Aclima expands its deal with Google to LA, SF and Central Valley regions

Aclima expands its deal with Google

San Francisco-based Aclima is expanding its deal with Google to measure and map air quality within three major California metropolitan communities, including the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Central Valley regions. The initiative relies on Aclima’s newly-tested mobile sensor technology platform on Google Street View cars, first announced in July. The commitment will serve as a launchpad for scaling a broader initiative to map pollutants that most affect human health and climate change.

“We believe this real-time information will transform our understanding of human and planetary health, and enable policymakers and citizens alike to play an active role in improving it,” said Davida Herzl, CEO and co-founder of Aclima. “We see a day when hyper-local air quality will be as accessible as the weather.”

Once collected, the air quality data will be processed, analyzed and aggregated by Aclima’s data platform, and made available on Google Earth Engine, Google Maps’ geospatial analysis platform.

The initiative relies on Aclima’s newly-tested mobile sensor technology platform on Google Street View cars.From there, the data will be made available to scientists and air quality experts, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). They will explore ways to utilize this data at the community scale and its implications for understanding the human health impacts of air pollution. Community members will be able to access and view street-level air quality maps, overlaid on Google Earth and Google Maps. This, Aclima claims, will enable individuals, communities, and policy makers to understand and mitigate health and environmental risks where they occur.

Air pollution in California costs more than a billion dollars in health care costs annually. Asthma results in an estimated 11.8 million days of work/usual activities missed per year among adults. Public health experts estimate that cutting air pollution like ozone and particulate matter, could alleviate 1 in 3 cases of childhood asthma requiring medical attention every year.