Case studies Citizens Showing Interest in Air Quality Data – Zabok City Example

The Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund (EPEEF) serves as a central point for collecting and investing extra budgetary resources in the projects of environmental protection, energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources in Croatia. As part of its Smart city initiative, Zabok, a city in northern part of Croatia, managed to co-finance installation of two Smart Sense measuring stations with the funding provided by EPEEF. 

Measuring station Sensees.Environment has a number of sensors and it is capable to keep track of multiple parameters, from concentration of particles (PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10) and various gases like CO, SO₂, NO, NO₂ and O₃ to levels of temperature, relative humidity and atmospheric pressure. It can be integrated with additional sensors for wind speed and direction, levels of noise, precipitation and electromagnetic radiation. In this case, it uses 4G technology to send measurement data to central cloud system which enables real-time monitoring and air quality data analysis.

On it's website¹, Zabok decided to publish real-time air quality data from both of it's Sensees.Environment stations. Goal of this initiative is to raise public awareness of air quality importance and to bring attention to the influence of citizen's actions on air quality. Website tracks number of times visitors have checked the air quality data and numbers are showing the great public interest in air quality with average of 1,200 visits per day. For city of nearly 9,000 residents, this means that almost 15% of it's citizens actively monitor air quality every day. 

We are sure that raising public awareness is the best way to ensure cleaner and healthier air in the future and example of Zabok shows the right direction to achieve it. We are proud to be part of this project and we will continue with activites to educate public and to develop better air quality technologies. 

1 – Website of Zabok City  - LINK