The real test for NEMO’s innovative remote sensing solution will be the pilots in four locations across Europe. First out is the City of Florence in Italy, where the municiaplity is now in preparations for making the pilot test possible near the historic centre. We asked Arnaldo Melloni, who is coordinating the work in Florence, to describe what it involves.
Why is the City of Florence interested in testing NEMO’s solution?
“The city of Florence has been involved for many years in the fight against noise and air pollution. The “green shield” will be built next year. This is a controlled access system to the city that will be regulated by favouring low-polluting vehicles. This is the main reason why we are interested in testing the solutions of the NEMO project.”
Are there any particular legal or political obstacles that needs to be considered, ahead of testing?
“We are not facing political obstacles. We have some privacy issues for license plate control at entrances, but we are solving it.”
How will you prepare the citizens for the test?
“We will organize information campaigns using institutional channels and social media. The idea is to promote green mobility using participation in the NEMO project.”
Will the test take place in one or several locations (and will they be in the centre or in the outskirts of the city)?
“There will be two test areas, in proximity of the accesses to the historic center.”
Picture: Florence already has so called ZTL zones – zones of restricted circulation, situated in Italian cities that have historic centres. Only local residents and registered vehicles are authorised to drive there. These zones are therefore prohibited to outside vehicles during certain hours that would not have the right of paid access.
If the tests go well, what will be the next steps, from the city’s point of view?
“The goal is to use experimentation to make it become a concrete application in our territory. In particular, if the test provides good results, we would like to integrate the application that will come out of the NEMO project in our green shield.”
What’s your role in the testing/project?
“I am the manager of the NEMO project for the municipality of Florence. I coordinate all the activities in which we are involved.”
Arnaldo Melloni is the head of Public and Environmental Hygiene and Urban Liveability at the City of Florence.
ARPAT – Tuscany Regional Agency for Environmental Protection, is responsible for the coordination of NEMO’s pilot tests and supports the air quality measurements in Florence via a mobile lab.
Note to the Q & A:
The communication during the testing in Florence, to vehicles/drivers identified as high emitters, will not take place in realtime, but will carry a delay of approximately a day. This is due to privacy issues when transferring data from the related ministry to third parties. This is a wider European issue that needs to be solved before the solution can be scaled up.
However, one of the first challenges, which was met successfully,by the NEMO team, was to arrange for the data to be received from the ministry. This was made possible by establisning the correct contact with the organization that has the mandate by the Government (ACI, Italian Car club, in the case of Florence). ACI has a contract with another company in charge of the file, and will provide the paid service for the City of Florence.
For the purpose of the testing in Florence, the targeted vehiicles/drivers will only be alerted to fact that they have been identified as high emitters, and not charged with a fee.
For more information about the pilots please contact:
City of Florence
Arnaldo Melloni
arnaldo.melloni@comune.fi.it
ARPAT
Gaetano Licitra
g.licitra@arpat.toscana.it
