Google Street View Starts Measuring Air Pollution in Dublin

Dublin City Council has launched a collaborative project Air View Dublin with Google. The initiative, which is part of the council’s Smart Dublin programme, will measure air quality across Dublin for one year using Google’s Street View car. The project is is in line with other cities around the world that have begun measuring air quality in an effort to map areas that are high in pollution, track changes in pollution over time, identify polluters and to use the data in identifying potential solutions.

The car being used for the programme is Google’s first electric Street View car – a Jaguar I-PACE . The car is fitted with a specialized mobile air sensing platform. The platform is able to measure and analyse nitrogen dioxide, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, fine particulate matter and ozone. The analysis will inform a street-by-street map of air pollution in the city.

Adverse health effects due to air pollution are significant and contribute to a large proportion of deaths from stroke, lung cancer and heart disease. The programme will make the data on air pollution available to cities, other governments, scientists, non-profit organisations and the public, in the hope that it will encourage conversation on the topic and small changes within the community to improve air quality.

The innovative idea is one of many that Smart Dublin is trialling in order to address a range of local challenges.