Hello everyone! This is Anton, founder of the airquality.am project.
I started this project out of a desire to unite and structure information about air quality reported by Armenian government agencies and volunteer projects, for public control over data and so that the thesis "four months of toxic air per year is normal" is not perceived as acceptable.
We've gone through another winter, and it was difficult: it started with fires in forests and fields that poisoned the air in Yerevan and sparked discussions, and continued with cold weather that intensified heating and pollution. I'll prepare a report on this winter and a comparison with last year during the first two weeks of April. Now, with the arrival of spring, the problem of combustion products is giving way to regular dust—it's less harmful to health, but still undesirable for daily life.
I work on the project alone, and this project includes not only collecting information from sources and development, but also studying scientific publications, various articles and research. I study control and measurement methods, various devices, production and impact of pollutants. All this requires great effort and time, but apparently is not as interesting to the public. Unfortunately, popular neural networks don't have much information on these issues, but they tend to spread popular misconceptions. Currently, I'm working on creating an air quality forecasting model so that on the website, in the app, and in the channel, you can not only assess what's happening now or what happened in the past, but also look at least a week ahead. Also, such a model should help find and justify the real cause of pollution. Yerevan City Hall decided to explain pollution by saying "well, winter is to blame," since spring came and pollution stopped. I consider such reasoning unacceptable—it's like blaming uncleared roads on snow that doesn't need to be removed because it will melt in spring anyway. But I see that pressure on City Hall and the government is growing because more and more people are starting to worry about the impact of smog on their health and their children's health.
The airquality.am project needs your help. It takes a lot of time, the work is voluntary, but there are expenses that we'd like to cover together. Needed:
- $120 — annual Apple Developer fee ($99 + VAT)
- $25 — Google fee for publishing the Android app
- $240 ($20/month) — server hosting
- $60 ($5/month) — tokens for AI processing and weather and air quality API
Expenses are calculated so that the service remains independent from government and sponsors for at least the next year. Total needed: $445 USD.
You can help by transferring funds to an Acba bank card or in USDT via Telegram Wallet. For a one-time transfer of $50 or more, I can optionally include you in the list of donors on the "About the Project" page and in the fundraising report.
Transfer details — in the comments to the Telegram post.
If you can't support with a transfer—please share the message, that also helps a lot. Questions and suggestions—in the comments to the post.
FUNDRAISING PROGRESS Collected: $476 / Goal: $445
Fundraising closed, thank you!