Copenhagen Solutions Lab

Copenhagen Solutions Lab is an internal consultancy of the Technical and Environmental Department of the Municipality of Copenhagen, in Denmark. With a staff of eight people, Copenhagen Solutions Lab works on issues of transversal interest among the City’s departments by using innovative technologies to promote green urban strategies and policies.

The challenge

Air quality is an issue that concerns several municipal departments, including those responsible for adaptation to climate change, environmental protection, transport, biodiversity, water, economic development, and, — especially — health.

Indeed, even in a clean city like Copenhagen, air pollution is identified as one of the main causes of premature deaths and it is suspected of exacerbating illnesses such as cancers, cardiovascular, respiratory and lung diseases, and even neuro-logical disorders like autism, dementia, Parkinson’s, depressions, and more

Traditionally, air quality is monitored through sensors at static stations located around the city. These provide a generic representation of air quality, and in particular its annual average, which reveals long-term trends. Nevertheless, traditional measurements are not able to deliver precise information on where and when pollutants are most present during the day and people are exposed to it.

Copenhagen Solutions Lab was looking for ways to localise air pollution at the street level and to understand when specific city spots are particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon.

The satellite solution

In 2017, Google offered to support the efforts of Copenhagen Solutions Lab by using the methodology developed within their Air View Project, with the help of the University of Utrecht and the University of Aarhus.

Google equipped its Street View cars with air quality sensors and collected data on air quality in every street of Copenhagen. The measurements targeted the pollutants that are emitted in the city, especially nitrogen dioxide, ultrafine particulate matter and black carbon.

The cars logged one measurement per second, collecting very granular spatial data on air quality, which could be geolocated thanks to the Satellite Navigation systems embedded in the cars. These passed on every street at least six times during one and a half year, in order to get the seasonal distribution of air pollution. This was done until March 2020, when the city lockdown caused by the COVID-19 crisis was declared in Copenhagen.

The spatial accuracy of the information collected in such a way allows for the identification of correlations between human activities, infrastructure and air pollution, according to the time of the day and the season.

The results

In October 2019, a preliminary map of air quality in Copenhagen was published and presented by the City’s Deputy Mayor at the meeting of the mayors of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, that was taking place in Copenhagen.

In the same year, the project caught the attention of other local and international partners. Gehl Architects, a Copenhagen-based urban design agency, got interested in the map and decided to use it to understand how they could reduce the effects of air pollution on children by redesigning public spaces. This initiative, The Thrive Zone project, funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation and the ICLEI Action Fund, aims at designing urban solutions to increase air quality and reduce exposure to pollution, and at involving citizens in data collection, design and in behavioural changes.

In particular, Gehl mapped childcare institutions and interviewed care workers and care givers on children’ movements in two neighbourhoods, and crossed such data with the information they had on air quality to understand how air pollution impacts on them. Afterwards, Gehl produced a “Cleaner Air Network” map, indicating the areas where air quality is better and where children could spend more time, suggesting urban design interventions.

The final map of Copenhagen’s air quality was released openly in the Spring 2021, accessible to anyone. The map allows for the identification of the most polluted areas (major inroads, airport and the city centre) for the different pollutants, i.e. nitrogen dioxide, ultrafine particulates and black carbon. The map aims at serving all departments of the City’s administration, by putting air quality at the core of city policies.

Copenhagen AirView NO2

The dataset and the model to use it are made available to support urban policies aimed at reducing the exposure to pollution, especially for the most vulnerable groups. Meanwhile, the Thrive Zone project continues to test how implementation can happen in existing urban areas and document effects in real life settings, e.g. by using bushes and trees to contrast fine particles, or by building spaces for children and the elderly where air quality is higher) and to make residents less exposed to pollution by changing their behaviour (i.e. by spending less time in polluted areas).

“By making scientific data available to citizens, we have the potential to make global challenges relevant at the local scale”, Rasmus Reeh, Copenhagen Solutions Lab

Floating plastic debris represents today the most abundant marine litter. The consequences deriving from the high concentration of disposable plastic in the ocean are heavily affecting multiple subsectors of the blue economy, such as aquaculture, fisheries, tourism, navigation, etc.

Turtle eating a plastic bag. Plastic Bags are often confused with jelly fishes. Credits: Canva

UNESCO estimates that by 2050 there will be more plastics than fishes in the oceans. Each year, more than eight million tons of plastic trash are poured into the oceans, which means that 253 kilos of plastics are discharged every second in the oceans. [2]

Plastics have been detected on shorelines, in particular nearby touristic or densely populated areas. Most marine plastic originates from the land- and is caused by human activities (industries, illegal dumping, tourism, etc.). Other plastics originate from the sea itself, e.g. from fishing industries, aquaculture and nautical activities. [3]

Impacts of plastic pollution at sea are visible on the marine ecosystem, threatening marine species. Indeed, plastic debris is often swallowed by marine species causing severe injuries and deaths, also putting human health and food safety and quality at risk. Many species die or have chronic injuries, especially marine birds, turtles and whales. In particular, most sea species often confuse small plastic debris for food, ingesting them and enabling the proliferation of harmful toxic substances. In addition to this, floating plastic debris carries bacteria or other invasive marine organisms that can damage ecosystems, altering the marine food equilibrium. [4]

Coastal areas represent one of the main sources of plastic pollution at sea, especially river mouths where about 75% of plastic trash tends to accumulate. Indeed, where fresh and saltwater meet, waste accumulation lines tend to create naturally. Detecting and removing such debris is of paramount importance to reduce the negative impacts of plastics on the marine ecosystem.

