Thanks to the Polish Challenge Fund project, Belarusian cities received an air quality monitoring system
09.03.2021
Thanks to Airly, which provides air quality monitoring and forecasting solutions, local citizens and authorities in Belarus gained powerful tool both for tracking and identifying the sources of air pollution, and also for gathering information for data-based decision making processes to improve the air quality.
The first 12 air quality sensors were installed in Minsk, Grodno, Brest, Vitebsk, Mogilev and Gomel as a step for further development in the region. The plan assumes that by the end of 2021, it will be possible to provide every citizen – which is now 9,5 millions of people – in Belarus with information about air quality.
The greatest value of the system is its affordable, solid and precise air quality sensors. Thanks to these, people can easily monitor air quality (PM1, PM2.5, PM10, O3 and NO2) in places where it has previously been impossible to do so. Airly’s sensors can deliver measurements in real-time and the company’s own AI-based machine learning algorithm can prepare air quality forecasts for the next 24 hours with 95% accuracy.
This is important for several reasons,” says Marcin Gnat from Airly „The proximity of devices and ongoing, hyper-local measurements allow people to plan their daily outdoor activities while taking into account the current air quality in their area. The forecast for the next day also allows individuals and city authorities to respond to potential pollution hazards.
Airly found out about the Polish Aid program thanks to its friends from Belarus. Members of VidaLink - a company from Minsk, which representatives of Airly met during the fair in Vienna, approached them with a proposal of a joint project. Soon after, the companies filed an application for UNDP/Polish Aid project in Belarus. It has been in Spring 2020.
VidaLink's involvement is significant on many levels, from the installation of devices, through the provision of disease risk assessment algorithms, to contacting us with foreign clients, e.g. from Japan, Kazakhstan or Russia.
The devices and apps are very easy to install,” says Ilya Khrushch from VidaLink. „We especially enjoy the feature, which allows the real time monitoring of the data.
Although Belarus has good air quality in comparison to other Eastern European countries, which is mostly due to its gas-based energy sector, increasing traffic and worsening global air pollution may still have a negative effect on the country. Therefore it was crucial to deliver an innovative solution that will allow constant monitoring of the situation not only to help prepare for possible threats, but also to help take actions to prevent them in the future.
