FEATURE
IoT and pollution: A breath of fresh air
In light of the recent debate surrounding climate change, the topic of air pollution is increasingly becoming a major concern for many cities around the world. And with research from the World Health Organisation revealing that 91% of the world’s population live in places where air quality exceeds WHO guidelines, cleaning up these pollutants is becoming even more challenging. Although Europe saw a decrease in emissions of air pollutants by more than 2.5% in 2018, concentration still remains high. It is therefore necessary to measure air quality and keep it under control; something the Internet of Things (IoT) is already helping with. With a disproportionate level of pollution permeating cities in relation to inhabitant numbers, smart cities, which are built on the mantra of sustainability, are actively fighting the battle against air pollution. Making moves towards a smarter infrastructure or simple solutions such as traffic monitoring to help tackle the issue, many cities are implementing green legislation and creating greener spaces. For example, Paris is expanding their car-free zones and Tokyo is investing further into renewable power, becoming progressively more sustainable and resilient – and tangible benefits are already being realised. Although highly polluted cities such as Delhi, India and Beijing
Nick Sacke, Head of IoT and Products, Comms365.
monitoring through wireless sensors on public transportation vehicles. Through this sensor data, which is made available for governmental agencies, they are able to control traffic and as a result, make informed city planning decisions, such as rerouting traffic away from highly polluted areas. Another way that city centre traffic can be reduced is through smart parking. IoT enabled parking, which is able to identify empty car spaces, is able to not only decrease the amount of Co2 emissions, but also save drivers time and money through increased traffic flow, promoting more sustainable urban mobility. Recent Research from the British Lung
Association revealed that 248 hospitals and 2,220 GP practices are located in areas where air pollution is significantly above the World Health Organisations limit for fine particulate matter (PM2.5). With hospitals in polluted areas proven to contribute to
are utilising smart sensors in order to alert residents when air pollution levels are high, this is not a long term solution to combat the source of the problem. IoT opens up better pollution data than ever before, which can be used to advance actionable results. For example, in the city of Uppsala, Sweden, the GreenIoT project is creating an integrated solution for an environmental sensing system by implementing real-time air pollution
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