Hawa Dawa Blog : Hawa Dawa

Hawa Dawa among the four winners of the ESA Startup Competition

4. July 2020/0 Comments/in Satellite /by Barbara Loferer

The four winning startups were selected from a total of 101 applicants. Over a period of two months they were judged on the team, business model, societal impact of the project and usefulness, and quality of the proposal.

The long overdue paradigm shift towards a healthy, carbon neutral economy starts with cleaning our air

2. July 2020/0 Comments/in Health /by Karim Tarraf

For the first time in human history, the technology exists today to monitor every single emission – of every city, every airport, every harbour, every street, every factory, industry park and wildfire. At our disposal are tools to hold those accountable that do not adhere to environmental commitments and those using their resources lavishly.

Technical Background for Air Quality Sensors

18. June 2020/0 Comments/in Technology /by Karim Tarraf

Hawa Dawa has been producing measuring devices for comprehensive air quality measurement for several years.
In the following, we would like to try to present the technical complexity of air-pollutant measurement in a simple way and to give indications on this basis, which limits the individual devices and methods have.

AZO Innovator of the Month: Hawa Dawa – Paving Ways to Tackle Urban Air Pollution

31. May 2020/in Satellite, Uncategorized /by Barbara Loferer

The AZO Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen, an international networking and branding company for European space programmes, featured Hawa Dawa as “Innovator of the Month”. Read the full article here

Time series comparison of pre- and post-lockdown for German cities

28. May 2020/0 Comments/in Health /by Barbara Loferer

In general all graphs show that the mean NO2 concentration after the lockdown date has decreased – at some stations the effect is larger than at others. Concentration peaks with similar amplitudes, compared to before the lockdown, persist. The overall patterns would require a more detailed analysis of the locations e.g. considering mobility behaviour.

Cities at the Forefront of Air Quality: Interview with Karim Tarraf, CEO of Hawa Dawa

20. May 2020/0 Comments/in Urban Air Quality /by Barbara Loferer

In the days of Covid-19, “air quality” is a topic in the media, too. Municipalities are often pioneers in pushing for improvements. Decisions must be made in complex social contexts and measures must be integrated into larger plans. Here’s an interview with Karim Tarraf, CEO of Hawa Dawa, in which he comments on the following topics:
How can the increasing importance of air quality data be explained?
Why are the available measurements and data usually insufficient?
What does cooperation with municipalities look like?

Time series comparison of pre- and post-lockdown for sample cities show that the lockdown impact on NO2 concentrations varies

30. April 2020/0 Comments/in Health /by Birgit Fullerton

Cities worldwide have been imposing lockdowns due to coronavirus, leading to traffic reductions and related to that, less NO2 pollution. The strength of the effect is not the same everywhere, being dependent on a number of variables, such as pollution levels and amount of traffic before the lockdown at the particular location, fleet composition, weather conditions and topography and urban architecture.

NO2 concentrations during the lockdown in Munich

24. April 2020/in Health /by Birgit Fullerton

I have recently heard people uttering disappointment regarding the rather small effect they have observed at official measurement stations in Munich during the time of the lockdown due to the coronavirus. Looking at the raw hourly measurement traces at different locations in and around Munich, we can see a very clear drop during the initial phase of the lockdown, with concentrations coming up again after that. So we decided to take a deeper look. We considered impacts from weather conditions, season-specific influences as well as mobility behaviour.

See the full picture: There is less net of the improvement in air quality through measures to curb the Covid-19 virus

21. April 2020/0 Comments/in Health, Mobility /by Barbara Loferer

Although measures to curb the Corona virus have (almost) brought many polluters to a standstill, the effects on the trends from measurements are not as obviously visible as some may have expected. In principle, when studying cause-and-effect relationships in the field of air quality, comprehensive interactions between the pollutants, their sensitivity to other environmental influences (e.g. weather, temperature, wind) as well as eco-sociological influences must always be taken into account.

Do Air Pollution Levels Influence COVID-19 Mortality Risk?

31. March 2020/0 Comments/in Health /by Birgit Fullerton

While the world has focused its full attention on the current coronavirus outbreak, other issues we were concerned about regarding our health might currently seem almost irrelevant to many of us. However, there is one factor that shouldn’t be ignored – potentially not even when looking at survival rates of COVID-19: air pollution.