Being able to go to one resource to track air quality is both efficient and helpful for those wanting to be conscientious about their overall level of exposure, safety measures, and health. The IQ Airmap is a free app and website tool that shows current air pollution measurements in real-time, even showing air circulation patterns with isolines. IQ Airmap was started by the private company IQ Air, which has been selling air monitoring, filtration, and circulation products since 1963, with the support of non-governmental and non-profit organizations like UNEP and Greenpeace. Data for the map is lifted from government monitoring stations, where they exist, and smaller independent monitoring stations hosted by individuals who partner with IQ Air and out of places like national embassies that collect air quality information where other monitoring stations might not exist. The map can also be adjusted to show hotspots, fires, and wind worldwide as well, all factors that can impact the overall air quality of a given location. With the broad recognition of the health hazards of air pollution, being able to pan anywhere in the world and look up air quality metrics for almost every location worldwide is certainly an important tool for public health and the education of the general public. There might be a possible conflict of interest in an app being created by a company that sells air filtration products such as personal face masks, though the partnership of well respected public health and environmental organizations does add a certain level of authenticity to IQ Air’s reporting.
“Air Quality Map.” IQ AirMap. Accessed July 27, 2020. https://www.iqair.com/ca/air-quality-map.
Categories
Aesthetic/Leisure, Climate Change, Data, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Regulation
Air Pollution Robot
The dangers of air pollution to human health are well documented, though the traditional methodology of collecting and reporting on sample lags behind the need to keep abreast and regulate air pollution in a meaningful amount of time. The use of drones and robots have been identified by researchers as resources that can be tweaked […]
Artificial Life, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Industry/Natural Commodities, Lifestyle, Monitoring
Telematic Rivers
Erica Kermani’s artwork seeks to answer a central question: if rivers were seeing an equal, living entity, would humans take issues like climate change threatening them more seriously? In his year-long art exhibition in 2017, Kermani, in collaboration with Diana Salcedo & Jeana Chesnik, created a new forum of interaction between humans and rivers to […]
Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Visual Technologies
Co-occupied Boundaries
Art is easily found in nature but rarely is what considered art today inherently natural. The concept of co-occupied mediums that serve to be both functional for nature and aesthetically pleasing to people is being actively explored by Asya Ilgun and Phil Ayres, from the CITAstudio at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In […]
Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Visual Technologies