IBM’s IoT and analytical solutions to aid Delhi to clean air

The Delhi government will also improve public transport in the city, shut down a coal-fired power station and start vacuuming the roads to reduce dust, said chief secretary KK Sharma. “Our India research team is helping to create a powerful decision support system with unprecedented accuracy”, said Dr. Ramesh Gopinath, vice president and CTO of IBM Research, India, in a statement. The objective is to uncover greater insight about the nature and causes of air pollution as well as model the effectiveness of intervention strategies.

Mr. Dahiya added that the government’s own data showed that air quality in many North Indian cities was worse than that in Beijing.

The Capital’s air quality was so poor in November last that 29 of the 30 days in the month would have qualified as “red alert” days, going by the pollution warning system China follows.

Delhi has been labelled as the most polluted city in the world by the WHO.

IBM will be utilizing Big Data generated by sensors in environmental monitoring stations, traffic systems and meteorological satellites; Cognitive technologies that understand this data, and use it to tune a predictive model, allowing more informed decisions about how to improve air quality.

The Green Horizons program also aims to use innovative technologies to help utility companies incorporate more renewable energy into the electricity grid.

“Air pollution and climate change are global challenges that require stronger action by government and business”, said Bob Perciasepe, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES). This will not only advance understanding of today’s issues, but provide actionable insight for addressing them while also protecting economic activity and livelihoods.

“Every year, the pollution level goes up in winter. While Johannesburg does not yet have the air pollution challenges to the scale of the world’s megacities, continued economic and demographic growth mean that the city government must take action now to safeguard the future health of the city and its people”, explained Solomon Assefa, Director of IBM’s South Africa Research Lab. “The combined power of Internet of Things and cognitive computing means that understanding, managing and forecasting air quality today is more technically and economically feasible than ever before”. “Our software enables us to forecast both future pollution levels as well as future energy output of renewable energy sources like solar cells and wind turbines-which mathematically use very similar machine learning algorithms”. Jimin Zhao, lead researcher at Baoding’s Environmental Protection Bureau, said IBM’s pollution analytics and forecasting technologies will help the city to reach its goal of reducing fine particulate pollution 33 per cent over the next two years.