Since 2016, Copenhagen Solutions Lab has been working to establish a coherent data base for air pollution in Copenhagen. We work on and test solutions to develop new knowledge that can form the basis for policy development and other activities and use mobile and stationary sensors in partnership with both companies and universities.

The air pollution in Copenhagen annually costs the society DKK 4 billion and has major human consequences such as several sick days, hospital admissions and approx. 550 premature deaths each year.

Focus area
Copenhagen Solutions Lab focuses on developing data to support solutions that:

• Reduce air pollution in Copenhagen
• Reduces Copenhageners' exposure to air pollution by either creating urban solutions that cause Copenhageners to stay in the areas with least air pollution or by designing urban spaces so that Copenhageners come into contact with air pollution as little as possible
• Examine how air pollution is transmitted to buildings.

Air projects in Copenhagen Solutions Lab

• Air View project: Collection of city-wide data sets in collaboration with Google, University Of Utrecht, and Aarhus University (Danish Center for Environment).

From October 2018 and throughout 2019, a Google Street View car with advanced measuring equipment mapped air pollution at street level all over Copenhagen, thus giving new insight into the extent of local air pollution street by street. The car has been equipped by scientists from Utrecht University and measures soot, fine and ultrafine particles, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. When the big amount of data has been analyzed and validated, an air pollution map over Copenhagen will be created and the data will be made available for policymakers, the municipality, researchers, and citizens.

• Designing City Spaces in collaboration with Gehl Architects

The project is based on the idea that the planning and organization of the city affects the ways we live. The goal is to provide practitioners, urban planners, and decision makers with tools in the form of fact-based design codes for healthy urban environments that at the same time work as an invitation to outdoor and social activities. This effort augments data on hyperlocal air quality measurements from the Airview project between Google and the City of Copenhagen with public life data from Gehl. The project will develop concrete design propositions to reduce pollution, as well as three tools that can be used to integrate considerations of air pollution into the design of urban spaces.

• Collection of data on air quality at five measuring stations around the city

A total of five air measurement stations have been set up, which over a three-year period will measure the air's content of pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particles (PM2.5), ultrafine particles (UFP), and the substance Black Carbon, which mainly originates from car exhaust and stoves. The five measuring stations are located in areas characterized by heavy traffic and stoves. The supplying of measurement stations and data is carried out by the company Force Technology, which won the tender in fierce competition with both Danish and foreign companies.