Project description
Sensor technology for air pollution control
Population growth, leading to an increase in the density of urban air pollution, is a critical problem for both public health and the economy. It is estimated that more than half of the EU's cities surpass the limits posed by EU regulations concerning NO2 and PM10 pollutants. However, existing air quality controlling stations in cities are few due to the high costs of installation and maintenance. The EU-funded MappingAir project proposes a platform as a service, or PaaS, that allows air pollution mapping in cities. The solution is based on a vast deployment of specific gas sensors and uses an innovative post-processing algorithm. The sensors are installed in streetlights with the purpose to identify unknown pollution origins and to propose effective environmental actions.
Objective
Air pollution is a major problem for public health. According to WHO outdoor air pollution kills 4 million people, mostly in cities, every year. That’s more than HIV, malaria and influenza combined. Air pollution is estimated to cost approximately 2% of Gross Domestic Product in developed countries and 5% in developing countries. The problem is only increasing with the unprecedented population growth in cities. In Europe, over one in four and one-third of cities surpass the legal limits set by the EU legislation regarding NO2 and PM10 respectively, pollutants that affect seriously the respiratory system. However, current air quality monitoring stations in cities are spatially very limited due to the high capital and operative expenditures. Consequently, a small number of them are installed in cities mainly used just for air quality regulation. Bettair is a Platform as a Service that permits, for the first time with low investment, to really map air an noise pollution in cities on a previously unimaginable scale based on a large deployment of outstandingly accurate gas sensors by using an advanced post-processing algorithm. The network of autonomous devices is installed in streetlights (or similar) in a dense matrix and assist cities to i) identify unknown pollution sources, and ii) to assess the impact of different environmental actions to identify the most effective ones. Thus, providing unique insights and allowing better decisions to mitigate air pollution and reduce individual exposure. We need the FTI project to internationally bring to market the developed technology, from a prototype to a product, by industrialising the hardware and scaling-up the platform. Two big and two small pilots will be carried out in order to demonstrate the accuracy, the performance, and the benefits of using such a system. The consortium has 2 innovative EU SMEs Bettair Cities and Omniflow; 2 big corporates CISCO and Telecom Italy; and a leading health research centre, ISGlobal.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinepneumology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic health
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringair pollution engineering
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
08907 HOSPITALET DE LLOBREGAT
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.