Unhealthy air is affecting us all on a daily basis, children, elderly and persons
with pre–existing conditions being extra vulnerable. Each one of us can positively
influence the air quality in Berlin by making some conscious decisions, like...
building a sensor and starting or joining a citizen science project like Luftdaten.info
or by borrowing a sensor from the Techniche Universität in Berlin
and becoming part of its citizen science initiative Berlin Air NO2–Atlas and measure the city’s NO2 levels
walking, biking and using public transport
getting rid of your car, motorcycle or scooter, or at least changing to vehicles
that run on renewable energy
changing to clean energy providers in your household and throwing your garbage in the right
garbage bins
stopping smoking and burning candles
and last but not least, you should definitely not use fireworks and crackers on
New Year’s Eve
A positive example is the biggest successful citizen science project to date:
A good example of a successful collaboration between government and citizens, that the City of
Berlin could learn from, is the Belgian citizen science project called Curious Noses.
It took place in 2018 and was supported by the University of Antwerp, the Flemish Environment
Agency (VMM) and De Standaard newspaper. A total of 20.000 individuals measured
NO2 levels outside their windows for one month, to validate the official computer–
model called ATMO–street, developed by VITO for the VMM. The citizens science
measurements where calibrated against the official NO2 measuring stations by VMM and
was found to have a high accuracy.
“Based on the data collected, Berlin has developed an ambitious set of measures as part of
the new Clean Air Plan. With these measures, we want to achieve the primary goal of the
Clean Air Cities declaration as early as the end of 2020: meeting the strict WHO guidelines
– here for nitrogen dioxide vehicle emissions.”
The plan Mayer Müller is referring to is called the Clean Air Plan 2018 – 2025 (2019 edition)
and is proposing a set of fairly standardised solutions, like cleaner vehicles on the streets
of Berlin, making the public transport more attractive for the citizens, giving
additional support for pedestrian and bike infrastructure and the introduction of parking fees
inside the S–bahn ring.
Harsh critique of the proposed plan...
has come in the form of a lawsuit from the German non–governmental organization (NGO)
called Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V. Already back in 2016 they filed a lawsuit
against the City of Berlin because of the lack of its success in fulfilling their goals in
the previous Clean Air Plan (2011 – 2017).
This has now lead the NGO to file an enforcement lawsuit
in June 2019, hoping to get a binding legal agreement that the City of Berlin needs to
comply with as part of the Clean Air Plan 2018 – 2025.
Thanks for reading!
From us, to you, a special tune about the air of Berlin
Happy listening!
Berliner Luft (the air of Berlin) by Paul Lincke and Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers
Data used to make this project possible:
Data:
API from Luftdaten.info (last accessed on 21.02.2020)
API from Openaq (last accessed on 21.02.2020)
Measurement data over Berlin from yearly reports and online measurement data
from Berlin Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate
Protection (last accessed on 21.02.2020)
Measurement data over Berlin from online measurement data
from the German Environment Agency (last accessed on 21.02.2020)
Laws, recommendations and healthrisks around the pollutants NO2, PM2.5 and Ozone:
