Article | Innovations To Curb Air Pollution
Innovations among soldiers at war with air pollution Pollution in the air creates difficulty in breathing, itchy eyes, skin allergies, and more. Research shows that long term exposure to polluted air can not only result in people developing long-term diseases, but also reduce their life expectancy. While governments have been trying at different levels to combat air pollution, scientists, administrators, and innovators have been coming up with all types of innovations for the same Pooja Upadhyay Editorial Assistant
T
he first clear sign of air pollution was the detection of a hole in the ozone layer above the Arctic by three scientists from the British Antarctic Survey in 1985. It should have been the ultimate wake-up call.But decades later, when humans started suffocating in the air that they themselves created, people across the globe started coming up with innovative technologies to enable easier access to clean air. Things like
air purifiers, N95 masks, have taken significant space in an individual’s life, to survive
Popular innovations and Usage Vertical Forest
Stefano Boeri, an Italian researcher, built the first vertical forest towers, the ‘Bosco Verticale’ in Milan in 2014. The two towers are covered with a total of 900 trees, 5,000 shrubs and over 11,000 other plants. The vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide from the air, preventing the gas from causing further greenhouse warming in the atmosphere. Additionally, plants and trees filter airborne particulates either
by intercepting them or absorbing them through pores in the leaf surface. Asia’s first vertical forest, built in China, named as the Nanjing Green towers, has 600 tall trees and 500 medium-sized trees covering a 6000 sqm area. Mana Foresta is a vertical forest tower built in Sarjapur, Bangalore. It is a 14 storey tower and instead of concrete, glass and steel, what one sees is countless trees, shrubs, perennials, climbers and creepers. Taking inspiration from such vertical forest towers, governments in cities like Noida, New Delhi, and Ahmedabad have been growing vertical gardens on pillars under the metro rail corridors, elevated roads, and flyovers. This innovation aims at increasing greenery, offsetting carbon footprints of people and fuel emissions, purify the air, and reduce urban heat in the much-congested cities.
Smog-guzzling/Air Cleaning buildings
A building named Pallazo Italia, which also acts as a smog-eating machine, was constructed in Milan in 2019. Its TX Active technology captures air pollution when the envelope material comes in contact with light, which it then transforms into inert salts. The building itself is net-zero energy, which means that the structure is capable of covering its energy needs autonomously. Manuel Gea González Hospital in Mexico added a new “smog-eating” façade over its building covering over 2,500 square meters. The system’s thermoformed shells coated in photocatalytic titanium dioxide reacts
34 November 2020 | www.urbanupdate.in
