Seoul to establish fine dust research center

Haze blurs the sky over downtown Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

Seoul City will open a research institute, today, that will serve as a control tower in the capital's fight against fine dust pollution.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Sunday, the center will promote integrated studies by building a cooperative system between three organizations ― the Seoul Institute, the Seoul Institute of Technology and the Seoul Research Institute of Public Health and Environment.

The three institutes will conduct their own separate research about the concentration of fine particulate matter, and the newly created center will hold meetings with them on a regular basis to share their findings. Then the center will choose an urgent problem for the three institutes to work on together, it added.

Park Rok-jin, a professor of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Seoul National University, will serve as its first director.

“I have agreed on the need for the three institutes to jointly study the fine dust issue,” Park said. “I plan to promote three-way cooperation to come up with solutions to problems plaguing Seoul.”

The Seoul Institute will carry out a detailed analysis on emitters of fine dust with internet of things-based portable measuring devices as well as its 50 air quality observatories citywide, while the Seoul Institute of Technology will be committed to developing technology that will help reduce the level of fine dust produced by the city's subway system.

The Seoul Research Institute of Public Health and Environment will conduct research focused on diminishing the fine dust that is most threatening to health as fine dust is comprised of over 50 chemical elements, according to the city government.

The integrated research center also plans to seek international cooperation with Northeast Asian cities, including Beijing, to improve air quality in the future.

“There have been separate efforts made directed toward reducing fine dust from each institute, but thanks to the launch of the new research center, we will be able to see more synergy,” said Hwang Bo-yeon, head of the city's climate and environment policy bureau.