Dear partners,

With great joy, we would like to share with you the first big project of the ETA2U Foundation.

Launched on 12 December 2019, Air for Bucharest primarily aims to inform the residents of Bucharest about the pollution levels in the city by creating an infrastructure consisting of a number of specialized sensors located in various places citywide. The sensors will monitor and analyze the air quality, while the data gathered will be published on an online platform accessible to the public.

AERLIVE.RO LAUNCH: 12 December 2019

Airlive.ro is a platform, which measures the air quality in Bucharest through ten sensors located in strategic points throughout the city. The project has been implemented following the winning bid of the ETA2U FOUNDATION together with the ECOPOLIS - Center for Sustainable Policies, in response to a project call supported by the IKEA Urban Environment Fund, financed by IKEA Romania and managed by Bucharest Community Foundation. Thus over the last year, our team of technicians led by our colleague, Vlad Arsene, worked on mounting the sensors and building the platform. We also thank the partners and clients who were open to this project and supported us in our efforts.

“We at IKEA care about people and the environment. The IKEA Urban Environment Fund is a partnership programme with the community through which we support projects designed to protect the environment and the quality of people's lives. On the one hand, air pollution is a global problem and even more so in metropolises. On the other hand, community initiatives bring citizens closer and give them the opportunity to become actively involved, coming up with solutions to solve the problems their communities are facing. We continue our commitment to a healthier environment by supporting the aerlive.ro platform” said Mircea Ilie, Sustainability Leader, IKEA Romania.

STAGE I - BETA VERSION: 12 December 2019 – 1 March 2020

The platform is available online, in beta version, until 1 March 2020, during which time the project team continues to run tests and gather suggestions from users for improving the quality of service. If you would like to send in any suggestions or if  you found a problem on the website you wish to report, please send us a private message.

STAGE II - INDIVIDUAL SENSORS: 1 February 2020

During February 2020, the project team will distribute individual sensors for measuring PMs to citizens who wish to adopt a sensor, mount it and keep it in operation for a period of at least 18 months. The data provided by the sensors will be fed to the aerlive.ro platform in real time. The information on how to obtain an individual sensors will be available on the website soon.

TECHNICAL DATA

The data obtained from the 10 sensors already installed will form the Air Quality Indicator (ICA), designated by the station that records the highest pollution values throughout the city. ICA can have a value between 0 and> 100 and, based on a colour scale will show a range of pollution levels from a low to alert level. In the next period, the ICA is based on measurements of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10). After the tests, it will also include the measurements for carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2).

ABOUT THE SENSORS

The sensors used in aerlive.ro are called Industrial uRADMonitor. They have a compact design and the ability to transmit data in real time over long distances, up to 8 km in the urban environment. The stations are produced by the local company Magnasci and are installed in over 1500 locations worldwide.

The recorded data can be viewed provides both hourly and daily averages. 

ABOUT THE ETA2U FOUNDATION

The ETA2U Foundation was established in 2017 with the aim to generate a sustainable transformation within the local communities, determined by the civic involvement, both through the efficient use of local resources and technological innovation. The ETA2U Foundation seeks to be an interface for the ITC sector in the community by promoting the technological transfer to the community in a sustainable way. You can find more about the foundation's programs here.

We are open to partnerships for projects which use technology to improve the quality of life in communities across the country.