We will distribute 1,000 strawberry plants to measure air quality in Madrid and Barcelona with WeCount
By the editorial team. (Originally published in Spanish)
WeCount, the European citizen science project to count and measure mobility in cities that we promote from Ideas for Change, will distribute 1,000 strawberry plants from tomorrow until October 9th to analyse air quality in Madrid and Barcelona. The initiative has the support of Medialab Prado, which will lend its facilities for distribution in Madrid, and contributes to the Vigilantes del Aire (Air Vigilantes) project, focused on measuring air quality in various Spanish cities thanks to citizen collaboration.
With this activity, WeCount, which also has the collaboration of the neighbourhood social network ¿Tienes Sal? (Got Salt?) and the business association Adigital and its platform for intelligent and sustainable mobility Smart Mobility, will expand the scope of its experiment. From now on, it will complement the measurement of traffic and mobility with that of air quality, providing a more detailed analysis to address the problems related to urban planning and pollution in cities.
Since June, the initiative has distributed sensors called Telraam that residents and citizen communities of Madrid and Barcelona are installing in their windows to collect real-time data on how many cars, heavy vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians pass through the streets. The information can be consulted live through this platform. At the end of the measurement, it will be determined in a collaborative way with the participating community what type of impact action will be carried out based on the results.
“Collaborating with Vigilantes del Aire in their strawberry campaign will allow us to provide our experiment's participants with a much clearer relationship between mobility and air pollution issues. In addition, having the collaboration of an institution like Medialab Prado in this path proves the potential that a project of these characteristics can play to improve life in cities ”, assures Giovanni Maccani, Senior Researcher at Ideas for Change and head of the WeCount pilot in Barcelona.
Distribution at Medialab Prado and various points in Barcelona
The distribution of the strawberry plants in Madrid will take place at the Medialab Prado facilities, located in Calle Alameda, 15 between October 8th and 9th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
For their part, the participants from Barcelona will be able to collect the strawberry plants at the Ideas for Change office, located at Ronda Universitat, 33, 1º1ºB (a few meters from Plaza Catalunya) between October 6th and 9th from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. In addition, the plants will be available for collection in other parts of the city thanks to the collaboration of other citizen communities. Information on these additional collection points will be made public shortly through the WeCount and Ideas for Change communication channels.
Together with the strawberry plants, information will be distributed on the requirements to participate in the entire WeCount experiment and the registration process, which is carried out through the www.wecountmovilidad.eu website. The organisation will ask those interested for a photograph of their window to check if it meets the requirements, and will send the sensor to their homes.
All those interested in picking up their plant both in Madrid and in Barcelona must register through this link and request an appointment.
Strawberries, one of the best biosensors to analyse pollution
The validity of strawberry leaves in the study of pollution is proven. Plants act as small environmental monitoring stations through their leaves, which accumulate particles present in the air. Applying biomagnetic techniques, the compounds deposited on each of the leaves can be identified.
The plants must remain on participants' balconies for five months. After this period, two or three leaves should be sent together with a form on the location and observations to the analysis laboratory. With these data, an aggregate study will be carried out to analyse the concentration in the different streets and neighbourhoods of Madrid and Barcelona. These conclusions will be crossed with the WeCount traffic results to analyse possible relationships and causal factors.
The study of strawberry plants is developed within the framework of the Vigilantes de Aire project, carried out in collaboration with the Ibercivis Foundation, the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology - Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, in collaboration with Ideas For Change (through WeCount), Medialab Prado and other organisations.
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