New data zooms in on air pollution mapped by Google Street View cars

Google and Aclima, a company that maps hyperlocal air pollution, announced today that researchers can now access a treasure trove of new data that can strengthen efforts to fight climate change and clean up the climate. air.It is the result of four years of measurements taken by Google Street View vehicles in California equipped with Aclima sensors.

The dataset provides researchers with a close-up look at changes in air quality from block to block. It includes over 42 million measurements of smog, soot, carbon black, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and methane. The ability to zoom in to see the differences of one street from another is essential for determining where the most pollution comes from and which affects the most.

"We really increase the pixels on the image of the quality of air. "

" We really increase the pixels on the air quality image. Technology or the methodology to achieve it was simply not available, said Aclima co-founder and CEO Davida Herzl, at The Verge.

His company has developed smaller monitors that can be combined with a fleet of vehicles to create what they call a "traveling sensor network". Google Street View cars, which are taking photos for its maps, began taking air quality measurements in 2015. Vehicles, equipped with Aclima sensors, have to repeatedly travel the same streets of the city. city ​​for sensors to detect the baseline pollution level at a given location.

Scientists and policy makers typically examine air quality and greenhouse gas emissions on a city-wide basis or even of a country. The equipment traditionally used to monitor pollution is expensive, fixed and often limited to a single sensor covering a large area. It is missing what is happening at a granular level, which can lead to disparities approxenvironmental and health.

"It really matters where you live. "

"On a single city block on one at the end, you can have a pollution level, and at the other end, you can have pollution levels that are eight times higher . These hot spots can be persistent for years, says Herzl. "It matters really where you live. "

Studies have shown that people living in areas of extreme poverty or with a long history of residential segregation are more likely to live with air pollution - and the negative health effects that Governments must understand where these pollution hotspots are in order to shape a rfair answer, says Herzl. Some of the data collected by Aclima and Google was used in a 2018 study who investigated the link between street level air quality and heart disease in Oakland, California. This study found that older residents exposed to more air pollution from traffic were at higher risk for cardiovascular problems and that the risk varied from street to street.

More data can lead to environmental injustices in the light, according to Herzl. "If we don't have the data, we don’t see it, it’s literally invisible ", she said.

Researchers can apply to apply for release gamedata for free. Google and Aclima plan to expand their data collection worldwide, starting with a fleet of 50 new cars to be deployed this year.