Poor air quality impacts both the health of residents and their quality of life.

The Smart team has worked with Cambridge City Council, the University of Cambridge (Department of Chemistry and Computer Laboratory) and Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants to look at how air quality can be better measured within the city.

Over twenty sensors have been placed at key points around Cambridge using a larger number of measurement nodes to understand how air quality varies across the city, particularly in main transport corridors and areas of construction activity.

The first phase proved that the sensors compared well to the existing roadside monitoring stations. The second phase will see the project compare the air quality data with other sources of data such as weather and traffic flows to begin to really understand what the sources of pollution are. This will then feed into work lead by Cambridge City Council to improve air quality across the city.

In the summer of 2019 a study to monitor air quality and traffic movements was carried out during the temporary closure of Mill Road Bridge.

Cambridge City Council produced a Mill Road air-quality monitoring report following the trial.