French outdoor advertising company JC Decaux has partnered Microsoft and the Array of Things team to launch an air quality sensor pilot on 100 bus shelters in Chicago.

Microsoft Research’s Urban Innovation Group worked with the partners to monitor precisely air quality across the city and facilitate adapted environmental measures.

The World Health Organisation estimates that 91% of the world’s population live in places where air quality is worse than guideline limits. Air pollution is a major concern for cities, given its consequences for human health and the environment. However, it is critical for urban areas to assess air quality in real time to formulate policies.

By using environmental sensors, cities can increase the geographic granularity of environmental sensing in support of creating ways to improve everyday air quality in the urban environment for various public health scenarios.

As a partner to 3670 cities around the world, JC Decaux is innovating not only to limit the environmental impact of its activities but also to develop sustainable cities. For its pilot programme in Chicago, it installed 100 air quality sensors on its bus shelters, designed for the city by architect Robert Stern, across the wards of Chicago to measure and record air quality, temperature and humidity across the city and throughout various weather conditions and seasonality.

With these environmental sensors, Chicago will be able to collect precise data and fine tune with the objective of improving air quality and the quality of life of its inhabitants. The data will be accessible to the public on smartphones by scanning a QR code on each bus shelter referring to a web site, designed by Microsoft Research, to provide the public with easily understood information from the air sensor data collected at each location as well as in comparison with other locations: This information will also be fed into the Chicago Open Data portal.

“We’re excited to partner with JC Decaux to enable neighbourhood scale air quality monitoring in Chicago,” said Scott Counts, senior principal research manager at Microsoft Research’s Urban Innovation Group. “Together, our goal is to help inform and engage residents and the city so they can take targeted steps to mitigate issues with poor air quality, especially in areas most in need. Leveraging the bus shelter network allows us to place air quality monitors at representative locations around the city and with a high density of coverage.”

JC Decaux has long pursued a policy of responsible innovation and has already developed programmes providing air quality measurement in other countries, including France (Nice) and Japan (Tokyo). The group recently launched a range of bus shelters, including Filtreo, with its roof made of a carpet of moss that captures and absorbs pollutants providing cleaner air to passengers, and a natural cooling bus shelter to tackle urban heat islands.

“Cities are facing major challenges in terms of air quality and health,” said Jean-François Decaux, co-CEO at JC Decaux. “The unique density and coverage of street furniture in urban centres make them an ideal medium to plug environmental services, such as air quality sensors. We are proud to partner with Microsoft Research Urban Innovation Group to contribute to real-time monitoring of air quality in Chicago and to furnish precise geo-localised data, useful to the city and to the dwellers’ well-being.”

He said improving urban living had always driven the efforts of JC Decaux to develop innovative and ecological services. Through this partnership, he said the company was demonstrating the usefulness and efficiency of its media for local areas and their populations and continued to be an integral part of an approach to raising awareness in its ecosystem to build a more sustainable world.”

Charlie Catlett is a senior research scientist at the University of Illinois and leader of the Array of Things team, comprising scientists from Argonne National Laboratory, University of Chicago and Northwestern University. He said: “This project builds on partnerships we have been building for many years through scientific projects like the Array of Things, with a constantly expanding community of scientists who are eager to analyse the data.”