EarthSense Zephyr® air quality monitors have been installed across the 400-acre business park to monitor concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10). Air quality data will be integrated into a digital twin of Hatfield Business Park via an application programming interface (API) alongside weather data, drone data, traffic count, journey time and pedestrian numbers.
EarthSense is working on the project with the University of Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire County Council, Ocado Technology and BT.
Real time Zephyr® measurements will be used to generate a picture of air quality across the park to provide insights into how activity like high footfall and vehicle numbers affects concentrations of air quality across the site and its occupants' personal exposure.
The 3D map will be accessible by occupants of Hatfield Business Park to encourage green decisions that help to reduce emissions, such as travelling by bicycle, walking, or car-sharing. Providing public facing data will encourage small changes in their everyday choices, acting as a catalyst for a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable Hertfordshire.
Project partners will also be using the digital twin to test methods of reducing air pollution across the site and use this information to make strategic, informed decisions about how best to mitigate against emissions, such as building new road layouts to reduce congestion and car emissions. This will help to provide solutions for meeting Net Zero goals and cleaner air by 2030.
Matthew Clark, Programme Manager – Air Quality at Hertfordshire County Council said: "The Living Lab project aims to pave the way for future smart towns and cities with sustainable, smart services to create a cleaner, greener, healthier, and efficient place to live and work. Using the air quality services from EarthSense will enable us to build a picture of where and how pollution is created on the Hatfield Business Park.
"Occupants of the business park will have access to the data and will be able to make informed decisions – such as choosing to cycle or car-share - which we hope will result in a reduction of air pollution."
Tom Hall, Managing Director at EarthSense said: "Behavioural change is key to improving air quality. With high footfall, Hatfield Business Park likely generates large volumes of emissions. Our Zephyr® monitors will provide real time data which Hertfordshire County Council can use to demonstrate to occupants when and where high levels of pollution occur, and encourage them to make choices to reduce the pollution."
The EarthSense Zephyr® air quality monitor takes live measurements of various pollutants, such as nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) that are in ambient air. It uses an active sample mechanism to take real time measures of prevailing pollutants, and data is transmitted to the MyAir® web application or can be integrated into third party systems via API.