Croydon to monitor air pollution at construction sites

Croydon Council has signed a deal to monitor air pollution at construction sites across the borough.

According to the council, there are 11 major construction developments currently in progress. To help understand their pollution impacts, Brighton-based South Coast Science, in partnership with EMSOL, will deploy Praxis/Urban air quality monitoring devices to establish where pollutants are reaching harmful thresholds.

The data infrastructure of the Praxis allows easy aggregation with tagged asset and vehicle data, made available by EMSOL, making it possible to deliver a real-time, highly location-specific view of air quality.

The EMSOL Platform also enables businesses to take control of air quality through targeted actions and delivers reports to council engineers including; the nature of an emission breach, how intensive it was and where on-site it occurred.

Croydon is currently trialling a platform to improve construction deliveries in cities and cut air pollution.

In November, Grid Smarter Cities won an Innovate UK contract for the platform which is hoped will result in improved air quality in the construction industry and improve ease of movement commercial operators when heading into and around the construction site, whilst reducing congestion and the environmental impact of HGVs.

Grid is also working with a number of specialist partners to investigate the potential of vehicle telematics, 3D mapping and electric vehicles (EVs) on the future of construction logistic operations.

Earlier this month, Air Quality News reporter Jamie Hailstone explored how to improve air quality in new housing developments.

The UK Green Building Council’s sustainability advisor, Sophia Cox told him that the construction industry is still ‘finding its feet’ in terms of how to respond to growing public concerns about the environment, but she adds ‘the will to respond to it is definitely there’.

‘There is sometimes conflict between delivering a low carbon home and a home that has a positive impact on local air quality,’ explained Cox. ‘For example, we are seeing net-zero homes coming forward which rely on solid fuel energy generation, which will have a much worse impact on local air quality.’

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