Da Nang Air Quality: The AQI Explained and What Monitoring Shows (2026)

Da Nang's Department of Agriculture and Environment says the city's urban air is generally fairly good. At the 41 Lê Duẩn station, AQI was 'good' on about 93% of days measured in 2020. A 2025 Báo Đà Nẵng report put two stations at 'good' on 90–96% of days. VN_AQI runs in six bands from 0 to 500.

Da Nang’s only national air-quality monitoring station sat at 41 Lê Duẩn in Hải Châu district, invested in and run by the then Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, according to the city’s 2021 state-of-environment report. At that station, the air quality index stayed at the “good” level (AQI 11–50) for about 93% of the days measured in 2020, a marked improvement over 2019. Here’s how that index works, what the city monitors today, and what recent readings show.

How Vietnam’s air quality index works

Vietnam’s air quality index, VN_AQI, comes from a technical guidance the General Department of Environment (Tổng cục Môi trường) issued as Decision No. 1459/QĐ-TCMT on 12 November 2019. That decision took effect from its date of issuance and replaced an earlier 2011 handbook for calculating the index. It sets six bands, each with its own colour and a recommended level of outdoor activity for ordinary people and for sensitive groups.

Where Da Nang’s air is officially measured

As of the city’s 2021 state-of-environment report (published 2022), Da Nang had only one automatic, continuous national urban air-quality station — the one at 41 Lê Duẩn mentioned above. The same report said the city was installing 6 city-owned automatic air stations and 1 national one, alongside 54 passive (periodic) monitoring points.

A national monitoring bulletin for 6–12 May 2024 named two automatic stations in Da Nang in the national network: 41 Lê Duẩn (KK-ĐN01) and Hòa Thuận Tây (KK-ĐN02). On 16 April 2025, the regional monitoring centre held on-site operating training for an automatic, continuous air-quality station at Da Nang University of Education.

By May 2026, Báo Đà Nẵng reported that the responsible agency maintains periodic monitoring at 52 locations by the passive method, once a month, and that the city has also invested in 13 automatic, continuous environmental monitoring stations. The same report said the city separately has 3 automatic, continuous air-quality stations belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment in operation. According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment, monitoring results show Da Nang’s urban air quality is generally maintained at a fairly good level.

What recent monitoring has found

Based on 2021 passive monitoring at the city’s 54 periodic points, the yearly-average index showed every point reflecting average-to-good air quality (AQI under 100): 51 of the 54 points showed good quality (AQI under 50), 3 of 54 showed average quality (AQI 50–100), and none showed poor quality (AQI 100–150). Between 2017 and 2021, PM10 readings across the city’s urban monitoring points ranged from 15.14 to 118.59 µg/m3, below the then-applicable standard’s 24-hour limit of 150 µg/m3 (that PM10 limit has since been tightened, see below).

A 12 May 2025 Báo Đà Nẵng report said two automatic ambient air-quality stations recorded a “good” AQI on 90–96% of days. Over the same reporting period, PM2.5 readings ranged 0.02–29.56 µg/m³, which the report described as below the national standard’s limit of 50 µg/m³ — the 24-hour PM2.5 limit in force at that time; it has since tightened to 45 µg/m³ from 1 January 2026. PM10 readings ranged 21.51–91.7 µg/m³, below the 100 µg/m³ standard.

Seasonal and local pollution problems

A 10 May 2023 city directive told agencies to strengthen air pollution control and thoroughly handle hotspots of dust and emission pollution. It also called for stepped-up communication urging residents not to burn solid waste or post-harvest straw, and required project owners to shield construction sites and to spray water and wash roads and vehicles.

Báo Đà Nẵng’s May 2025 report named pollution-spike locations: Cách Mạng Tháng Tám–Ông Ích Đường, Phạm Hùng–National Highway 1A, Hoàng Văn Thái–Tôn Đức Thắng, ngã ba Huế, ngã tư Phước Tường, and in front of the Đà Nẵng Central Bus Station. It attributed about 70% of air pollution to emissions from transportation.

A 2021 report separately found some locations recording average total suspended particulate levels exceeding the permitted standard, mainly west of Liên Chiểu Industrial Zone, west of Hòa Khánh Industrial Zone, and at Ngã 5 Trần Bình Trọng, attributing this mainly to infrastructure construction, expanding industrial zones, and rapid urbanisation with rising urban population, traffic density, and commerce and services.

Da Nang’s air-quality management plan

In its 12 May 2025 report, Báo Đà Nẵng said the city People’s Committee had issued a plan to manage air-environmental quality for 2025–2030. The report described the target, in its own wording, as “AQI below 100”.

The national air quality standard

Vietnam’s national technical regulation on ambient air quality, QCVN 05:2023/BTNMT, replaces two older air-quality standards. It was issued via Circular 01/2023/TT-BTNMT on 13 March 2023, signed by Võ Tuấn Nhân, and took effect on 12 September 2023. For PM10, the limit is 100 µg/Nm³ as a 24-hour average and 50 µg/Nm³ as an annual average, with no 1-hour or 8-hour limit set. For PM2.5, the 24-hour limit is 45 µg/Nm³ from 1 January 2026 (50 µg/Nm³ before that), and the annual-average limit is 25 µg/Nm³.

Third-party monitors like IQAir

Independent trackers such as IQAir also publish live Da Nang readings, but treat them as a supplementary, unofficial snapshot rather than the official record. As a real-time snapshot recorded during this research, IQAir showed Da Nang’s PM2.5 concentration at roughly 1.8 times the World Health Organization’s annual PM2.5 guideline value, describing the city’s air quality as “moderate” compared with other Vietnamese cities.

Air is one of several basics worth checking before you settle in Da Nang — see also whether Da Nang’s tap water is safe to drink, or browse the health cluster hub for more.

Not confirmed: It isn't clear how many of Da Nang's automatic stations specifically measure air quality (versus water, soil or environment generally), or exactly where they sit: a 2026 report cites 13 city-invested automatic environmental stations and, separately, 3 automatic air-quality stations run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, while a 2021 city plan described 1 national air station plus 6 city-owned stations being installed — this article keeps each source's own figure separate rather than merging them. It also isn't confirmed whether the decision defining VN_AQI has been reassigned to a successor agency after the ministry merger, though legal databases still list it as current and unreplaced. The exact clause locator for the footnote tightening the 24-hour PM2.5 limit from 1 January 2026 is read from the regulation's own table, but no secondary source confirming or postponing that date was found. The precise wording and decision number of the city's air-quality management plan could not be verified beyond one press report's paraphrase, "AQI below 100" for its 2025–2030 target.

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