The air we inhale is no longer an unknown. Today, digital platforms, mobile sensors, and artificial intelligence are changing the rules of the game: they reveal, with surgical precision, where the pollution around us comes from. What was once invisible and difficult to verify can now be visualized on interactive maps and alarming figures in the palm of your hand.
«Air pollution kills in silence»: the WHO’s warning
By: Gabriel E. LevyB.
In the 1990s, concern about air pollution was still limited to technical reports and specialized laboratories.
Citizens remained oblivious to the invisible particles that circulated between the lungs of large cities.
But that changed. Since 1999, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized the need to quantify, with solid epidemiological data, the impact of air quality on public health.
This is how AirQ was born, a tool that allowed, for the first time, to estimate how many deaths, respiratory diseases and years of life lost could be directly attributed to air pollution.
The idea was simple but revolutionary: to turn smoke into numbers, particles into diagnoses, haze into public policy.
Over the years, AirQ evolved into AirQ+, a more robust platform, capable of operating in rural or urban contexts, and adapted to be integrated into environmental monitoring systems.
In 2025, the WHO promoted a series of courses and updates so that its use is standardized in vulnerable regions such as Latin America and Eastern Europe. The objective: that each government can measure, act and prevent.
«Data is the new oxygen»: the era of digital environmental monitoring
Identifying the source of environmental pollution is no longer an exclusive matter for experts. Now, any citizen with a mobile phone can observe in real time how toxic the air around them is.
One of the most disruptive platforms is Climate TRACE, which combines satellite imagery, artificial intelligence, and citizen participation to track emissions in real time.
Instead of blindly relying on official reports, this independent platform allows you to detect specific sources of pollution by economic sector: energy, transport, agriculture.
It does not matter if the sender is in Kazakhstan or in the heart of Bogotá; his polluting signature is registered.
Sociologist and environmental researcher Christopher Sellers puts it clearly in his work Crabgrass Crucible:
«What was once considered part of urban and industrial progress, became the object of scrutiny thanks to the power of visualization and social pressure.» Christopher Sellers
Today, that visualization is provided, among others, by IQAir AirVisual, a global application that maps air quality in thousands of cities, powered by a network of fixed sensors and personal devices.
It is possible to check in seconds how safe a morning walk is in Mexico City or if it is advisable to close the windows in Bangkok.
These technologies democratize access to information previously reserved for experts, and that is no small feat. The visibility of pollution, its translation into understandable indicators, sets off a chain reaction: public concern, political pressure, and hopefully government action.
«Breathing shouldn’t be a risk»: the human cost of not acting
Air pollution is responsible for more than seven million premature deaths each year, according to WHO data. But beyond the figure, the real drama is in its invisibility. «Unlike contaminated water or spoiled food, air does not have a warning label,» writes epidemiologist Francesca Dominici of Harvard University in her analysis of environmental health.
In large cities, microscopic but lethal PM2.5 particles cross cellular barriers and trigger cardiovascular disease, stroke, asthma and lung cancer.
In children and older adults, the effects are even more severe. And the most disturbing thing is that many times the most affected communities are also the least informed and protected.
This is where tools like AQICN.org and AirCasting play a key role. These platforms allow citizens themselves to become data collectors: a portable sensor and a smartphone are enough. The data collected not only enriches the scientific base, but also empowers local communities to demand change.
In places like New Delhi, AirCasting users have documented dramatic increases in pollution during school hours, leading to vehicle restrictions near schools.
These examples demonstrate that technology doesn’t just measure damage; It can also catalyze the response.
But there are still obstacles.
In countries with poor connectivity or lax environmental policies, adoption of these platforms is slow.
In addition, data overload without a clear action strategy can paralyze rather than mobilize. As urban planner Mike Davis warns in Ecology of Fear, «Information alone does not save lives. Public policies do it, motivated by citizen pressure and concrete evidence.»
«Mapping the future from the present»: vigilant territories
The incorporation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has elevated environmental monitoring to another scale.
It is no longer just a matter of measuring the air in a corner, but of drawing patterns, analyzing land uses, projecting future scenarios. A GIS can integrate sensor data, satellite imagery, emissions reports, population density maps, and climate models to anticipate risk areas.
In Barcelona, for example, an environmental GIS is used to cross-reference data on vehicular traffic, temperature, wind and ozone levels, allowing the design of green corridors and low-emission areas.
In Santiago, Chile, GIS was integrated with citizen sensors to detect «heat islands» and establish health alert microzones.
In Quito, a partnership between academia and the municipality allows students and neighbors to map pollution hotspots using open data and free software.
This intersection between technology, participation and applied science breaks the old paradigm of centralized environmental management. What once required expensive laboratories can now be built from a school classroom, an indigenous community or a neighborhood organization.
Smart Cities in constant learning
The integration of these technological tools makes territories smarter spaces because it allows them to learn from themselves, anticipate risks and make informed decisions in real time.
By incorporating sensors, monitoring platforms, geographic information systems, and citizen participation, territories develop a kind of «environmental intelligence» that makes them more resilient and adaptive.
They no longer rely exclusively on centralized diagnostics or delayed interventions: they can identify patterns of pollution, locate their exact sources, assess their health impacts, and activate coordinated responses from the local level.
This accumulated and processed knowledge transforms the relationship between space, its inhabitants and its public policies, allowing cities and regions not only to react to problems, but to evolve based on accurate data, collective participation and sustained surveillance.
In conclusion
The air ceased to be a space without an owner. Today, thanks to tools such as AirQ+, Climate TRACE, IQAir, AQICN, AirCasting and GIS, it is possible to monitor, understand and claim for it. Breathing shouldn’t be a dangerous act. And while technology alone does not solve the environmental crisis, its ability to evidence the damage is a powerful lever. The future of clean air will also be a future of open data, collective participation and constant vigilance.
References:
- WHO. (2025). AirQ+: Tool for estimating impacts of air pollution. https://www.who.int/es/tools/airq
- Dominici, F. (2019). Air Pollution and Mortality in the Medicare Population. New England Journal of Medicine.
- Sellers, C. (2012). Crabgrass Crucible: Suburban Nature and the Rise of Environmentalism in Twentieth-Century America. UNC Press.
- Davis, M. (1999). Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. Metropolitan Books.
- ESG expansion. (2025). Climate TRACE: Pollutant Map.
- IQAir. (2025). World Air Quality Index. https://www.iqair.com/world-air-quality
- MappingGIS. (2025). 50 applications of GIS for climate change. https://mappinggis.com