The British capital is one of the most active globally when it comes to the fight against inner-city air pollution. The plan of action covers extensive measures as well as hybrid taxis and apps to provide information for residents.
London is serious about reducing air pollution, just as Mayor Sadiq Khan demonstrated with his dramatic statement: “With nearly 10,000 people dying early every year in London due to exposure to air pollution, cleaning up London’s toxic air is now an issue of life and death.” He is therefore pushing a plan of action, which includes the introduction of an “Ultra Low Emission Zone” by the year 2019, along with other measures. Vehicles that wish to drive here must comply with specifically defined, strict exhaust emissions standards – or pay a congestion charge of 12.50 pounds per day, which increases to 100 pounds per day for buses and lorries. A similar Ultra Low Emission Zone was planned under Khan’s predecessor Boris Johnson, the current UK Foreign Secretary. However, this was not going to be implemented until 2020.
Cleaning up the black cab
Another key point in the plan of action is to make buses and taxis cleaner. As a result, low-emission buses are to be used on particularly busy routes and the traditional black cab that all the tourists love is being modernised. Since the introduction of a maximum age for taxis, over 3,000 of the oldest models have been taken out of service; from 2018, only newly approved vehicles will be allowed. New hybrid taxis with a zero-emission driving mode have been developed in conjunction with automotive manufacturers. The GPS data from the vehicles is used to switch them to electric mode automatically when they enter the Ultra Low Emission Zone. With the new vehicles, it should be possible to reduce the emissions from black cabs by up to 100 per cent in central London and by 75 per cent in the rest of the city.
Always in the know
What’s more, the GLA (Greater London Authority) has introduced extensive provisions for measuring greenhouse gas emissions in 2012/2013. Consequently, London is the first city in the world to provide information about its direct and indirect urban emissions in line with the internationally recognised greenhouse gas balance and emissions report regulations. Around 150 sensor-measuring stations have been installed in London for this purpose. The data from these stations is available for companies and research institutes. Using the AirText app, London’s residents and visitors can view information about air pollution in real time, including pollen, UV radiation, temperature and air quality. AirText is a free service, which is provided by the company Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants in partnership with the boroughs, the GLA, Public Health England and the Environment Agency. The service also includes air pollution forecasts for the next three days.
More precise forecasts
Dr Ralph Grothmann from the central Siemens Corporate Technology Research department wants to increase the precision of forecasts for the levels of pollutants. He is using the data from the 150 measuring stations in London to develop forecast models based on neural networks. These models can predict the level of air pollution precisely and several days in advance. The highlight of this system is that it keeps learning. At the beginning, it does not know which variables affect one another and how, and the forecast therefore differs considerably from the actual measured emissions. During training, the program minimises the difference between its prognosis and the actual value in hundreds of iterations. It changes the weighting of the individual parameters and becomes more and more accurate. Today, the system is not only in the position to forecast the air pollution at 150 sites across the city for every hour over the next three days, it can also use the results to draw conclusions on what the main drivers of the predicted air pollution will be.
Pigeons over London
For Romain Lacombe, founder and CEO of Plume Labs, “predictive technologies will help us take back control of our environment”. The French start-up has developed a type of artificial intelligence which predicts the development of levels of pollutants in the air in cities across the world. You can view the result of the forecast, the “Plume Air Report”, on Android devices, iPhones or also Apple Watches. This should help joggers, cyclists, parents and commuters to keep away from highly polluted areas. Plume Labs is also using pigeons to increase awareness of the problem of air pollution: in March 2016, the company fitted ten pigeons with ultra-light sensor vests and let them fly around London for three days. The pollution sensors developed by Plume Labs measured the nitrogen dioxide and ozone values. The pigeon air patrol then reported the results back to interested residents via Twitter. The aim of this campaign was to find Londoners to use as beta testers for a wearable version of the ultra-light air measuring device. This beta test should enable the company to find out the extent to which the decentralised recording of air pollution can provide a suitable basis for decision-making for individual people as well as for health and environmental policies. This means that, in the future, each resident could contribute to providing an extensive overview of air pollution within a city – and do something valuable for their own health.
(picture credits: Metrocab)