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What Repairing the Air Really Means. How Data from Airly Enables Action

“Repair the air” is Airly’s motto. But what does that really mean? How can a hyperlocal network of sensors contribute to a real improvement in air quality? In this text, we reveal step by step what the road to cleaner air can look like for everyone. Table of Contents What repairing the air really means? […]

“Repair the air” is Airly’s motto. But what does that really mean? How can a hyperlocal network of sensors contribute to a real improvement in air quality? In this text, we reveal step by step what the road to cleaner air can look like for everyone.

Table of Contents

What repairing the air really means?

The path to cleaner air is a cycle of four steps that should improve air quality. We start with data on air quality, ending with a real impact on the environment. Let’s follow them step by step:

  1. Monitor – The whole journey begins with the installation of dense networks of air quality sensors that collect pollution data 24 hours a day, and are refreshed on Airly maps every five minutes.
  2. Analyse – Air quality analysis determines the type of pollution related to a given place, its source and its daily course.
  3. Design actions – the exact location and identification of the sources of pollution in a given place allows for appropriate decisions contributing to the reduction of pollution
  4. Track improvement – ongoing measurement allows the confirmation and certification of positive impact, and sets up a continuous feedback loop to develop the next wave of actions.

What types of action does the Airly system enable?

Clean air change can take many forms. From one-off actions designed to respond ad hoc to increased amounts of pollution, to long-term changes caused by changes in local politics or legislation. Here are some examples of such actions: Real-time responses like stopping illegal waste burning or free public transport on days with higher levels of pollution

  • Better design of the built environment like adjustment to traffic flows to reduce idling in sensitive areas
  • Standard practices of businesses like switching from diesel generators to shore-to-ship power when ships are in port.
  • Changes in policy like ban on burning solid fuels
  • Behaviour change like creating a less polluted path for changing the most common walking route between community hubs to avoid polluted areas.

Repair the air – Who can make the changes?

Changes in the fight for clean air can be implemented at virtually all levels of society. Ranging from state and local governments with the power to enact laws and regulations,to socially committed companies that want to make the fight for clean air part of their ESG strategy, and local communities determined to independently analyze and publicize the problem of air pollution, as well as individuals who need reliable air quality data to respond to pollution on a personal basis, for example by limiting time outdoors or appropriately choosing time for exercise, taking into account attention to the current concentration of pollutants.