The Biogroup of the University of Santiago de Compostela takes part in the CATCH (Clean Air Technology CHange) project, which is co-funded by the Xunta de Galicia, via the Axencia Galega de Innovación, and FEDER. Serviguide leads the project with the participation of 4gotas, Bahía Software, Plexus and Itelsis as well as the Biogroup and Gradiant by subcontracting. The CATCH project (IN852A 2016/125) aims at the efficient management of smart cities: controlling emissions, acting on principal sources of pollution and protecting citizens. A comprehensive tool will be developed to predict, monitor, control and reduce gaseous emissions (i.e. greenhouse gases) and particulate matter, among others. Additionally, energy use at different levels will be monitored, controlled and optimized when possible. Main objectives of the CATCH project are:
1. To quantify direct and indirect emissions related to stationary and mobile sources. The subsystem developed under the framework of this project will provide information in real time regarding emissions and electrical use of different activities. Moreover, air quality and the burdens associated with the target activities will be displayed focusing on particulate matter formation, damage to human health and damage to ecosystem diversity. This information will help to personnel in charge of industries or municipalities to evaluate the technical, environmental and economic viability of improvement actions proposed by the system.
2. Air quality vigilance. The tool will provide continuous information related to air quality parameters for a specific area (i.e. a city or a region). The parameters are measured in air monitoring stations which are located on the target area. Existing air monitoring stations will be adapted to have public OpenData and the implementation of new stations will be considered. Additionally, the development of meteorological models which comprise chemicals transport will allow more realistic values as well as the forecast for the following days. This objective will allow stablishing goals to reduce emissions, to consider the impact of different politics and to provide more realistic information to build measurements of reduction and protection as well as to elaborate predictions, alarms and recommendations for users.
3. Intelligent control of emissions and energy use. Developing an “intelligent” tool, using control algorithms and decision rules to find the tradeoff between energy saving and protection to humans and environment. The capacity of managing and acting on emission sources in remote mode will be part of the tool. Monitoring of conditions such as temperature and humidity and occupation of buildings will allow acting on lighting, changes of parameters, etc. The system will be able to simulate and propose new scenarios automatically (reducing emissions or changes on design or use) and to evaluate the viability of the recommendations in environmental and economic terms. Moreover, the tool will be provided with the capacities of predicting air quality, sending alarms and establishing recommendations for citizens. Special attention is paid to mobile sources (vehicles) by means of savings and changes of parameters such as proposal of optimal routes.
4. Service to the personnel in charge of the infrastructure/area analysed. The functionality of the tool will be validated by providing users with information: evolution of indicators if the system, alarms, and recommendations using apps (web and mobile phones). Citizens are invited to contribute to the improvement of the tool ant to take advantage of its use because it could be personalized: citizens can include their own systems, consumptions, equipment, etc. A public API will be offered to export non confidential data, which could be used by users.
The mission of the Biogroup is to support partners in their specific tasks, with a significant participation on air quality vigilance as well as damage to humans and ecosystems evaluation.
