This new study leverages mobile network data to estimate levels of carbon emissions and air pollution in cities.
Teralytics, New York, Telefónica NEXT, Germany, and sustainability solution provider South Pole Group, San Francisco, conducted a study in Nuremberg, Germany, that reveals the analysis of mobile network data as an effective way to estimate CO2 and NOX emissions in urban areas. To achieve this, Teralytics examined aggregated and anonymized data, which is generated when mobile devices communicate with Telefónica’s mobile communication cells while users make calls, send texts or browse the internet. Teralytics refined this raw data into human mobility patterns to understand how the different modes of transport, for instance trains or cars, are frequented. Combining this information with data on the emissions of the different transport modes, the three entities estimated air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the city.
As each form of transportation produces a unique amount of CO2 and NOX emissions, understanding urban mobility patterns is vital to understand the source of emissions. The study used this information to estimate with up to 77% accuracy the concentration of air pollutants in the city. These findings encourage further exploration of how Big Data can be used to understand and ultimately solve environmental issues such as air pollution worldwide.