By SARAH WILD
Every day, we breathe about 20 000. The oxygen in the air nourishes the cells of our body. But if the air we breathe contains harmful particulate matter and chemicals, the contaminants can also be found in our bodies.
Air pollution is one of the biggest threats to human health and kills millions of people worldwide every year. According to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019, 99% of the global population lives in areas where air quality fails to meet WHO guidelines.
In the European Union in the same year, 307 000 people died prematurely due to constant exposure to small pollution particles, according to the European Environment Agency’s report on air quality in Europe.
Minimal measurement
To reduce air pollution, cities and towns must first measure it. But traditional equipment is expensive and bulky.
‘It’s a big container, three by four meters, with its own air conditioning and electricity 24/7,’ said Leonardo Santiago of Bettair Cities, which coordinates a project funded by Horizon to encourage a more agile measurement technology. ‘And then they have to have special people to maintain.’
Developing better methods of measuring and mapping air pollution will not come soon enough.
Cost benefits
If a city in the EU has more than 100 000 inhabitants, European rules require it to monitor air quality. The cost and inconvenience of traditional monitoring stations means that many small towns that are not obligated to do the inspection don’t — and that big cities use only a few, according to Santiago.
‘With the number of stations a city usually has, it’s not enough for them to make a real map,’ he said. ‘They usually use mathematical models to estimate what’s going on, but they don’t see the truth.’
Called MappingAir, the Horizon project created a platform that captures data from a network of low-cost sensors developed by Spain-based Bettair Cities. The company’s helmet-like sensors sit under the bulbs of smart street lights, scanning the air for pollutants.
Traditional monitoring stations cost upwards of €200 000, while small sensors have a price tag of around €4 000 and do not require regular, specialized, maintenance. In addition to establishing the monitoring platform, the project, which ended last month after three years, enabled Bettair Cities to transform its sensor from a prototype to a ready-to-use product.
Strong sensors
The device is currently used in street and traffic lights in many European and South American cities, with the largest trial in Rome. Some of these sensors are part of tests to demonstrate their effectiveness, while others are commercial installations. Many metropolises have shown interest, said Santiago.
Inside its plastic shell, the sensor contains electrochemical cells that detect the presence of pollutants. However, these cells also react to humidity and temperature, which can distort their readings.
‘What we’ve done is use artificial intelligence to analyze how all these variables affect the sensor,’ says Santiago. AI algorithms effectively remove data noise caused by other variables including humidity and temperature.
When the sensor data is fed to the company’s ‘blackbox full of artificial intelligence,’ the output is pollution information that is consistent with that produced by traditional size stations about 94% of the time, according to Santiago .
Owners need to replace the cells every two years – much less than the regular maintenance of traditional stations. An additional benefit of the sensors is that they have noise pollution monitors as well.
Sky high
Researchers are also taking to the skies to tackle urban air pollution.
Using satellites in conjunction with monitoring stations, a separate research project has created air quality maps for various cities around the world.
‘When we combine Earth observation data with socio-economic data, including health data, we are closer to the real problems, or the real causes of the problems,’ said Evangelos Gerasopoulos, head of the Health Surveillance Air Quality Pilot. ‘We are also one step closer to making a decision.’
His work is part of e-shape, a Horizon project that uses massive amounts of data from Europe’s Earth observation infrastructure for the benefit of people in fields from agriculture and energy to health and water.
‘e-shape is built with and for users,’ said Thierry Ranchin, director of the Center Observation, Impacts, Energy at MINES ParisTech in France and scientific coordinator of e-shape.
The air quality pilot Teaser platform gives users – municipalities, companies and individuals, for example – a taste of what is possible by combining Earth observation, health and socio-economic data from 2018 until 2020.
For dozens of cities around the world, the cloud-based platform offers an aggregated risk index – used to evaluate the impact of air quality on health.
For example, during the winter months, the major arterial roads of Athens are a source of air pollution, but they are also densely populated areas. The map shows not only the extent of pollution but also the exposure of people at risk.
‘We provide a one-stop shop,’ said Gerasopoulos, who works at the National Observatory of Athens in Greece.
Adjusted data
For some cities, the project interacts with local users to adapt the data to their needs. Eleni Athanasopoulou, who also works at the National Observatory of Athens, gives the following examples of such design experiences.
In Athens, the Health Surveillance Air Quality Pilot team worked with the city and other stakeholders to map public street-level exposure to common chemicals from vehicles. In response to the findings of the pilot, the Greek ministry of health, faced with data illustrating the extent of the danger of air pollution, has strengthened environmental monitoring.
In Helsinki, the pilot worked with the Finnish government and private sector to find out how industries around the city affect air quality for residents. In Munich, the focus is on the spatial distribution of air pollution, allowing users to zoom in on specific postcodes. And in Bari, Italy, air pollution data is combined with population density and linked to sustainable development goals.
These examples show the many ways that Earth observation information can be used and the power of data integration, Gerasopoulos said.
‘When we go to different communities like the health community, they may not know where they can find our type of Earth observation data and we don’t know how to get theirs. data,’ he said. ‘The project shows the capacity, perspectives and potential to bring them all together.’
The research in this article was funded by the EU and it was originally published in horizonthe EU Research and Innovation Magazine.
