Ambient air quality (AQ) is an environmental and socio-economic issue increasingly decisive in the sustainable development of a territory. At low density territories of Continental Portugal, a good AQ can contribute to the development of various sectors of activity like health and wellness tourism and organic farming, affecting positively the socio-economic situation. The main goal of this study was to build information on ozone concentration in ambient air for the present and on a climate change scenario. The territory case study – the “cerne do Entre-Norte-e-Centro”–, consists of seven municipalities: Aguiar da Beira, Castro Daire, Moimenta da Beira, Sátão, Sernancelhe, Tarouca and Vila Nova de Paiva. Geographically it belongs to the North and Centre of Mainland Portugal (NUTS II) and the Douro and Dão-Lafões subregions (NUTS III). In this area (151.195 hectares) there is not any station of AQ monitoring. Data provided by the Portuguese Air Quality Network was analysed to determine the spatio-temporal evolution of different pollutants covered by actual Portuguese legislation, with special focus on ozone and nitrogen dioxide. This information was compared with the data provided by Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. It was build hazard and vulnerability charts as well as the chart of risk to the territory under study. This knowledge will improve the decision-making process in terms of public politics. In addition it contributes to an increased visibility and attractiveness of this area, as a tourism destination through environmental differentiation in this endogenous resource.

Ambient air quality is an increasingly prominent environmental factor within the sustainable development of an urban territory, due to a growing awareness on the harmful and transboundary nature of its effects. The main objective of this work was to build knowledge on the quality of ambient air and climate, in the metropolitan area of Brasília/DF, the capital of Brazil. The experimental procedure was designed so as to allow the response to this objective: a) appealed to the temporal series of pollutants measured in the existing regulatory network in this urban area, in the last 10 years; and the data from the National Institute of Meteorology – NIMET; b) correlated statistically all data analyzed. We found a poor spatial coverage of the network for monitoring of ambient air quality in urban area. The only pollutants measured continuously in Brasília/DF are respirable particles (PM10), which is manifestly insufficient, taking into account the different types of sources found. In this way, it is crucial to raise the level of knowledge about the quality of the resource “air” in this city to become more effective and efficient management. The information now obtained constitutes the basis for developing an urban strategy to increase the resilience of populations potentially affected by this problem, i.e., aims to guide the process of ambient air quality management of this Brazilian city to enable you to hold (when good) or, in other cases are initiated investigations/actions that improve.