Ukraine presents EcoCity app to notify of radiation and chemical hazards

The Clean Air for Ukraine ecology team has developed the first EcoCity app to alert citizens to radiation, chemical hazards, and air quality.

What is the problem?

During a war, there is always a risk of releasing chemicals and hazardous compounds that pollute the air.

Chlorine or ammonia can be used as a "weapon," used to hit factories and enterprises where hazardous chemicals are stored, as Russia did during the fighting in Ukraine.

Russian forces can also attack nuclear power plants, threatening a large area, not only in Ukraine, with radiation contamination.

The seized Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is under constant threat of explosion or accident, as the occupiers have mined the perimeter of the plant, and this is not the first time.

What is the solution?

It is important to know how to protect yourself in the face of an environmental disaster caused by chemicals.

The EcoCity Android application was developed with the technical support of the Czech NGO Arnika and the Ukrainian NGO Free Arduino as part of the Clean Air for Ukraine project funded by the Czech foreign ministry.

"From now on, the air quality, chemical and radiation safety of your city is now in one application."

How does it work?

You can receive all the information simply by installing the new EcoCity app.

Users can subscribe to alerts from any monitoring station nearby or several stations in the area without registration, payment, or advertising.

You can also check information for the whole city or the whole of Ukraine.

"At the next stage, we conducted several experiments to improve the accuracy and reliability of the data and develop a unique Ukrainian air quality index, which was used for the correct structure and content of the announcements. And then we finally provided an app for notifications," said Marcela Černocová, Clean Air for Ukraine program coordinator and expert at Arnika

Find the app on the AppStore and Google Play.

• (for Android)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ecocity

• (for iOS):

https://apps.apple.com/ua/app/ecocity/id6473950551?l=uk

https://cleanair.org.ua/…/zvit-chgodo-stany-povitrya…/

"This application is the first tool in Ukraine to alert the public about the deterioration and improvement of the plant's air quality according to the Ukrainian Air Quality Index UAQI. The data is updated every minute. The application "pulls up" air and radiation monitoring data from the station of your choice, analyzes it according to a certain algorithm and automatically notifies you in case of danger," said Oleksii Trelevskyi, founder and curator of EcoCity.

Про перевагу додатка EcoCity зауважує і його розробник і співавтор громадського моніторингу якості повітря EcoCity Дмитро Обухів:

"This means that you can not only receive notifications about the excess of pollutants in the air, but also fully view data from stations (including graphs for the last 48 hours), including all indicators according to the Ukrainian Air Quality Index chart. At any time, you can view the entire map with stations directly in the application."

The developers clarified that reliable and up-to-date information on air quality is provided by EcoCity, the leading all-Ukrainian public monitoring network, which has more than 250 stations across Ukraine (and this number is increasing every day).