Google Street View to start mapping air pollution

Google announced it will be expanding its Street View partnership with Aclima, an environmental sensor network, to map air pollution around the globe.

The internet giant first partnered with the San Francisco-based start-up in 2015. Street View cars, equipped with Aclima’s air quality sensors, have collected data across California, in London and on Google’s own campus in Mountain View, Calif.

“All that work culminated in a major scientific study,” Davida Herzl, the founder of Aclima, told TechCrunch.

That study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, used sensor data from Oakland, Calif. to reveal air pollution levels can vary drastically along one street.

“We found you can have the best air quality and the worst air quality all on the same street, said Herzl. “Understanding that can help with everything from urban planning to understanding your personal exposure.”

Aclima’s sensors record levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air. Data will be publicly available on Google BigQuery while full datasets will be given to science and academic communities, according to Google.

The global expansion will start with 50 cars in Houston, Tex., Mexico City and Sydney, Australia and is expected to provide the most detailed, localized map of air pollution in any given area.

These measurements can provide cities with new neighborhood-level insights to help cities accelerate efforts in their transition to smarter, healthier cities,” Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Program Manager for Google Earth Outreach, said in a statement.