CityTRAQ IN BRUGES

Oxygen for your own air quality action plan

'Why not Bruges for once?' Peter Clauwaert of the City of Bruges tells it with a hint of pride. How this time not only big brothers Ghent and Antwerp, but also Bruges plays an important role as a data supplier in a large-scale project like CityTRAQ.

Let’s get straight to the point: the WHO names air pollution as the biggest environmental health risk in Europe. In order to implement a thorough and scientifically sound policy, it is crucial for governments to coordinate all available data. And that is precisely the aim of CityTRAQ, a project supported by the European Union to map air quality.

Setting up your own air quality action plan – quite a mouthful – is a major challenge for a medium-sized city like Bruges. And so Peter and his team were more than happy to hook up to this ambitious project.

From measuring bike to sensors

Not that Bruges would be nowhere without the help of the VMM: for several decades, its own city lab had already been conducting regular research into air and water quality, mainly when there was pollution or complaints. And there was also a popular project with volunteers who mapped the air quality in the city on a measuring bike.

' Our local knowledge was already good ,' Peter concludes. ' However, we felt the need to professionalise and work more efficiently. After all, the VMM has more overarching knowledge for the whole of Flanders. It is undoubtedly interesting for them too to take a closer look at a smaller city. We found our own information to be a nice and nuanced addition to the VMM models. And in the long term, we may also permanently integrate our own measuring devices into their network. That offers us the advantage of scale, and the VMM modelling will only become more precise. '

With expertise

' Public health has been an absolute priority for us for some time now, with a well-founded action plan in the field of air quality as the final element within this legislature ,' says Peter. 'We are pleased that the VMM is coaching us in this, and that we are learning from other cities how we can evolve towards the WHO target values.'

Crucial here is gathering knowledge. 'We have always looked closely at fine dust as a pollutant, but NO2 also deserves our attention, especially now that the WHO has tightened the standard for this. Ozone also interests us more now than before. Due to climate change, we notice that the ozone problem also has an effect on our health.'

' The VMM and Bruges held some interesting workshops together tochoose the right sensors, ' says Peter. ' We eventually chose multiparameter devices. They are a bit cheaper and measure a lot more data. One of the objectives of the CityTRAQ project is to test the quality of these devices, especially with regard to NO _2. '

Choosing for impact

Concrete action points for the City of Bruges should be evident from the air quality action plan, according to Peter: ' It is good to look from above with the help of experts atwhich measures really have an impact. Otherwise you might invest a lot of time and energy ina measure that does not have such a spectacular effect after all. Perhaps tensmall measures will have more results than one large one. Because you can fictitiously calculate the effect ofsuch a measure, you get a more data-driven and therefore more objectivepolicy.'

In the meantime, they are not sitting still in Bruges. In anticipation of this overarching plan, an awareness campaign is underway on idling engines. The city is also taking measures to encourage electric driving. In addition, following the Curieuzeneuzen project of the VMM, the UA and De Standaard from 2018, there will be a follow-up project with 15 test tubes, this time without involving the population.

Within the CityTRAQ project, Bruges is now going to place 15 multi-parameter sensors on major traffic axes. By the way, don't be misled: just because the Bruges city centre is already fairly car-free, it doesn't mean there is no air pollution. In the narrow streets with tall buildings, pollutants sometimes linger longer than in neighbourhoods with better air circulation. Sensors will also be placed in residential areas to know the background concentration. Peter: ' Is it local pollution when a car passes by ? Or does it blow over our city from outside? The sensors will provide us with much more data at the local level, and in turn, we can eventuallyhelp feed the VMM models with our data .'

' When we translate the measurements into policy, weconsciously focus on mobility in Bruges because this is strongly linked to NO ₂ , whichis the emphasis within CityTRAQ .'

Citizen participation in the periphery

In contrast to other cities, citizen participation is not the immediate focus for the City of Bruges during the CityTRAQ project. However, the idea that broader support can only contribute to an effective policy is still alive here. There was already the project with the measuring bike, and in the meantime there are also workshops on building your own particulate matter meter. With this project, the City of Bruges is also joining the international project Sensor.Community. ' Even though these meters are not very accurate, they still give agood indication of the air quality. This makes people think, and we hope that theytalk about it with family and friends, and that is what we need to be heading for in any case ,' says Peter.

Watch and learn: tips and experiences from the City of Bruges

1. Win-win

' As a relatively small player, you have every interest in seekingcollaborations that lead to economies of scale and efficiency gains. For us, VMM was the ideal partner.'

2.Drive your policy with data

' Designing and implementing a measure only to discover that the expected gainsdo not materialize? Not very smart. The more we let our choices depend on data, the moreefficiently we can work. This is precisely why CityTRAQ's tools are so interesting.'

3. Centralize but

' It is nice to roll out all kinds of initiatives, but it is just as useful if all datais centrally accessible. That is why we are happy to join the Data Portal of Samen voorZuivere Lucht .'