Page 8 - Case study: Air quality management in Southern California, USA

Source: South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The impact on the air quality coming from human and economic activities is very high and public
authorities are becoming aware of the seriousness of air pollution and the negative effects have had
on population health.

In California air pollution is managed at the regional level across 35 regional pollution districts. Two
of these districts are the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) and the South Coast
Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), which are responsible for regulating and managing the
air quality in those areas.

Both districts currently use Envirosuite to provide a more rapid and effective response to air quality
incidents. Presently, sensor data must go through a significant and time‑consuming processing
before it is available to be analysed for managing air quality incidents that have occurred. By the
time issues are understood, the opportunity to solve those problems may have already passed.
Envirosuite provides insights based on real‑time information so that anyone can quickly understand
the issue at hand and employs the unique tools in the Envirosuite platform to instantly identify the
source of the issue.

There are current Smart and Resilient Cities trends that are promoting these types of Internet of
Things projects all around the world, collecting real‑time data from sensors and transforming them
into valuable information through software, allowing decision makers to react immediately.

For instance, the US Department of Transportation awarded in 2016 the US City of Columbus with
50M$ after being selected showcasing a holistic and comprehensive vision of “how technology can
help all residents move better and access opportunity”. The City has grown its initial funding of
50M$ to nearly 500M$ by the end of 2017.

2 Air quality management in Southern California| California, USA