Why is pollution important?
Air quality in cities is a constant issue, affecting millions of people worldwide and responsible for many ailments. In London alone, 9,500 people die annually from long-term exposure to air pollution, exceeding expected values by twice the amount. In a recent study undertaken by researchers, two key pollutants were identified as the main offenders: NO2 and PM2.5 (fine particulates which are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter).
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2014
The line graph on the left displays emissions levels for various pollutants for the UK (units are million tonnes). Due to efforts from various UK bodies to curb the levels of emissisons, we can see a gradual decline in pollution levels of major pollutants. However, in certain urban areas there are still times during the year when emissions are present in high quantities. This information is freely available from multiple sources, but not provided in a simple format for the general public to understand and adapt their daily activities to.
There is an opportunity to provide an easy to use application that can achieve this task and assist users in modifying their behavious based on pollution statistics in their current location. For this reason, we have been tasked by the Intel Collaborative Research Institue, Microsoft Research, and UCL Engineering to design and develop such as system.
Project Brief
Our project brief is to design and develop a city pollution visualisation app for smartwatches that allows users to view key pollution statistics about their current location that may assist in decision making.