Lancaster City Council to monitor air quality using monitors and public portals to inspire public engagement and active travel across the city.
Environmental consultant Earthsense announced that its air quality monitors, including a publicly available portal to view real-time air quality data, a high-resolution air pollution model MappAir and Zephyr air quality monitors, have been deployed around Lancaster and the surrounding district to provide Lancaster City Council and its residents with access to air quality information.
EarthSense Zephyr on a lighting pole in Lancaster. The 14 new sensors have been funded by part of an Air Quality Grant from DEFRA to help tackle air pollution in Lancaster.
Lancaster City Council already has an existing automatic monitoring station and continually monitors air quality, but these sensors enable them to expand on their current programme and will show residents where air pollution peaks are occurring, enabling them to make informed choices and avoid more polluted areas when socialising, exercising outdoors or commuting by bicycle.
Councillor Joanne Ainscough, member with responsibility for Environmental Services, said: “The quality of the air in the Lancaster district is extremely important to us. While we continually monitor air pollution levels, we also assess ways where we can make improvements.
"Air Quality is improving, but the launch of the new monitors will continue to contribute to our understanding, guide future actions to tackle air pollution, and contribute to the Annual Status Report for Air Quality.
“We are also pleased to launch our public portal, which we hope will help our residents participate in keeping the air cleaner and reducing personal exposure to pollution.”
The Council will be utilising the tech to monitor the outdoor concentrations of key pollutants including NO2, NO, O3, PM1 with a particular emphasis on PM2.5 and PM10, throughout the local area.
Air quality data collected will provide insights into pollution hot-spots, time-based trends and pollution peaks, that will support the council to drive initiatives throughout the community.
The council will also further its understanding of the local impact of solid fuel burning pollution using EarthSense’s solutions, and promote a solid-fuel awareness and behaviour change campaign to inform solid fuel-appliance users and the community of its impact; in an effort to raise awareness and reduce pollution from burning.
Change across the community will be encouraged at potential pollution hot spots, such as idling outside schools. The Council aims to improve the knowledge of pollution and encourage behaviour change using its public portal.
It will be available to schools and the community to access daily and forecast air quality data, plan for alternative routes to reduce exposure and explore how air quality varies across the district.
