Clarity is excited to announce being selected as one of ten innovative projects to be working with Paris&Co’s Urban lab, Airparif, and the City of Paris in their Air Quality Experimentation Programme. Clarity partnered with CITEOS of VINCI Energies, a leading public infrastructure group, to propose a high density air quality monitoring network deployed on smart lighting poles across Paris, France.
Air Quality Experimentation Programme
On March 26, 2018, Clarity joined nine other air quality-related technologies for the official unveiling of the winning projects at Le Pavillon de l’Arsenal in Paris. As the winning outdoor air pollution monitoring system, Clarity will deploy a next generation air quality monitoring network in Paris with support from Urban Lab, City of Paris, and Airparif. The goals of the deployment are to expand upon the current government monitoring stations in the French capital to demonstrate the value of high density air quality monitoring, validate Clarity’s technology, and explore actionable use cases of high resolution air pollution data.
Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Chair of C40, has been a huge proponent for clean air since her election and this programme is indicative of her administration’s commitment to the cause. She commented in the official City of Paris and C40 Press Releases, “This call for projects is a new important step for the advancement of knowledge, and to test solutions, which can deliver better air quality in Paris. It results from our determination to make it easier for people to work together, from world leading experts to those that have a great idea they want to bring to the table. It is through a collective and committed approach that we will face this great public health and quality of life challenge.”
Clarity CTO Paolo Micalizzi, who was in Paris for the unveiling, expressed excitement on Clarity’s involvement, “It’s great to be a part of this real world experiment in a city as important as Paris, which will undoubtedly become a pivotal leader in the Smart City space. It is a huge honor to be selected as the outdoor air pollution monitoring system out of the countless proposals Urban Lab received, to deliver a promising new way to capture accurate, hyperlocal air quality data. It will be interesting to see how Paris uses the ten different project winners, covering a wide range of possible approaches to tackle outdoor and indoor air pollution, ranging from pollutant sequestration at the source, to monitoring and data visualization, to develop strategies and policies relevant to the lives of citizens, tourists and sensitive communities.”
As air pollution continues to sit center stage as the number one global public health epidemic, Paris’s experimentation of a comprehensive air pollution mitigation strategy will play a deciding hand in how technology is integrated into urban environmental management in the decades to come.
Air Quality Sensor Deployment Network
Thirty Clarity Nodes will be deployed in the northwest region of Paris to provide direct assessments of air pollution sources, hotspots, and trends on a block-to-block level.
Six Clarity Nodes will be placed alongside five AirParif government reference monitors to validate the accuracy, precision, and reliability of Clarity’s next generation, IoT-based air quality hardware+software.
The remaining 24 Clarity sensors will be deployed near points of interest to explore use cases and examine the value proposition of distributed air quality monitoring networks to supplement traditional technology. Traditional air monitoring stations select representative locations to aggregate data into a single air quality index (AQI). Distributed air quality monitoring expands on existing solutions to deliver high resolution air quality data capturing spatial and temporal variation throughout a city’s changing landscapes.
Clarity and CITEOS conducted a preliminary site selection according to the following three categories:
- Public outdoor spaces are important to monitor due to the high concentration of pedestrian traffic.
- Sensitive communities, such as youth, seniors, and individuals with respiratory or cardiovascular diseases, are at higher risk for air pollution-related health threats.
- High traffic and transit areas represent high activity areas where people are exposed to higher levels of vehicular emissions.
Residents and visitors alike will be able to access Paris air quality data on Clarity OpenMap to start quantifying personal exposure and making informed decisions about the air they’re breathing on a daily basis. The Paris network is expected to go launch on OpenMap in Summer 2018.
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