Air quality monitoring in the city

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The Athens Digital Lab
  • The Athens Digital lab, the center of Innovation for Smart cities of the Municipality of Athens, is a pioneering venture, at the heart of the Greek startup ecosystems.
  • Currently, 2020-2021, it stages its third round for digital activities, inviting young entrepreneurs / startups, university students and research teams, to submit proposals for the improvement of the quality of life in the city and test their ideas in the real field. After three stages of evaluation ten proposals were approved.
  • The incubated teams work together with municipality executives, executives of COSMOTE and Nokia’s innovation divisions, and other bodies of the Greek and EU startup ecosystem, to develop sustainable tech solutions.
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Grafana display
Implementation
  • Siba loT is among the 10 teams that have been selected by the Municipality of Athens to implement their idea at the 3rd round of the Athens Digital lab (ADL) call for innovation in the city.
  • Our team has developed a novel technology product that offers reliable measurement of air pollution indicators (temperature, moisture, carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), black carbon, volatile organics (VOCs) and suspended matter (PM)) in indoor and outdoor air, as well as real time data visualization and analysis.
  • ADL will provide the financial means for a pilot application in the real field, including the cost of essential technological equipment (hardware and software), access to a specialised ΙοΤ platform, plus technical support and guidance.
  • Siba IoT equipment will be deployed in two buildings of interest to the Municipality. The equipment will be adapted to make use of mobile networks and IoT.
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Siba sensor box
Impact
  • Recent studies in Italy and the USA have shown that there is significant correlation between increase in particle concentration in the air and active COVID-19 cases. Microorganisms attach themselves to microparticles in the air and they are thus able to travel long distances and remain airborne and therefore active for many weeks. High concentrations of microorganisms can be present in indoor areas, caused mainly by human activites.
  • Indeed, indoor air have been found to be up to 100 times more polluted than outdoor air and the fact that we spend more than 80% or time in confined spaces shows how important it is to monitor the quality of indoor air.
  • Particle concentrations in the air, combined with CO2 and VOCs, can act as an indicator of contamination which can be used by competent authorities to take adequate measures to protect human health.

Our apparatus permits the detection of overcrowding situations and danger of infections from viruses and pollutants in public areas and public buildings and schools. Based on these measurements the Municipality will be in a position to use Siba Iot equipment as a tool for the environmental monitoring in areas under its jurisdiction and therefore the protection of human health against potential environmental hazards such as COVID-19.