Air quality
Use of air quality data to create smart urban solutions that reduce citizens' exposure to air pollution
Copenhageners have a strong desire to be able to breathe without worrying about getting sick of the air they breathe as they move around the city. In a survey from 2018 66 percent of Copenhageners said that clean air is important or crucial to how attractive the city is, and 33 percent think the municipality should prioritize clean air highest out of a total of 31 factors, that makes a city attractive to live in.
Since 2016, Copenhagen Solutions Lab has been working to establish a coherent data base for air pollution in Copenhagen. We work on and test solutions to develop new knowledge that can form the basis for policy development and other activities and use mobile and stationary sensors in partnership with both companies and universities. Copenhagen Solutions Lab's work supports Copenhagen Citizen Representation's clean air plan from 2013, which consists of eight initiatives that when fully implemented will help to clean the air in Copenhagen.
The air pollution in Copenhagen annually costs the society DKK 4 billion and has major human consequences such as several sick days, hospital admissions and approx. 550 premature deaths each year. Report from Aarhus University on the effects of air pollution in Copenhagen.
Focus area
Copenhagen Solutions Lab focuses on developing data to support solutions that:
- reduces air pollution in Copenhagen
- reduces Copenhageners' exposure to air pollution by either creating urban solutions that cause Copenhageners to stay in the areas with least air pollution or by designing urban spaces so that Copenhageners come into contact with air pollution as little as possible
- examines how air pollution is transmitted to buildings.
Air projects in Copenhagen Solutions Lab
- Collection of city-wide data sets in collaboration with Google, University Of Utrecht, and Aarhus University (Danish Center for Environment).
- Designing City Spaces in collaboration with Gehl Architects
- Collection of data on the transfer of air pollution to indoor climate in collaboration with the City of Copenhagen's department for Properties and Purchasing and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Data on air quality
In the following you can find data on the air quality in Copenhagen from Copenhagen Solutions Lab's different projects
- Data from Google Air View project: Find the underlying data here and the maps in file format here or in interactive format here.
- Data from the permanent measuring stations can be found here
