Environment ministry wins U.S. smart city award for air quality project

Taipei, May 8 (CNA) Taiwan's Ministry of Environment said on Wednesday that it received a smart city award in the United States for an air quality monitoring project submitted as part of a competition involving over 700 smart city projects worldwide.

The Smart 20 Awards was organized by Smart Cities Connect, an organization in the U.S. that holds an annual conference and expo bringing together influential figures in smart city solutions. The award "annually recognizes global smart cities projects, honoring the most innovative and influential work," according to its website.

Taiwan's environment ministry, with its project "Advanced Air Quality Monitoring - Innovations and Applications of Mobile Air Quality Sensors," was one of 20 recipients of the 2024 Smart 20 Awards.

It is the first central government agency in Taiwan to have received the honor and was invited to attend the awards ceremony in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday Taiwan time, according to the ministry.

The ministry said in its press release that since 2017, it has actively employed advanced technologies such as sensors, Internet of Things (IoT), and AI big data analysis for air quality monitoring.

It has collaborated with 18 local governments to deploy about 10,000 air quality sensors, establishing an air quality sensing IoT network that provides "high temporal and spatial resolution and more real-time air quality information" to enable smart environment governance, according to the release.

To further enhance the scope and mobility of air quality sensing, the statement continued, since 2020 the ministry has worked with the Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories of the Industrial Technology Research Institute to develop mobile air quality sensing devices and systems.

The award-winning project demonstrates how mobile air quality sensors can identify potential sources of pollution and locate spots for on-site inspections, the ministry added.

The mobile sensors have been deployed to collect data for environmental governance applications in Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taichung City, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City, Nantou County, Chiayi County, and Hsinchu City, it said.