Air pollution is a big issue these days, especially in overcrowded cities where sometimes you get the feeling you are suffocating. Although, most of the time, we don’t recognize its detrimental effects, they are here and won’t go away too quickly.
According to the World Health Organization, poor air quality causes seven million premature deaths every year. To help fight these tragic outcomes, Green City Solutions came up with an idea. We say it’s a great one, what do you say?
What’s the idea? They thought of creating hi-tech green urban tree walls that have the regenerative power of a forest. The project is called CityTree and, although it packs the equivalent of 275 urban tree power, it isn’t a tree, it’s more of a moss culture. It is four-meters-tall and very impressive-looking, we might say. See for yourself in the pictures below!
“Moss cultures have a much larger surface area than any other plant,” Zhengliang Wu, co-founder of Green City Solutions, explained to CNN. “That means we can capture more pollutants.” As a result, CityTree absorbs 250 grams of dust, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone gases daily; that’s 240 metric tons over the course of a year.
So, how does it work? The CityTree urban tree walls have solar panels which generate electricity and collect rainwater. Wi-fi sensors measure its well being, including soil humidity and temperature.
It also has some pollution sensors to help monitor the local air quality.
In addition to its environment-saving qualities, there is also an optional sitting bench available.
You could go and sit there and feel a whole forest breathing down your neck, metaphorically speaking.
The long-term goal is to install CityTrees in major cities across the world. Currently, you can find these packed forests in twenty major city areas.
GreenCity Solution is aiming at India and giving that area extra attention, India has some of the worst and dangerous levels of pollution in the world.
