UPDATED 08:00 EDT / MAY 26 2021

EMERGING TECH

Google celebrates EU Green Week with new air quality sensors and maps

To celebrate EU Green Week starting Monday, May 31, Google LLC is building an air quality map for the City of Copenhagen and announced the upcoming launch of Air View in the City of Dublin to collect air quality measurements with Aclima Inc. technology using all-electric Street View cars.

Google has been outfitting Street View cars with pollution monitors since 2015 in an effort to provide cities the ability to track air quality as part of Project Air View and, over the past six years, the cars have collected more than 100 million street-by-street air quality measurements. It’s part of Google’s Environmental Insights Explorer, a free tool designed to provide municipal governments and researchers the actionable data and insights to help understand pollution and reduce emissions.

With hyperlocal maps, cities can make important decisions about the design of neighborhoods and roadways based on traffic and the pollution that it produces. For the city of Copenhagen, Google began working closely with the local government and began hyperlocal air quality mapping in 2018 with the assistance of Utrecht University and in collaboration with Aarhus University.

The map included measurements of nitrogen dioxide, black carbon and ultrafine particles. Through the mapping of street-by-street air quality, Google found that the city’s major access roads had nearly three times more ultrafine pollutants and NO2 and five times higher black carbon compared with the residential areas.

These insights allowed the city to do a better job designing parks, schools, playgrounds and other recreational areas away from other regions of expected high pollution so people could live healthier lives. In the future, the city also plans to use the insights to build out sustainable transportation and create zones designed to keep pedestrian and bicycle routes away from car traffic.

Google also partnered with the City of Dublin to gather hyperlocal air quality measurements as part of Google’s Air View program with Aclima, which will deliver specialized high-resolution air quality monitors. This partnership will provide insights for the Dublin City Council through the Smart Dublin program, which seeks to innovate and “future-proof” Ireland’s capital city.

The Aclima sensors will be equipped in Google Street View’s newest all-electric I-PACE Jaguar cars. Aclima also provides support for the data aggregation and analysis infrastructure as well as the scientific expertise needed to interpret the collected data.

“I am very passionate about the quality of the environment for our communities,” said Hazel Chu, lord mayor of Dublin. “The partnership with Google on Project Air View will make it possible to measure street-by-street air quality conditions for the first time in Ireland. Together we can start a conversation about how we can drive change to meet our international commitments on air quality.”

Photo: Google

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