Project type                                                            Governance model

Promoter                                                                 City of Marseille – European  Union

Start date                                                                 2012

Funding                                                                   City of Marseille, Europen Union and IEVP

Marseille is a big southern city of France with 855.000 inhabitants. The problem is, like in most of the big cities, that a huge part of the population live in areas where air pollution exceeds the limit.

The City of Marseille participates in the GOUV’AIRNANCE project, promoted by the European Union and the ENPI Cross-border Cooperation in the Mediterranean. Along with three other Mediterranean cities (Valencia, Tripoli and Aqaba), Marseille aims to reduce urban air pollution by establishing means of measurement and an integrated territorial governance of air quality.

Air pollution is an important environmental, economic, social and health global issue. In Marseille, nearly 170.000 inhabitants live in areas where air pollution exceeds the limit values for health protection.

The established digital governance system Air-Marseille makes the commitments to fight air pollution public and visible, so that a collective governance system can be established in order to engage citizens. The project is 90% financed by the transnational cooperation program of the Mediterranean Sea.

With the project, citizens of Marseille are able to know the quality of the air in their neighbourhood, know which actions are underway to fight air pollution, as well as be informed about which actions they can take.

• Launch of a public website of the project
• Territorial monitoring committee (CST)
• Territorial diagnosis of the air quality
• Air quality monitoring network controlled by Air PACA
• Territorial governance to fight air pollution