Air quality and greenhouse gas sensors to monitor Dublin's emissions

Although Dublin City occupies just 1.7% of the area of Ireland, it is estimated to contribute over 9.4% of the national emissions. Picture: Stephen Collins /Collins

Sensors which will provide a real time "visual pulse" of Dublin's emissions have been installed across the city as part of a year-long pilot project.

The 20 low-cost greenhouse gas sensors, which have been deployed across phone masts in residential and commercial areas, will also measure the effectiveness of policy decisions.

Although Dublin City occupies just 1.7% of the area of Ireland, it is estimated to contribute over 9.4% of the national emissions.

The sensors, which directly measure greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane as well as air quality, will provide a real-time “visual pulse” of the city, reflecting differences in land use, weather events and hourly patterns of traffic moving in and around the city streets.

A unique aspect of the pilot is that the data obtained will directly measure how effective any implemented policy is. This has been a key challenge across international urban areas due to the lack of these measurement networks.

The data collected will also be used to understand patterns of emissions in Dublin City in relation to weather and human activities while also identifying emission hot spots. The data will also guide policy actions to achieve emissions reductions.

Environment Minister Eamon Ryan said the real-time visual pulse of the city would be key to assisting Dublin City Council in developing policy actions that could help reduce emissions. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The pilot project is one of several being developed by Terrain-AI, a large-scale research project led by Maynooth University professors Tim McCarthy and Rowan Fealy, which is focused on understanding greenhouse gas emissions and their geography.

The project, which is funded by Microsoft Ireland, will support the EU Cities Mission in which 112 leading European cities were selected to become climate-neutral by 2030.

Both Dublin and Cork were selected out of more than 370 applicant cities across Europe to participate in the EU Cities Mission and have committed to implementing “cutting-edge and creative solutions” across areas such as energy, transport, waste, and infrastructure to reduce their environmental footprints.

Environment Minister Eamon Ryan said the real-time visual pulse of the city would be key to assisting Dublin City Council in developing policy actions that could help reduce emissions and make the city a better place to live, work or visit.

“It’s amazing to think that we can monitor greenhouse gas emissions in real-time like this across Dublin City. Local government has a vital role to play in helping us to meet Ireland’s national climate targets,” he said.

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