Cities are the backbone for global development. They play a crucial role in achieving sustainable development and combating climate change. Aurassure an innovative wireless sensing device for comprehensive monitoring of air pollution and other environmental parameters, exploits the power of IoT which makes the data publicly visible, increasing public awareness and helping goverments find solutions to tackle pollution.
Client: ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
ICLEI is the world’s leading organization comprising of cities, towns, local and regional governments etc. committed to bring sustainable and healthy development impacting lives of millions of urban populations through cost effective, resource-efficient and healthy initiatives.
Context
India is expected to add more than 400 million urban dwellers by 2050. This rising population is adding to overconsumption of resources thus affecting various environmental parameters leading to increase in pollution. Amongst these air pollution is the major challenge modern India is facing today. To address these challenges a multi-year co-operation project for Capacity Building for Low Carbon and Climate Resilient City Development (CapaCITIES) was launched backed by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to support and boost India’s efforts for healthy and sustainable urbanization.
CapaCITIES
The CapaCITIES project strives to strengthen the potentials of Indian cities, to identify, plan and implement actions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing resilience to global warming and climate change in an integrated manner.
Low Carbon- Climate Resilient
- City Development
The project aims to:
- Ensure water security in cities to enhance their resilience to climate change.
- City level implementation of resilient and sustainable management process in all 4 city administrations.
- Increase awareness on low carbon and climate resilient city development in India and other countries.
- Scientific management and disposal of waste and sewage reducing soil and water pollution.
- Address the issues of air pollution and raise awareness on low carbon and climate resilient city development.
- Enhance the capacities of city authorities in four partner cities to plan and implement mitigation and adaptation measures.
Solution-Aurassure
We, (Aurassure Private Limited) bagged the CapaCITIES project partnering with ICLEI to deploy Aurassure (Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations) in cities of Rajkot, Siliguri, Coimbatore & Udaipur.
Aurassure is a state of art technology developed to monitor the air quality of a region with high levels of accuracy. These air quality monitoring stations deployed at key places around the cities will help the city officials and management monitor the levels of different particulate pollutants Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Oxygen (O2), Particulates (PM10, PM2.5), etc in real-time on a regular basis along with weather parameters. These data can also be seen on digital screens installed at various locations of the cities to raise public awareness.
Aurassure empowers the government and citizens with the real-time awareness of the environment, facilitating informed decisions and a healthy lifestyle.
Deployment
SILIGURI - Gateway of North East India
Acknowledged as the gateway of North East India, Siliguri is one of the most rapidly developing metropolis of the state. Rapid urbanization and vehicular emissions are the critical challenges contributing to the pollution level of the city
Earlier the city had only one air quality monitoring station which was located in the outskirts of the city and was also functioning irregularly. To secure the health of people and improve the air quality of the city, Aurassure was deployed as a part of the CapaCITIES project at the following locations:
- Siliguri Municipal Corporation Main Administrative Building
- Primary Health Center (PHC) in ward 36
- Bhakti Nagar Police Station
- Mallaguri Police Outpost
The Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Station-Aurassure was successfully deployed and inaugurated by Ms. Marylaure Crettaz, Head, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), India and Mr. Asok Bhattacharya, Mayor of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC), on the 29th of January, 2018, in Siliguri. The data is now open for public viewing and can be accessed online.
COIMBATORE - Manchester of South India
Coimbatore also known as “Manchester of South India” is among the fastest growing Tier-2 cities of India. The rapid growth of vehicular population in the city is significantly polluting the quality of air around the city risking the health of its citizens.
Coimbatore’s transport sector consumes 60% of total energy consumption in the city, corresponding to 43% of economy wide green house gas emissions. Keeping all these aspects in mind authorities of the state installed Aurassure- An Ambient Air Quality System as a part of CapaCITIES project to continuously monitor the quality of air to ensure good air quality to all.
Aurassure was installed at the following location of the city:
- CMC Town Hall
- East Zone Office
- West Zone Office
- Master Service Reservoir Office on Sathy Road
The ambient air quality monitoring Station Aurassure was inaugurated by the ambassadors of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) on 15th of March 2018. Citizens of Coimbatore can now check the pollution level of their locality online to take precautionary actions.
RAJKOT - The City of Paintings
Rajkot is among the largest urban agglomeration in India. With population over 1.2 million, the city experiences poor air quality due to its dwindling green cover and increasing vehicular population.
Earlier there were only two ambient air quality monitoring stations in the city, which were being maintained by Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB). These stations were not sufficient to efficiently monitor the city air quality as they were not at appropriate locations.
Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System by Aurassure were deployed at appropriate locations of the city to monitor air pollutants on regular basis.
The air quality portal for the people of Rajkot can be accessed online to get better view of changing air quality over time.
UDAIPUR - Kashmir of Rajasthan
Udaipur crowned as the “Kashmir of Rajasthan” is among the most polluted cities of the world. Pollutants such as particulates arising from industrial and vehicular exhausts were choking the city and was also a primary health concern for the citizens due to lack in monitoring mechanisms.
The Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (Aurassure) was inaugurated in the city on the 30th of May, 2018, as a part of CapaCITIES to monitor the quality of air as well as noise in real time.
The AAQMS was flagged off by Mr. Chandra Singh Kothari, Mayor of Udaipur; Mr. Keshar Singh Sisodiya, Ward Councilor; and Mr. Shirish Sinha, Deputy Head, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in the presence of ICLEI South Asia team at the following locations of the city:
- Sukhadiya Circle
- Hadi Rani Circle
- Pratap Nagar Circle
- Suraj Pol Circle
A mobile application (Aurassure) was also introduced during the event, to help people track data and become more aware of city’s rising air pollution, also people of Udaipur can now check the air quality information of their city anytime online.
Benefits
The data received from Aurassure-smart environment awareness system will help municipal corporations, public works departments, health & engineering departments, department of transport of cities, and citizens to take better decisions and frame effective policy to improve city’s overall air quality. Real-time environment monitoring will also help the city, reduce its greenhouse emission and also raise the awareness level of various health impact of poor air quality.
Digital display screens were also installed at prime locations of these cities, fetching data from the monitoring stations to continuously display air quality information to raise public awareness.
Air quality data for every cities can be accessed using the below urls:
- ICLEI - iclei.aurassure.com/public
- RAJKOT - rajkot.aurassure.com/public
- SILIGURI - siliguri.aurassure.com/public
- UDAIPUR - udaipur.aurassure.com/public
- COIMBATORE - coimbatore.aurassure.com/public