Air Pollution Monitoring and Very High Resolution Early Warning Platform for Guangdong

正如联合国可持续发展目标11.6所认识到的那样，空气污染对健康有重大影响：“减少城市对环境的影响，特别关注空气质量。据估计，中国的空气污染每年导致100万人死亡，而在世界上最大的城市地区珠江三角洲，尽管在环境改善方面投入了大量资金，但空气污染往往达到危险水平。减少空气污染的行动需要科学的理解才能有效。计算机模型可以模拟污染的扩散，包括天气、城市建筑和化学变化。该项目汇集了英国和中国的空气质量专家，他们将首次在广东结合最先进的本地和区域空气污染模型，通过集成的智能平台预测街道级别的空气污染，并发出警报。该项目将有助于为短期事件和长期改善制定空气污染控制战略。该系统将使用现有的空气质量监测器和项目部署的创新低成本小型传感器进行优化。健全的污染模型需要熟练的当地从业人员从他们的产出中提取价值。合作和知识共享是我们项目的核心，在广东的环境监测中心和环境企业发展改进的测量和建模能力，并利用我们的系统在中国各地的可转移性。这将促进“绿色”经济的发展，采取更有效的行动，减少广东空气污染对健康的影响。

Air pollution has major health impacts, as recognised in UN Sustainable Development Goal 11.6: ‘reduce the environmental impact of cities, with special attention to air quality.’ Air pollution in China is estimated to contribute to 1 million deaths each year, and in the Pearl River Delta, the largest urban area in the world, air pollution often reaches hazardous levels despite large investment in environmental improvement. Action to reduce air pollution requires scientific understanding to be effective. Computer models can simulate dispersion of pollution accounting for weather, urban buildings and chemical transformations. This project brings together UK and Chinese air quality experts who will, for the first time in Guangdong, combine state-of-the-art local and regional air pollution models to forecast air pollution at street level resolution with alerts via an integrated smart platform. The project will enable development of air pollution control strategies both for short-term episodes and for longer term improvements. The system will be optimised using existing air quality monitors and innovative low cost, small sensors deployed by the project. Robust pollution models require skilled local practitioners to extract value from their outputs. Collaboration and knowledge sharing is at the heart of our project, developing improved measurement and modelling capabilities at Environmental Monitoring Centres and environmental businesses in Guangdong and, making use of the transferability of our system, across China. This will grow the ‘green’ economy, enable more effective action and reduce health impacts from air pollution in Guangdong.