Space technology and data to tackle plastic pollution at sea

Satellite technology and solutions, combined with in-situ measurements and ocean models, can play a role in monitoring plastic litter, providing information on its abundance, concentration and movements at sea.[1]

Space technology to monitor plastic marine litter. Credits: European Space Agency

The I Clean My Sea App: Technology and collective efforts to protect our seas and oceans

I Clean My Sea is a French start-up based in Nouvelle Aquitaine. It has been founded in 2019 by Aymeric Jouon, oceanographer and founder of the company Hydro-cote.

Building on the experience of its founder, I Clean My Sea develop debris collection services that support decision-makers in the fight against marine pollution. At the same time, the company aimed at building an engaged user community active in the fight against marine plastic pollution, a global challenge that asks for the involvement of citizens, professionals in the marine and maritime domains, as well as local administrations.

I Clean My Sea provides services to detect, collect and recycle floating plastics in coastal areas. The start-up has benefitted from an incubation grant from the Communauté d’agglomération du Pays Basque, and currently is a laureate of the European Space Agency (ESA) Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Sud France programme to encourage satellite technology transfer in the maritime domain.

To boost citizens’ involvement in the identification and removal of plastic debris, in July 2020 I Clean My Sea launched a crowdsourcing namesake app. The app allows people around the globe to detect floating marine debris and to photograph and geolocate them. The aim is to facilitate the collection of waste at sea using crowdsourcing information and new technologies.

The app is downloadable on every mobile and portable device, available on the Apple and Android app stores, and free to use. Once identified a plasticdump, the user can take a picture and geo-localise it thanks to the satellite navigation system embedded in the mobile and portable devices.

To collect the dump, the company, with the support of the Region Nouvelle Aquitaine, deployed a collector boat in 2020. Collector boats are conceived by the Race for Water Foundation, and specifically designed to collect floating waste in river estuaries, shorelines, and marine waters.

The sailors involved in the collection process also have access to the drift forecast derived from the physical model elaborated  by the Copernicus Marine and Analysis and Forecast Service, which provides a weekly 3D hydrodynamic forecast of the ocean  currents combining satellite data and in-situ observations.Once a picture is taken by the app user, the sailors aboard the  Collectors receive the location of the dump and the forecast of its trajectory in real time. The initial prototype of the app included a drift trajectory map built by Hydro-Cote. To implement the hydrodynamic process, I Clean My Sea started to rely on Copernicus services and products.

Thanks to this information, sailors get access to dump trajectories and collect the debris.

The collected plastics are then recycled by specialised firms to produce an I Clean My Sea branded product “100% marine sourced” for sustainable usage.

The app, as a participative tool, aims at helping sea actors and local coastal authorities in being more effective in collecting plastic debris. It can also help to identify the most polluted areas to support decision-making processes aimed at protecting the marine environment.

By the end of 2020, the app has been downloaded by 500 users and about 3.5 tons of floating debris have been collected. Currently, the I Clean My Sea App waste collection ship is mainly active on the Basque Coastline and the Adar estuary, but in the near future it will operate on a broader geographic area.

The Collector boat. Credits: ICleanMySea

Furthermore, in the next two years, I Clean My Sea will develop an algorithm in collaboration with ESA.  Relying on satellite imagery, the algorithm will allow for the identification of the accumulation of floating debris at seas. At the same time, starting from 2022, the company intends to look for more solutions to valorise floating debris and support the financial effort needed to collect plastics at sea.

For more information please visit the I Clean My Sea site.

Help us keep our oceans clean, download the app and stay connected!

[1] Tuba Guven, Leveraging space technologies to monitor plastic pollution in oceans, UNOOSA Space4Water Portal, March 12^th 2019. https://www.space4water.org/news/leveraging-space-technologies-monitor-plastic-pollution-oceans

[1] International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Marine Plastics. https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/marine-plastics

[2] UNESCO/IOC, Marine Pollution. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/ioc-oceans/focus-areas/rio-20-ocean/blueprint-for-the-future-we-want/marine-pollution/

[3] International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in ibid.

[4] Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS), Copernicus Marine and Plastic Pollution. https://marine.copernicus.eu/services/plastic-pollution/impacts-marine-plastic-pollution