Open Air Quality Community Data in Pakistan

Cities in Pakistan consistently report extreme levels of air pollution, with our low-cost sensor data ranking Lahore as the most polluted major city in the world with annual average PM2.5 levels at 105 µg/m3, and hourly peak eposides reaching 900 µg/m3. At the same time, these cities remain a ‘data gap’ in terms of availability of air quality data with sporadic monitoring by government or by other institutions. Moreover, there is little scientific research interest for Pakistani cities, especially in comparison with other regional LMIC cities that have relatively lower air pollution levels and affected populations.

This paper is the first comprehensive survey of available data for Pakistan, by publishing seven years of low-cost sensor data collected by a low-cost sensor community network for the 4 largest cities in Pakistan, namely Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar. Statistical comparisons with available reference-standard data and remote sensing data is also done.  

Challenges in data collection are also covered when working in LMIC city areas affected by access issues, intermittent electricity supply and data outages, as well as the learnings from seven years of community work, and use of sensors for community awareness and advocacy in Pakistan. The impact from this community monitoring network has been instrumental in kick-starting awareness in one of the most air-polluted regions of the world.