ska invita
back on the other side
its google street view
Air pollution level by UK postcode
- Thread starter ska invita
- Start date
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
I know what it is, it just has a vaguely fingerpointing vibe the way they use it. I've got a load of old MDF furniture in the drive at the moment. Perhaps I should burn it to get the numbers up.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Home is pretty good, only exceeds one WHO limit, but the school where I work is much worse as some bright spark decided to build it at the junction of two bypasses 
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
When I lived in Nottingham you got the distinctive odour of the cigarette factory on every south westerly breeze.
Leafster
.
I thought it was. Google aren't allowed in my road so there's a photo of a couple of houses in the next road showing a tree behind them which is at the top of my garden.
Oh, I'm in the 47th percentile apparently.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
you are
teuchter
je suis teuchter
I too suspect this is mega-over-interpolated and gives a false impression of accuracy. This kind of thing annoys me a bit because I think it's dishonest presentation of information.
There's a map somewhere online where you can look at the whole of London with little squares coloured in different colours according to air pollution levels. It gives you the impression that you can compare your house to one a few doors away. But as far as i can work out, it's based on data from a small number of locations which gives done kind of general background level and then everything else is just based on assumptions about things like how close you are to a certain type of road.
If that's the case then the information should be presented to people as it is: if you live next to a busy road your pollution levels might be something like this.
The question then arises about what you can do about it, and again that's the more useful information. For example, it can be quite dependant on wind direction. It would be more useful for people to be aware of things like days when the wind direction means that their hyper local levels might be raised. And it would be useful to know whether it's best to open windows on one side of the house rather than the other. I think that as far as pollution from an individual road is concerned, the fall off curve of concentration is quite steep which means there might be significantly greater levels at the front of a house compared to the rear - or perhaps at higher levels.
The website in the OP should give more detail on what information they are actually using and how they are interpolating it. They talk about data with a 20 square meter resolution - but also say it's based on 19,500 monitoring locations. Well, the UK has an area of 240,000 square kilometres. That means about ten square kilometres per location - so how do they get from 10 square km to 20 square metres.
I'm sure the builders of the website would say I'm missing the point and it's about raising awareness - it doesn't really matter if the number they are given for their address is a bit of a guess if it makes them think about air pollution and try and do something about it. But, when you have sketchy data it makes it easier for those who don't care about the issue to dismiss.
There's a map somewhere online where you can look at the whole of London with little squares coloured in different colours according to air pollution levels. It gives you the impression that you can compare your house to one a few doors away. But as far as i can work out, it's based on data from a small number of locations which gives done kind of general background level and then everything else is just based on assumptions about things like how close you are to a certain type of road.
If that's the case then the information should be presented to people as it is: if you live next to a busy road your pollution levels might be something like this.
The question then arises about what you can do about it, and again that's the more useful information. For example, it can be quite dependant on wind direction. It would be more useful for people to be aware of things like days when the wind direction means that their hyper local levels might be raised. And it would be useful to know whether it's best to open windows on one side of the house rather than the other. I think that as far as pollution from an individual road is concerned, the fall off curve of concentration is quite steep which means there might be significantly greater levels at the front of a house compared to the rear - or perhaps at higher levels.
The website in the OP should give more detail on what information they are actually using and how they are interpolating it. They talk about data with a 20 square meter resolution - but also say it's based on 19,500 monitoring locations. Well, the UK has an area of 240,000 square kilometres. That means about ten square kilometres per location - so how do they get from 10 square km to 20 square metres.
I'm sure the builders of the website would say I'm missing the point and it's about raising awareness - it doesn't really matter if the number they are given for their address is a bit of a guess if it makes them think about air pollution and try and do something about it. But, when you have sketchy data it makes it easier for those who don't care about the issue to dismiss.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
I just put my postcode in, didn't read in depth about the methodology. I treat all these things as a bit gimmicky that will get someone's arse up on Urban.
That said, find it odd where I live was only 9th percentile. Rural, miles away from any industry or busy roads. There must be lots of well empty other parts of the UK if we're only just in the top 10%.
That said, find it odd where I live was only 9th percentile. Rural, miles away from any industry or busy roads. There must be lots of well empty other parts of the UK if we're only just in the top 10%.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
yep same here - I was presuming lots up in scotland.
cesare
shady's dreams ♥
I haven't read the methodology or what they're measuring. Particulates?
I would have thought that agricultural rural areas would score much higher at certain times of year e.g. when spraying. For example, agricultural fairly rural (at least 3 miles from nearest town) in the East Riding seems to be 26th percentile which on the face of it doesn't seem to be nearly as high as I was expecting. Does anyone think they're being quite simplistic in how they measure this?
I would have thought that agricultural rural areas would score much higher at certain times of year e.g. when spraying. For example, agricultural fairly rural (at least 3 miles from nearest town) in the East Riding seems to be 26th percentile which on the face of it doesn't seem to be nearly as high as I was expecting. Does anyone think they're being quite simplistic in how they measure this?
Kevbad the Bad
Amiable Bowel Syndrome
I'm not convinced this is up to date Information. For example, in the picture of our house it didn't show our new garage door.
BassJunkie
Clams on the half shell, and roller skates.
This address is in the 73rd national percentile
In other news, I've just been diagnosed with "late onset" asthma. Thanks for that, I'm old enough to be diagnosed with something called "Late onset" <sigh>
Much I'd like to blame pollution I strongly suspect certain "lifestyle" choices I've made in the past resulted in this diagnosis mind you.
In other news, I've just been diagnosed with "late onset" asthma. Thanks for that, I'm old enough to be diagnosed with something called "Late onset" <sigh>
Much I'd like to blame pollution I strongly suspect certain "lifestyle" choices I've made in the past resulted in this diagnosis mind you.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
I get 0th at my parents where I grew up and 99th where I live now, so I think that means I own the entire scale and am the winner.96th %ile at mine
0th %ile at my parents where I've spent half the last year. Does it even out? That's an average of 48th %ile
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
92% 
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
See I just don't agree with this. I have a website https://www.accuweather.com/en/gb/redruth/tr16-5/minute-weather-forecast/709860 that tells me that it's going to stop raining in 17 minutes. Now you may say this is misleadingly precise too, but I find it reassuring and don't really care whether it's right or not.
67th...but 3 bad WHOs. Expected it to be worse as my town regularly comes up in air quality tables as being woefully filthy. I was fucking flabberghasted to find my wood was in the 37th percentile - who knew cows and a couple of dodgy tractors were so polluting...although it is only 5miles from Norwich. Tbf, the wood doesn't actually have a postcode so I had to settle for the nearest actual house.
The pedestrianisation of the city centre has pushed cars outwards, as was predicted.
geminisnake
a complex mass of conflicting ideas
2nd %tile 
Similar threads
