PARSER: Parking and AiR pollution SEnsoRs for Smart Cities

"PARSER is an industrial research project developing a scalable solution to the combined problems of urban parking and air and noise pollution. Cars travelling at low speeds while searching for parking spaces contribute greatly to congestion and pollution. According to the British Parking Association drivers take an average 5.9 minutes searching for a parking space adding up to an estimated 4 days per year.

On average 40% of UK Councils' revenue is generated through parking and each council is also being pushed heavily to demonstrate environmental policy monitoring tools as our cities and urban areas will witness major change and population shift over the coming 20 years. PARSER is a product we feel hits a genuine urban need that can also enable new and sustainable urban business models.

There is an inherent and pressing need to build new energy, transport and urban systems to meet societal challenges such as a growing and ageing population, urbanisation and the need to reduce carbon emissions. _With_ _more than 70% of people estimated to be living in urban areas by 2040, city infrastructure and design is going to need to drastically change to better support its citizens._

Emerging internet-of-things (IoT) technologies can offer the ability to sense parking occupancy, traffic flows, congestion and air quality on a hyper-local scale. However, there are significant challenges to combine the technologies and develop the machine learning classifiers to interpret the data. The project aims to develop a LiDAR based parking monitoring solution coupled with air and noise pollution sensors. Together the consortium partners, Vortex IoT, BT, Swansea University and Swansea Council, will develop and deploy prototype sensors to test sites in the Swansea City region. Vortex IoT will take the lead on developing the sensors and wireless networks, Swansea University will focus on machine learning while Swansea Council will provide installation services and access to BT's on-street WIFI across areas of the city centre as designated for pilot.

This project will deliver significant export led growth, a substantial ROI, increased employment and further opportunity for R&D investment for all consortium partners."