Wolverhampton council and EarthSense to develop air quality tools for public
The City of Wolverhampton Council has announced a partnership with EarthSense for a new project on the management of both pollution emissions and exposure.
The LiVETAP (Live Visualisation of Emissions — Towards Informed Avoidance of Pollution Hotspots) project sees the two organisations working together on an 18-month project that will create air quality apps and a web portal for the council and the general public.
These services will provide air quality forecasts to guide decisions on traffic management and routing in polluted environments and the project is funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.
The tools will be developed using EarthSense’s air quality datasets which take into account traffic pollution sources, weather conditions and government pollution monitoring sites, where they exist.
It will also use real-time data from air quality sensors including the EarthSense Zephyr installed around Wolverhampton, which will record levels of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3).
There are currently six sensors already installed around the city and phase two of the project will see a further 11 installed at specific hotspots including busy junctions and schools. For the first time, the services will enable users in Wolverhampton to see both live and forecast pollution data for city centre streets and school-run routes.
Cllr Steve Evans, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s cabinet member for City Environment said: ‘We need to protect our environment and improve public health the best we can, and to empower people to make better choices about travel and transport.
‘By working with EarthSense, we will be able to gather important data, identify pollution levels in specific areas and implement measures to improve air quality.’
Following the trial in Wolverhampton, future plans include making the app and online portal available for all local authorities across England.
Photo Credit – EarthSense