Several hundred smart sensors already monitor air quality and other important meteorological parameters throughout the city. The aim of the project, for which Brezno has received funding from Norwegian grants, is to protect and improve public health.
A dense network of special sensors currently generates an extremely accurate map of the status of measurable indicators, which provides management with will help the city plan preventive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Data for informed decisions
At the end of last year, the Brezno municipal government implemented measures aimed at online monitoring of environmental pollution. A total of 560 special sensors were installed in the streets of the city, which are able to evaluate the air quality, in addition to temperature, relative humidity and barometric pressure. Brezno secured nearly 150 thousand euros in external funding from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism for this purpose. "Since air pollution in the city and its surroundings poses a significant threat to human health and the quality of life of the inhabitants, based on the measured data it will be possible to make qualified decisions, for example, in terms of the need for planting greenery, changing the organisation of transport or targeted search for sources of pollution in specific parts of the city," said Mayor Tomáš Abel, highlighting the benefits of the project.
Available 24/7
The individual sensors are mounted on streetlight poles at distances no greater than 100 meters apart, creating an exceptionally accurate map of measured parameters. "These sensors allow us to objectively and thoroughly process a list of high-risk areas, such as heat islands, provide information on the relative air quality within the city, predict environmental improvement or deterioration, more accurately determine traffic and road maintenance plans, and generate alerts in case of sudden environmental degradation," added Milada Šimkovičová, head of the project management department. The smart sensors operate continuously, recording data 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The data is automatically transferred at regular intervals to a central server and into the application, which now allows the general public to monitor the information.
Brezno Smart City Sensors
At the end of January, the city launched a new mobile application called Brezno Smart City Sensors, which allows its users to control the state of the environment in Brezno. Once downloaded, a map of all the sensors installed in the city is displayed on the phone, from which it is possible to select a specific sensor and monitor its data on measured temperature, relative humidity and air pressure in real time. The user can choose a time span of measurements from 6 hours to five years and compare the current situation with the past or with other parts of the city. The municipal government's goal is to gradually expand the monitoring network to 1,000 sensors, thanks to which it will be able to evaluate the current state and quality of the environment even more comprehensively, and to take timely preventive measures suitable for specific locations in its territory.
