Air high quality know-how agency EarthSense says its Zephyr® air high quality screens shall be deployed by Cranfield College at varied websites throughout Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes, as a part of a wider £2.5 million DEFRAG challenge.
The Defragmenting the fragmented city panorama (DEFRAG) challenge is funded by the Pure Setting Analysis Council (NERC) and runs till November 2026. Scientists, together with specialists from Cranfield College, are finding out inexperienced areas, blue areas and concrete infrastructures and the way these fragmented elements interlink and influence on air high quality, biodiversity and water administration. DEFRAG shall be figuring out limitations to a greener infrastructure and delivering new information on how city planning impacts on biodiversity. The data shall be used to design more healthy and extra resilient cities and cities sooner or later.
Cranfield College will set up the Zephyr® air high quality screens throughout varied greenspaces in Bedford, Milton Keynes and Luton which have close by sources of air pollution from roads. The screens will measure pollution together with NO, NO2PM1PM2.5PM10CO and CO2 over a 6-12 month interval to assist researchers higher perceive the influence of inexperienced infrastructure on air high quality.
Dr Zaheer Nasar, Reader in Atmospheric Aerosols at Cranfield College stated: “We have deployed Zephyrs® from EarthSense for previous air quality projects so they were the obvious choice when we were looking for monitors for air quality measurements as a part of the DEFRAG project. These monitors will measure the concentrations of air pollutants over time and across different seasons and the data collected will help us understand how various types of green spaces in urban areas affect and potentially reduce air pollution.”
Professor Ronald Corstanje, Professor of Knowledge Sciences and Head of the Cranfield Setting Centre at Cranfield College stated: “The findings from DEFRAG will be valuable in informing urban planning and policy, ensuring that the ways in which we build our cities in the future are healthy and resilient.”
Greg Lewis, Chief Gross sales and Advertising Officer at EarthSense, added: “We’re delighted that we will be able to continue our relationship with Cranfield University by delivering Zephyr® monitors that will support the air quality monitoring for the DEFRAG project. The project promises to be a major step forward in establishing a greater understanding of the mechanisms through which green spaces impact the air quality in the area.”
Along with Cranfield College, different companions for the DEFRAG challenge embody the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Sheffield College, The Alan Turing Institute and stakeholders throughout Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes.
