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

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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.