New project visualises air quality in meaningful way

Cabinet Member for Sustainable Lambeth says the devices will support improved air quality, sharing pollution risk information with residents “in an accessible and useful way.”

A new project that aims to visually communicate real-time air quality and pollution levels has launched in three London Boroughs.

The AWAIR project will raise public awareness of air quality in the capital using outdoor solar-powered displays that give residents details of both current local air quality levels and the following day’s pollution forecast. The devices use a high-resolution real-time air quality model that is continuously updated using London’s network of monitors run by Imperial College London (ICL).

The displays feature a new colour scale created by researchers to indicate whether current air quality meets or exceeds World Health Organisation (WHO) thresholds.

“Air pollution affects all of us, but because it is invisible it can be hard to know if some days are worse than others,” said Andrew Grieve, Principal Investigator from the Environmental Research Group at ICL. “I wanted to make something which could show current and forecast air quality levels to the public in the street, so everyone has equal access to this information.”

Co-design workshops were held in each of the neighbourhoods in February, allowing residents to share their perceptions of local air quality, contribute design ideas and help choose locations for rollout. Residents will also be able to share feedback on the displays, allowing researchers to understand what effect the devices have had on the public’s perception of air quality in each neighbourhood. 

“Efforts such as the AWAIR project, displaying air quality in “traffic light” style, are valuable in making air quality easily apparent – getting data out there is essential…”

Professor William Bloss, Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Birmingham said “Air quality is often invisible, but is the biggest environmental risk to health, responsible for around 40,000 premature deaths in the UK each year. People are often unaware if their air quality is good, or not, and can find detailed information – such as concentrations of individual pollutants – confusing.

“Efforts such as the AWAIR project, displaying air quality in “traffic light” style, are valuable in making air quality easily apparent – getting data out there is essential so that individuals and communities can make informed decisions, from behaviour change to reduce their own risk to support for local, regional or national policy measures.”

Up to 20 devices will be placed in various locations around Gipsy Hill, Peckham and White City, places with intersecting inequalities including health conditions related to pollution exposure and digital exclusion.

Deputy Leader Councillor Rezina Chowdhury, Cabinet Member for Sustainable Lambeth and Clean Air said the Council “is committed to improving air quality in our borough because the high levels of pollution we experience harm the health of many local people, particularly children and older people…this air quality display panel will support that work by sharing information with our residents about the pollution risk they face in an accessible and useful way.”

The devices will remain in place until at least December 2024 when researchers will assess engagement and interaction with them through surveys on the AWAIR website and focus groups to help understand what effect the devices had on the public’s perception of air quality each neighbourhood. If the trial is successful, the project could be extended.