Tests for globe’s 1st odor map set for Barca

BARCELONA’S beaches might be best known for their bars and nightlife, but they also have a reputation for something more pernicious — unpleasant smells, from rubbish and sewage to marijuana and factory emissions.

Now, an app-based project aims to snuff out those scents using the collective power of crowdsourcing.

The D-Noses project, which began in 2016 and was officially piloted in 2018, lets local residents report their fragrance complaints — like garbage, chemicals and sewage — directly through the free OdourCollect app, to build the first-ever global odor map.

Sponsored by the European Commission, with a budget of 3 million euros (US$3.3 million), the project is designed as a tool to “empower citizens who are suffering from regular odor nuisance.”

Odour pollution is the second most common cause of environmental complaint in Europe after noise, according to the website for the project.

The three-year pilot involves eight European countries — including Spain, Greece, Germany and Portugal — along with Chile. In Spain, the app is being tested in Poblenou, a newly gentrified district in the northeast of Barcelona.

The area is a hotspot for offensive smells, due to the factories left over from its time as the biggest industrial zone in Catalonia and its vicinity to the industrial facilities of the neighboring Sant Adria de Besos district.

App map

When the app collects enough information for the area, residents can use the map to pressure politicians to combat the smells, said Rosa Arias, the app’s designer.

“The objective is to correlate these observations with industrial operations to spark improvements,” she said.

As of late July, there were more than 270 complaints from at least 35 different users since 2016. Most have complained about smells related to waste incineration and wastewater treatment coming into Poblenou from the industrial facilities in Sant Adria de Besos.

“The district has been transformed (gentrified), but — and this is something that happens in many places, not just in Barcelona — when (city planners) do urban planning, they don’t take account of the smells, so that’s where conflicts arise,” said Arias.

A spokeswoman for Barcelona City Hall said “there are some neighborhoods where there’s industry where it is worse but in general there is no odor problem in Barcelona compared to other cities where there are more factories.”

“I have the misfortune of living 400 meters from one of the industrial plants that emits the odors,” said Enric Navarro, a Poblenou resident who has helped drum up local support.

The 65-year old, who has lived in the same area for more than 40 years, said the smells have been around for decades but have become more of a nuisance in the last four years or so.

“Now we experience it a lot more in the summer because it is hotter than it used to be and we have our windows and terrace doors open more,” he said.