Our research team’s initial goal was to identify a suitable Air Quality Data API to fulfill our project’s learning objectives. We aimed to engage audiences through live Air Quality data visualizations on public kiosk screens, featuring six key pollutants affecting the air quality index. Our learning objectives were to help audiences grasp AQI calculations and understand the diverse health impacts of each pollutant through comparisons using our future design prototype.
1. Public Data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):
While offering trustworthy data with measurements for six pollutants on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis, it only updates historical AQ API every 6 months. The most recent data was from December 2022.
2. Private Environmental Data Companies:
Our team found 5 private machine learning companies (Ambee, Meersens, Breezometer, IQAir, Purple Air, and etc) that sells live Air Quality Index data.
Among them, our team chose Breezometer’s AQI data, used by Google Maps and Apple Inc., for its hourly updates and initial 1000 free API calls.
However, it has limitations: offering only four days of hourly data and 30 days of historical data, restricting long-term trend analysis. Unlike the EPA, which collects AQI from specific sensor locations, Breezometer utilizes machine learning to provide AQI for any geo-coordinates.
Our decision-making process aims to balance immediate needs with future goals. We are striving to find an API that meets current requirements while considering its potential for extended user learning and long-term data trend analysis.