Hedges would have quicker impact on air quality than Cork's 'robot trees', expert says
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Planting hedges or enforcing the ban on private cars along Cork’s main street would have had a more immediate impact on air quality than the €400,000 ‘robot trees’, an expert in atmospheric chemistry has said.
Emeritus professor John Sodeau who was, until his recent retirement, a professor of physical chemistry at UCC, and who founded the Centre of Research into Atmospheric Chemistry, also said if he had been consulted in advance about the effectiveness of the so-called city tree devices, he would have advised Cork City Council against buying them.
“If I had been asked about the city trees, I would have said ‘don’t bother’," he said.
Mr Sodeau made his comments after city officials said it could take another six months before data showing the impact of the devices will be published.
The city trees or moss walls project was one of more than 500 in 11 counties which were funded as part of a €55m National Transport Authority package which was announced under the July 2021 stimulus plan in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
The moss in the devices is designed to filter the air and remove pollutants, with in-built sensors used to collate air quality data. The devices also serve as street furniture.
But they have been subject to criticism, with people calling for investment in real trees. Then in May, the Local Government Audit Service criticised the council for the lack of any “value of money assessment conducted in advance” over the expenditure on the devices.
Former lord mayor, Cllr Colm Kelleher, who had to defend the devices when he launched them in August 2021, pressed city officials at Monday’s council meeting to release the data from their first full year of operation.
“In a nutshell, do they work?” he asked.
David Joyce, the director of services at the council’s roads and environment operations directorate, said the evaluation of a full year of raw data will take time, with the outcome due to be included in the city’s air quality annual report, which will be published in the first quarter of next year.
Prof Sodeau said pending the outcome of the data analysis, he believes the planting of hedging along the street would have been more effective at removing particulates from the air, and it would be better to tackle the root cause of air pollution, rather than on trying to clean the air.
Mr Joyce said air pollution was a complex issue and the council must be open to exploring new and innovative ways to tackle it, including testing new and emerging technologies in “live” testbed environments.
“Given the complexity of the causes of poor air quality there is no one single silver bullet action that will solve everything,” he said.
“The Moss Walls project is part of Cork City Council’s continued efforts to improve the city’s air quality in the city by combatting fine dust, particle pollution as well as other pollution associated with traffic congestion."