International Transportation (68) 1 | 2016 20 BEST PRACTICE Sustainable Mobility Providing solutions to-air-quality challenges German Partnership for Sustainable Mobility as-a-solutions-network German cities mostly benefit from a high level of air quality. Transport is one of the main reasons for air pollution. Therefore sustainable transport measures can significantly reduce the concentration of air pollutants. In the last 20 years, Germany has successfully reduced air pollution, making it an example worthwhile to study. German knowledge and expertise in sustainable mobility solutions are collected in the GPSM network. It can therefore be seen as a pool for solutions that German knowledge and expertise provide to air quality problems. A ccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 3.7- million premature deaths were caused by outdoor air pollution worldwide in 2012. The health risk of air pollution presents a global challenge. Air pollutants such as particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide have highly devastating efects on human health. Germany has achieved a considerable reduction of air pollution in recent decades, based on technological developments and efective air quality policies. In the last 20 years, Germany has reduced carbon monoxide by 90- percent, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by 90 percent, benzene by 95 percent, nitrogen oxides by 90 percent and particulate matter by 70 percent. Air pollution is mainly caused by transport, industry, agriculture and energy consumption. Clean Air policies therefore need too be based on a comprehensive approach that aligns all interests in this ield. As air pollution is a trans-border problem, international cooperation is also indispensable. Sustainable transport measures can signiicantly reduce the concentration of air pollutants, even if emission reduction is not the primary target. These include measures such as public transport improvements and vehicle upgrades, the implementation of pedestrian zones as well as bike and car sharing systems. In addition to that, innovative logistics concepts as well as vehicle technologies can reduce emissions. The friends of GPSM provide services in diferent sectors that can help to address the extensive air quality challenge. Some of our friends’ expertise is outlined in the following. Michel Arnd German Partnership for Sustainable Mobility (GPSM)/ GIZ michel.arnd@german-sustainable-mobility.de www.german-sustainable-mobility.de Small-scale, inexpensive sensors and a central Cloud platform The German start-up Breeze has developed a new form of air quality monitoring for cities: Small-scale, inexpensive sensors and a central Cloud platform form the backbone of their innovative solution. Most cities inand outside of the European Union are already required by law or policy to measure urban air quality levels. The same data can also be a valuable source of information about the current state and healthiness of the city, as well as a baseline to measure the success of policy changes. The hitherto widely applied “traditional” approach of using large-scale and expensive monitoring stations generates too little data to be useful in most analysts’ scenarios. Breeze is a German start-up company that leverages the combination of inexpensive, small-scale sensors and a Cloud application based on Big Data and machine learning that allows the generation of a larger amount of high quality data. The sensor itself is “dumb”; it sends its measurements via WiFi, GSM or another data transmission standard directly to the Breeze Cloud. There, the data is evaluated using knowledge of the sensor’s location, the local weather and other inluences, as well as other sensors’ data and external data points (“Breeze Adaptive Cloud Calibration”). Sensors can also be installed on buses or trams to cover a larger area. Visualization and integration capabilities complement the pure data access. While the data is not as accurate as measurements collected by the traditional monitoring equipment, environmental scientists agree that the beneits of the larger amount of data points outweigh a decrease in accuracy. International Transportation (68) 1 | 2016 21 Sustainable Mobility BEST PRACTICE A potentially huge amount of data points also allows to start diferentiation between diferent emission sources, for instance from transportation, heating or natural sources. Cities could proit from this tool by conducting “urban experiments”; by measuring the efects of policy changes against existing air pollution baselines so that only those with a positive impact will be made permanent. Multiple cities using the same set of indicators might even proit from additional knowledge transfer processes and identiied best practices. Finally, as the data would already be easily accessible via standardized APIs, other types of integration and data publication for citizen engagement and involvement would also be very easy. Robert Heinecke Breeze robert@projectbreeze.eu www.projectbreeze.eu A tree and Internet-of-Things technology for clean air Green City Solutions addresses the global problem of air pollution by combining a special, vertically installed moss culture with Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology. Its product, called the “CityTree”, is a freestanding unit measuring 4 m in height, 3 m in width and 0.6 m in depth. It combines special moss cultures with vascular plants that eat particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide and ozone - ofsetting 240 t of CO 2 e/ year in total. Annually the plant ilter compensates pollution from up to 417 cars and can be adapted to any environment. The construction contains sensors collecting environmental and climatic data to regulate and control the unit and ensure that the plants survive. Thus, the CityTree has the same efect as 275 urban trees, but requires 99 % less space. Thanks to solar panels and rain water retention systems, the unit requires only a few hours of maintenance per year. By using technologies like WiFi, iBeacon, NFC and digital screens, CityTrees can also transmit digital and visual information. The CityTree has been implemented in several cities with permanent installations in Oslo (Norway), Dresden and Klingenthal (both Germany) as well as Hong Kong (upcoming in June 2016). Its mobile and freestanding design also made it possible to Your Guide to Sustainable Mobility Made in Germany www.german-sustainable-mobility.de International Transportation (68) 1 | 2016 22 BEST PRACTICE Sustainable Mobility deploy the plant ilter temporarily at a number of conferences, fairs and campaigns in Munich, Berlin, Hanover, Halle, Dresden and Jena. One of the irst units sold has been bought by Germany’s biggest health insurance company for the purpose of outdoor advertising by using the CityTree as a free WiFi hotspot. The campaign has gained national TV coverage and international social media engagement, and over a six months period more than 2,500 people had daily visual contact with the CityTree. The City Council of Oslo decided to invest in the green solution as a part of its urban development program, contributing to the protection of the environment and nature, increasing the biodiversity of the urban environment and educating people about the issue of air pollution and its negative impact on health. Tina Hensel Green City Solutions t.hensel@mygcs.de www.mygcs.de Photo: Oslophototour/ CityTree Oslo Modelling air pollutant concentration levels Quantifying emissions is essential for reporting and for impact assessments of diferent air quality strategies. To protect human health and the environment, it is important to know the pollution concentrations people and the environment are exposed to. Emissions afect these concentration levels, but they also strongly depend on meteorological and environmental conditions. Both these factors determine the transmission, i.e. the transport and possible transformation of substances, from the emission sources to the receptors. Measurements and modelling are used to quantify these concentration levels, which are regulated by limit values. Measurements of pollutant concentrations are expensive and time-consuming, hence monitoring stations are typically set up for single locations, not across entire areas or cities. In addition, since measuring is possible only for existing situations, it cannot be used to assess future scenarios. Dispersion modelling, on the other hand, does not have these limitations and can deliver assessments for entire areas in high spatial resolution as well as for future developments. Based on emission data, dispersion modelling simulates the physical and chemical transport and transformation processes and calculates concentration levels for freely selectable locations and points in time. Depending on the aim of the modelling study and its spatial scope, diferent models or combinations thereof are employed. Operational modelling systems exist for all relevant spatial scales, ranging from continents or countries (e. g. RCG) down to speciic street sections or crossroads (e. g. IMMIS), and are being routinely used by universities and private environmental consulting companies. For example, so-called screening-models (such as IMMISluft) allow the identiication of highly afected areas or “hot spots” and can assess the population’s exposure for entire cities. A complete modelling chain with RCG and IMMIS has been applied (for example in Berlin). Such an exhaustive assessment is a valuable basis for air quality planning and prioritising measures (see www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/ umwelt/ l u f t q u a l i t a e t / d e / l u f t r e i n h a l t e p l a n / download.shtml, in German) Florian Pfälin IVU Umwelt GmbH lorian.pfaelin@ivu-umwelt.de www.ivu-umwelt.de