Breathe Mongolia

We dedicate this project to anyone willing to fight against the ongoing disastrous air pollution problem in our homeland, Mongolia. Our homeland has been one of the most polluted countries in the world, with air pollution level being 5 times worse than that of Beijing in 2016. In the last decade, three of the five top causes of death of our citizens were due to the negative health impact of air pollution. According to a report from UNICEF Mongolia, the current air pollution levels must be reduced by at least 90% to be considered non-hazardous to human health. Our project aims to educate and empower individuals to take on an educated action to mitigate air pollution. On that account, air quality data is the bedrock of all our efforts to end air pollution in Mongolia. It is the prerequisite for effective science and sound policymaking. Thankfully, the government of Mongolia recognized the importance of data over 20 years ago and passed legislation to reducing air pollution and set up nationwide monitoring stations. Nevertheless, we still face some major challenges when it comes to the accessibility of quality data in Mongolia that we would like to address through our project: 1. Expensive government monitoring stations are not equally distributed throughout our capital city where the most fossil fuel (raw and processed coal) is burned in households that are not connected to the grid. 2. The general public does not have access to proper CO detecting devices and have not built a habit to use such technologies due to lack of public health training. 3. Real-time air quality data accessibility: In 2019, the government changed the way it reports real-time ambient air quality and only shows the pollution level through AQI (air quality index) instead of showing the physical values. This is a major setback to air quality analysis and monitoring. 4. Historical data accessibility: To access air quality archives from the past decades, there are only weekly summary charts as PDF files available for the general public via the National Meteorological Agency. If we request more elaborate data, it can cost millions of local currency. 5. Different institutions have installed several brands of low-cost sensors around the country, and our capital city to cover the areas where the government stations did not cover. These $300 low-cost sensors cost three times our national monthly minimum wage. Certain cases where data centers are built in a for-profit framework prohibits public access to what may be a crucial decision making resource. There are only 2 data centers in Mongolia with 80% that operate for private, for-profit. Sharing data is a huge problem and it’s costly. Policy-makers have attempted to implement a variety of tactics to take on this problem. As years of incomplete and uncoordinated attempts made the public opinion sour, we set out to find the solution with technology through data. We want to approach this issue through data - since recognizing trends of improvements with implementations of different technology is a crucial stepping stone to measure mitigation success and effectively evaluate intervention actions. We can start by heavily monitoring air quality data with affordable & accessible resources. Pollutants such as PM2.5, carbon monoxide levels can be procured via house monitoring devices. If we can implement citizen science practices with the use of IoT devices via STEM students in middle schools and high schools with proper training, then this project will produce unbiased results, ready for us to analyze. Our edge devices which are measuring the air pollution, particles such as Microsoft Sphere will be connected to the Azure IoT hub via the 3G network. The edge devices are placed in many parts of Mongolia which is durable for extreme winter and summer temperatures with stable sources of energy without any erroneous entry. We aim to utilize Azure IoT Hub to gather the information and Streamline Analytics is used for removing noise and streaming the data into Power BI for further analysis. We would provide in-depth analytics of the air pollution data in our Azure web Service platform with Azure Maps, Azure Search, and Azure App. With help of cutting-edge technology, people, and processes, we aim to foster frictionless collaboration between the public, private and nonprofit stakeholders and active global citizens who are willing to act on the issue. Our platform will act as a watchdog and keep up-to-date with new policies, citizen-led innovation, regarding air pollution to inform the public and encourage the public to demand progressive solutions. Through Microsoft’s technology, expertise, and assistance, we seek to educate and use IoT devices for high school students who are interested in STEM, bringing IoT devices to measure air quality, provide in-depth analytics that can be used for unbiased policy-making and clear transparent information on our platform.

We are a group of students from Mongolia working towards a data-based solution to mitigate air pollution. Shijir-Erdene Bat-Enkh: I study Computer Science and Mathematics at University of California, Davis. I'm a professional memory athlete. Anu Bazarragchaa (Anu): I study Biological Sciences at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. Lifelong learner & trekkie. Batsaikhan Ariun-Erdene: I study Electrical Engineering at Brigham Young University. Breathe Mongolia—Clean Air Coalition is made of global professional, students and citizens who create digital resources to end Mongolia’s air pollution crisis. alike. We raise awareness about the health impacts of air pollution, address the lack of collaboration and knowledge exchange between stakeholders, and promote transparency and accountability among policymakers. We believe that universal access to reliable air pollution resources will prompt developmental and behavioral change, bringing equitable access to clean energy and healthcare.