Air pollution and high temperatures are two of the most serious environmental threats to public health in cities. Currently, the capacity to cope with these stress factors is severely hampered by the lack of fine-resolution information on their distributions across  the city landscape. We aim to deploy smart environmental sensors for monitoring and mapping heat stress and air quality in urban environments.  These sensors are based IoT (Internet of Things) principles, are interconnected, low-cost and deployed in large quantities. Installed on public and private bicycles, they measure health-related environmental variables (temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, ozone and particulate matter) and tag the measurements with spatial coordinate information. 

 

Use of bicycles as an environmental monitoring platform contributes to efforts of building a culture of health in urban communities. Participating cyclists  become citizen scientists, collecting data as they travel city streets, in addition to improving physical health via biking. 

 

The project is supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a Leitner Award for Uncommon Collaboration. 

 

If you are interested in collecting data in your city, please contact us and we will send you sensors along with instruction on how to turn your smartphone into a data logging and geolocating device.