Combining Mobile Air Quality Sensors With Census Data

© Copyright 2015 Simularity. All Rights Reserved

Improving Quality Of Life And Environmental Equity In Richmond With

Mobile Air Quality Sensors Combined With Census Data

Liz Derr, Co-Founder and CEO Yuichiro Kuzuryu, Hardware Architect, New Venture Business Development

© Copyright 2015 Simularity. All Rights Reserved 2

The Problem: Richmond Is Home To Industries That Sometimes Pollute

August 25, 2012

Chevron’s Richmond Refinery – the company’s second largest refinery – spewed toxic smoke over Richmond and San Pablo sending more than 14,000 people in the East Bay to medical facilities with smoke-related complaints.


Richmond Has An Air Monitoring Website

3 Areas: • Atchison

Village• North

Richmond• Point

Richmond

2 Locations Per Area: Refinery Fence Line and Community

Chevron might not be the only problem, or even the biggest problem, but all we’re measuring is the air near the refinery, so how would we know?


Our Proposed Project1. Attach mobile air quality sensors to city vehicles to get a

broad, real-time view of air quality throughout the city2. Publish the real time air quality data for citizens to refer

to 3. Use predictive analytics that combine air quality data

with census data for policy and planning insights


What We Did

Correlation and Similarity Calculations

REST API

Simularity Knowledge Base

Simularity Intelligent Agent

Simularity Created User Interface


VasP Sensor Unit

air pollution sensors:Ozone, NOx, SO2, CO, CO2, PM2.5, etc.

dimension4x3x1.5(estimation)

GPS

optional:driving informationmobile battery or connection to vehicle’s electrical system

other sensors:temperature, humidity, barometric pressure,UV, ambient light, accelerometer, radiation, etc.

mobile connectivity

Mock-up of final product


How To Attach The VasP

Neodymium Magnet or Permanent Attachment (theft prevention)


Step 1: Connect The VasP To A Car And Collect Readings

Maiden Voyage!

Prototype VasP


Step 2: Ingest VasP Readings Into UI and Correlation Engine


Step 3: Ingest Census Data Into UI and Correlation Engine


Step 4: Combine Census Data With VasP ReadingsVasP Data: Nitrogen Dioxide

Census Data: Median Household Income

High Median Income Areas Had Worse NO2

Readings!

Studies on human populations indicate that long-term exposure to NO2 levels currently observed in Europe may decrease lung function and increase the risk of respiratory symptoms such as acute bronchitis and cough and phlegm, particularly in children.


Step 5: Find Correlations Between Census Data And VasP ReadingsCorrelation Engine Query: Which Areas Are Correlated With Medium To High (360 – 528) Levels Of Nitrogen Dioxide?


Step 5: Find Correlations Between Census Data And VasP Readings

VasP Data Details For Tract 379000:

Tract 379000 is Negatively Correlated With Med-High NO2

Readings in tract 379000 that match the med-high criteria (360-528): 39 of 367 readings


Step 5: Find Correlations Between Census Data And VasP Readings

VasP Data: Nitrogen Dioxide

Details And Correlations For Census Tract 386000

Log Likelihood Correlations Between “Medium to High

NO2 Readings” and “All Census Subgroups By Tract”


Product Readiness

Simularity Software• Simularity’s Knowledge Base And Intelligent Agent Software Is

Fully Functional And Deployed At Several Customer Sites• The User Interface Demonstrated Is Fully Functional

VasP Unit• Prototyping stage now, launch next year


VasP Launch Schedule

Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul

pilot launch (beta version)official launch

beta version development

funding

additional researchcompany build


Competition Categories Of Our Project

• Healthy living: Real-time hyper-local air quality measurements available to the public help citizens with Asthma or other respiratory issues plan

• Energy efficiency: measuring hyper-local CO2 emissions can indicate areas for reducing emissions

• Urban Sustainability: hyper-local air quality metrics, available online in real time give a broader picture of the air quality per neighborhood vs. static measuring stations

• Great Outdoors: • Provides a citizen facing information service that provides historical and real-

time information about environmental air quality• Enhances existing datasets (census data) through additional environmental

sensors (gathered from VasP)• Enhances the value of new datasets in terms of community-and/or policy

impact (correlations of census information with hyper-local air quality data)• Environmental justice/equity considerations:

• Which neighborhoods are suffering the most? • Which locations are polluting the most?


Project Affordability

• Simularity’s knowledge base and intelligent agent software is licensed by usage and can be installed on premise or hosted.

• The user interface can be customized by any web developers.

• The VasP unit pricing is projected to be in the range of $50 to $150.


Features For Future Phases

• Calibrate the sensor readings and establish appropriate safety levels

• Allow citizens to sign up for hyper-local text alerts when dangerous air quality situations exist in their neighborhood

• Add additional sensors, measure noise levels• Create VasPs that can be purchased by citizen

scientists and attached to their own cars or homes and allow citizens to view their own VasP data


1160 Brickyard Cove Road, Suite 200 Point Richmond, CA 94801United States

+ 1 415-819-5731 [email protected]

THANK YOU

@simularityhttps://www.youtube.com/c/simularity

www.simularity.com

mailto:[email protected]

Combining Mobile Air Quality Sensors With Census Data

Government & Nonprofit

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