidelines:
Graphics add to the site’s visual appeal. They were intentionally placed at the top of each page with the majority of the text following. Each graphic was designed to be self-explanatory, but users may read text descriptions for further information.
Each page is a template that is setup to automatically update all other pages when a change is made. This allows quicker and easier site maintenance. Static pages are updated by using either web software or html code. Dynamic pages are automatically updated daily or hourly, depending of the page and type of data, through scripts developed by InforME.
Questions? E-mail the authors: mike.karagiannes@state.me.us, and/or jennifer.desimone@state.me.us.
For the last 4 years, Jennifer Desimone has been the senior meteorologist for the DEP/BAQ. She is the lead air quality forecaster for the state. Mike Karagiannes is an environmental specialist at Air Quality/DEP.
