Performance Highlights
The overarching impact of this project has been to ensure the increased ability for pilot city governments to evaluate air and water quality monitoring needs and be able to fulfill their mandate as enforcement and compliance agencies to guarantee clean air for their citizens.
In doing so, the city governments have improved understanding and ownership in the rapid deployment of monitoring infrastructure that is innovative, robust, cost-effective, and suitable for use in local governments with similar water and air quality monitoring needs.
This, in turn, has increased effectiveness in coordinating water and air quality monitoring by building and anchoring this in a coherent legislative framework.
Key among the highlights include the following: Firstly, UNEP ensured the project's implementation was guided by the needs and gaps assessment of air quality monitoring in the pilot cities.
Thus, a unique process of co-development and implementation guided the embedding of the project within the pilot cities' air quality management priorities.
Secondly, for the first time, a hybrid air quality monitoring system comprising ground monitoring using low-cost sensors and satellite data was co-deployed with city governments in the pilot cities in Africa.
The satellite analysis of hot spots and air pollution trends were reported and presented to key stakeholders with the partnership with the pilot cities in Nairobi and Addis-Ababa.
Furthermore, key stakeholders during a regional workshop validated the initial results of the hot-spot mapping and trend analysis report. Thirdly, the project facilitated the development of an innovative platform to visualize the air quality data in real-time.