Empowering citizens to improve quality of life in urban environments; the CITI-SENSE Barcelona case study

Abstract

Background: CITI-SENSE is a four year Collaborative Project partly funded by the EU FP7-ENV-2012 under grant agreement 308524, which commenced in October 2012. Nine different cities (Barcelona, Belgrade, Edinburgh, Haifa, Ljubljana, Oslo, Ostrava, Vienna and Vitoria) will gather sensor-enabled health-relevant information on outdoor urban spaces and indoor school environments. Aims: The overall aim of CITISENSE is to create citizen observatories, and to empower citizens with the means to communicate directly with authorities and policy-makers regarding contemporary urban environmental health issues. In Barcelona, we will focus on urban air pollution. Methods: Mobile and static sensor nodes will be strategically deployed around the city of Barcelona. Dynamic land-use regression modeling will be performed to create a near-real-time map layer of urban environmental health indicators, including CO2, NO2, NOX, PM, and noise. Citizens will be engaged to identify and evaluate contemporary environmental health issues. Results: 20 personal/mobile sensors and 40 geographical/static sensors will be deployed in Barcelona city. The mobile sensors will be carried by interest user-groups such as bicyclists and asthmatics. The static sensors will facilitate land-use-regression modeling, occurring hourly and complementing existing air monitoring network information, to produce advice for citizens via mobile software apps. The city council, environmentalists, bicycle advocates and hospital outpatient groups will assist the development of the final products. Conclusions: The CITI-SENSE Barcelona case study will develop citizen observatories to improve the quality of life in urban environments, facilitating the detection of air pollution and noise level limit breaches that may negatively impact citizens’ health and quality of life on a daily basis.