Smart data analytics for climate protection: Using mobile data to calculate air pollution

Nuremberg is currently working on a new plan for clean air. If the pilot project is a success, the insights and derivations gained from it could be included in the plan. To this end, the emissions of the years 2015 and 2016 are being compared in Nuremberg. As Germany's largest mobile communications provider in terms of costumer base, Telefónica Germany provides the anonymized mobile data. On behalf of Telefónica, Teralytics converts this data to flows of movement using their specifically developed algorithm in Telefónica's data centres, from which South Pole Group derives the extent of pollution. By means of comparison, the pilot project uses existing data on the city's quality of air. This data is derived from measuring stations, weather data as well as traffic data from traffic censuses. Using these results, the Municipality of Nuremberg plans to initiate measures specifically in those regions with the worst quality of air. For instance, the municipal administration might replace means of transport that cause high emissions with transport that is low in emission and expand their cycle tracks, in order to encourage more Nuremberg citizens to cycle to work. In addition, a comparison of data from 2015 shows whether the measures taken by the Municipality last year have already influenced the emission values. This would bear great relevance for negotiations with investors and authorities as well as for discussions with the citizens. The research project is funded by Low Carbon City Lab (LoCaL), an EU programme of Climate-KIC. LoCaL aims to reduce 1 gigatonne of CO a year starting 2050 and, at the same time, to mobilize 25 billion Euros for financing municipal climate protection.