Signal 2: Using IoT to Map and Monitor Air Quality

Asthma rates in the USA have been steadily increasing over the past century and today nearly 25 million Americans suffer from the chronic disease. One of the primary causes of the disease is rapid urbanization and the pollution that has followed. Analyzing asthma rates and patients has left us with a decent understanding of the disease and its effects on certain populations, however solutions to curb these rates have been hard to come by.

One avenue taken by Louisville, Kentucky has been to map out inhaler usage and overlap that data with air quality data through EPA, Census Bureau and the U.S. Geological Survey data. Using inhalers equipped with sensors able to relay location and time data back to the Louisville City government, they are able to streamline emergency services to at-risk neighborhoods and affect future urban project priorities.

Deteriorating air quality in urban areas is a major health concern and has disproportionate impacts on lower income neighborhoods. Access to city services is vital for a community’s improvement and multi-layered maps like Louisville’s represents a way for larger urban areas to provide reliable services to neglected communities.

https://gcn.com/articles/2016/11/10/air-louisville.aspx

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-the-city-of-louisville-is-using-iot-and-big-data/