Page 9 - Case study: Air quality management in Southern California, USA
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1.2. Challenge and response
Some regions in California experience high air pollution levels every day. This can be attributed
to different factors such as traffic, industry or wildfires. This high level of pollution is affecting the
population’s health and life expectancy.
The Californian legislation has considered to use advanced sensing monitoring technologies to
reduce air pollution but it also stipulates that air districts are to ‘identify the contributing sources,
and provide a catalyst and a platform for community engagement towards eliminating emissions
hotspots’.
The solution discussed in this case study visualizes air quality data using an easy to understand color‑
coding system — this allows regulators to see the issues at hand clearly, identify who’s responsible,
assess the impacts it has had on the community in real‑time and how to fix the problem. Moreover,
the system helps to identify the origins of the pollution by drawing back trajectories and pinpointing
potential sources within seconds of incidents occurring, a novel capability not previously available.
Figure 1: Illustration of the Solution 1
Air quality management in Southern California| California, USA 3
