Today, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and Aclima, the climate tech leader in hyperlocal pollution and greenhouse gas measurement and analysis, released groundbreaking results collected through a cutting-edge, hyperlocal air quality mobile monitoring network. In January of 2020, the Air District and Aclima announced their historic partnership to map air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions in all nine counties of the Bay Area, covering more than 5,000 square miles, 101 cities, and nearly eight million people.
The goal of this partnership is to bring an unprecedented level of access and visibility to air quality at the neighborhood level across the entire Bay Area region. Complementing the Air District’s trusted regulatory monitoring network throughout the Bay, Aclima deployed its specialized fleet of sensor-equipped low-emission vehicles to map air quality on every public street. Aclima’s professional analytics software translates billions of measurements from its state-of-the-art sensors into results that can support the Air District. Today we are sharing the results of one year’s worth of measurements from every Bay Area county. The measurements provide unique insights about what people are breathing at the block level. This partnership highlights the Air District’s commitment to advancing new and pioneering approaches to protect the health of all Bay Area residents.
Residents of the Bay Area can visit air.health to search their address and look up the pollutants that are typically present on their block. The results are presented in online maps that show estimates of air pollutants at the neighborhood block level. Air pollutants can vary five to eight times from one end of a block to the other. The maps reinforce concerns about environmental and health disparities faced by many in the region. Aclima and the Air District’s shared goal is for these data to help track and locate sources of pollution and catalyze bold action that reduces emissions, protects public health, and delivers clean air for all.
“We’re proud to partner with the Air District on this historic and unprecedented effort. To move at the speed and scale the challenge demands, we’re using an entirely novel approach that combines regulatory and community-led strategies with private sector innovation. Together, we can shift the paradigm and accelerate solutions that meet the intersecting challenges of air pollution, climate change, and environmental justice.” - Davida Herzl, Aclima Co-Founder and CEO
“This is the first time anyone has taken on a project like this at this scale, so we are excited to partner with Aclima to expand our use of innovative measurement and data approaches and add Aclima’s technology to our toolkit. As we are exploring Aclima’s new data and insights ourselves, we look forward to sharing these results with the public, especially impacted communities.” - Veronica Eady, senior deputy executive officer of policy and equity at the Air District.
About Aclima
Aclima is pioneering an entirely new way to diagnose the health of our air and track climate-changing pollution. Our technology and software products support bold climate action to protect public health, reduce emissions, and deliver clean air for all. Connect with Aclima via Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Bay Area Air Quality Management District
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is the regional agency responsible for protecting air quality in the nine-county Bay Area. Connect with the Air District via Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.