From Air Pollution to Open Data

How can the air quality in Bulgarian cities be measured and visualized? How does car traffic, residential heating with wood and coal, and industrialization affect the air we breathe? What are the levels of Fine Particulate Matter (FPM) in our neighborhoods, and what is their effect on our health?

These and many more questions were answered as ACS students joined the citizen-driven airbg.info project, and assembled 10 state-of-the-art air quality stations to help measure FPM in our environment.

In Sofia alone there are over 1000 sensors adopted by volunteers and installed in homes, offices, and public spaces. The stations stream information in real-time to https://airtube.info where it is visualized and provides citizens with crucial information about the environment in the city.

One of the stations was donated to ACS and will soon help us monitor the air quality on campus. The other 9 stations will be donated to public schools around Bulgaria.