Pakistan Air Sensor Network Provides Rare Access to Pollution Data

A Pakistan university has installed a network of inexpensive air sensors across the city of Lahore that measure air quality and automatically upload the information onto an online database, a pilot project officials hope will widen access to air quality data in the developing nation. The project, known as the Volunteer Internet-based Environment Watch (VIEW), currently utilizes solar-powered sensors in seven locations citywide to provide real-time data on levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and ozone, along with temperature, humidity, and dew point. The data is accessible online at www.view.lums.edu.pk. In the next five years, project head Jahangir Ikram hopes to expand the number of sensors in Lahore to more than 50 and also install sensors in some other Pakistani cities. The project was launched by the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). “Data on air pollution in developing countries hardly exists and this is a way to get at that data,” said Agha Akram, who helped launch the program while a student at LUMS. “It’s not like you have to set up a big government bureaucracy.”