4sfera collaborates with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), delivering and deploying an integrated air quality monitoring system in the proximity of the official monitoring station in l’Eixample (district of Barcelona). This system supports real-time data collection and processing through edge and cloud computing technologies, aimed at improving air quality modelling in urban environments.
The challenge
The goal is to advance sustainable urban mobility by understanding and mitigating the environmental impact of transportation in complex city environments. L’Eixample, one of Barcelona’s most densely populated and trafficked areas, offers an ideal setting to:
- Support microscopic emission models to assess street-level pollution linked to real-time traffic conditions.
- Enhance macroscopic air quality models, incorporating dynamic traffic events and their impact on pollution levels.
- Capture high-resolution air quality data to inform smart city policies focused on clean and sustainable mobility.
These actions enable the generation of real-time air quality data with high temporal and spatial resolution, directly supporting ASCENDER’s clean and sustainable mobility objectives.
The solution
Under this project, we are responsible for:
- The installation and calibration of five air quality sensors within the Eixample official monitoring station, strategically located to assess the influence of urban traffic on air pollution levels.
- Connecting the sensor network to edge computing platforms for local data processing and real-time analysis, as well as integration with cloud systems to feed large-scale air quality models.
- Conducting NO2 passive samplers campaigns, at 40 points around the official air quality monitoring station in L’Eixample. These campaigns provide detailed spatial data to validate sensor measurements and enhance the precision of the air quality models.
The result
- Improved data availability to support microscopic and macroscopic air quality models, helping to estimate pollution levels in response to specific traffic patterns and events.
- Contribution to ASCENDER’s goal of building digital twins of urban environments and enabling data-driven strategies for cleaner, healthier cities.