Public Awareness of Air Pollution in Seoul, Korea

What we do in the name of science is limited to the scientific and academic communities. Then we have the policy (which is most often consumed by bureaucracy) makers, who tend to base the decisions on either science or because the decision needs to be taken, and the third tier is the public.

The third tier is the most important when it comes to urban air pollution, since the public feels the pinch when it comes to the exposure to harmful levels of air pollution on roads and in the residential areas.

There are some programs and indices, like Air Pollution Index (API - see how it is done in various cities), which is modeled and notified to the media to inform public.

Question: How often does one check AQ forecast on web every day. Hence, the awareness and supply of that minimum information in a format that is appreciated by the public becomes crucial.

Now, we have a new installment in Seoul, Korea - living light sculptures of air quality. A note from inhabitat:

Living Light’s glass skin is actually a massive redrawn map of 27 Seoul neighborhoods. Every 15 minutes, neighborhoods light up in order of best air quality to worst based on real-time sensors from the Korean Ministry of Environment. And each night, neighborhoods are illuminated if air quality is better on that particular day than the same time last year. Seoul citizens can also text the installation and expect a response (presumably detailing air quality in certain neighborhoods).

Previous posts on ways the information is being communicated to the public in various cities.

• Illuminating air pollution from power plants
  
• Using balloons to visualize air pollution
• Photo diary of air pollution
  
• Walkability scores for your neighborhood
• How it all ends (Youtube Video)
• Mobile signals to identify congestion zones
• It's all about Carbon on NPR
• An illustrated "Primer on Air Quality Management"
• Interactive 3D map of air pollution in London
• Interactive Smog City simulation