Google Street View car gathers air quality data in Dublin

Google’s first electric Street View car is measuring air quality around Dublin at the same time as gathering the usual Google Maps imagery.

It is the first time this has been done in Ireland and is being rolled out as part of the Smart Dublin programme. Access to hyperlocal air quality data will support city decisions and aims to enable people to make “small but informed” daily changes to contribute to pollution improvements.

A Jaguar I-PACE car has been fitted with Google’s Street View technology as well as a specialised mobile air sensing platform from Aclima that can measure and analyse pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, fine particulate matter, and ozone.

Aclima’s platform analyses pollution measurements to develop maps of street-by-street air pollution in collaboration with Google and scientific research partners. These, in addition to air pollution insights, will be available for use by city authorities and the public.

Google partnership

Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu said: “It is projects like this that leverage innovation and forward thinking to allow us to make informed decisions for the benefit of our city and citizens. Environmental air quality is an issue that affects everyone, especially people who live in cities and I look forward to learning more about how our city lives and breathes.”

The launch of Project Air View builds on Dublin’s partnership with Google on its Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE) tool. The free platform, launched in 2019, uses Google data and modelling to help cities measure emission sources and identify strategies to reduce them. Dublin is using the tool to inform actions to reduce transport emissions, for example.

Dublin City Council, along with the other Dublin local authorities, joined the UN Breathe Life Campaign in 2020, which commits them to meeting World Health Organization guide values for air quality by 2030. Chu said projects such as Air View are also an important step in meeting this target.

Data gap for cities

Paddy Flynn, Vice President of Google Geo Operations, commented: “Air quality is a serious concern, especially for cities, but there is a gap in terms of localised data and insights available to decision makers. As part of this project, we’re using technology to capture this important data and make it accessible so that together with Dublin City Council, we can gain a deeper understanding of air pollution locally and provide important data to help drive solution planning.”

“Mapping of street-by-street air pollution has never been captured or used in Ireland before, and our ultimate goal is that they will support new actions towards a cleaner, more sustainable Dublin,” he added.

Image: Google