The Project

The entire project is addressed over 3 phases. In its first phase, its objective is to lay the foundation as it undertakes a feasibility and viability analysis using 6-12 experimental interventions in small localities.

For the project entirety, Usiru will lay out, in advance, a large sensor infrastructure and data cloud while establishing the difference from a baseline before intervention and after. The experiments will be active and may make changes based on partial progress and data.

Each intervention will be scored for reach (household, locality, ward or city ), depth (15% or lesser, 30% to 50%, over 50% changes ) and friction (ease or effort from residents) . The project categorises and expects success to be based on an enduring adoption, through a combination of coercive measures, incentives and nudges.

A part of reaching firm conclusions ( Like the odd-even scheme in Delhi ) is the inherent large scale variability in measures of ambient air pollution. PMI_2.5 is most variable with up-to 100% in a day and 800% across seasons.

There are two primary modules to the project – I) Data Acquisition Systems and an II) Air Quality Intelligence Platform

I. Data Acquisition Systems

1. 6-20 high cost fixed location PMI + VOC (Volatile Organic gases) . Regulatory grade Gold class
2. 30-100 medium cost fixed location PMI + VOC Commercial / Industrial grade Silver class at community groups and corporates
3. 1,500-2,000 low cost fixed location PMI + VOC Commodity grade Bronze class with residents.
4. 300-800 low cost mobile location PMI + VOC Bronze grade with residents/ companies in car, trucks.
5. 10-25 weather stations for wind, precipitation, sunshine, temperature. Mixture from community, companies and government.
6. 20-50 vibration and noise sensors to detect usage of Diesel gensets
7. 8-15 location based hourly photographs of view from road junctions, airport, metro and bus stations etc
8. 80 stations of KSNDMC ( Karnataka State National Disaster Management Centre ) providing data on water precipitation and rainfall
9. Use the new C-40 Air Pollution Control Command Room being commissioned by BBMP
10. Special custom vans with high cost sensors for calibration of Bronze grade sensors in use

II. Air quality Intelligence platform

1. Initial verification of correlation and sensitivity of common devices . A low cost, quick field level process to estimate a figure-of-merit of the device. Gold or regulatory level, Silver or industrial/ commercial level and Bronze for commodity, common usage
2. Methods for conducting regular checks using reference devices in mobile vans
3. Data Science methods to detect anomaly
4. Methods for consumers of the data to segment by figure-of-merit of the devices
5. API for vendors to integrate Usiru data in the Air Quality maps shown to user and for service providers to benchmark their services with the community at large.