Irkutsk Researchers Launch Open Air Pollution Map for the Region
Researchers at Irkutsk National Research Technical University have launched a publicly accessible geoportal with data on air pollution across the Irkutsk region.
The university’s Siberian School of Geosciences conducts snow geochemistry studies from the Urals to Russia’s Primorye region. Over five to six months, snow cover accumulates atmospheric deposition, providing a comprehensive picture of pollution over the season, university postgraduate researcher Ziyeviddin Ikramov said at the ENVIROMIS-2026 conference in Novosibirsk.
First- and second-year students take part in the research, completing the entire process from sample collection to laboratory analysis and publication of the results. Research from 2025 showed that calculating pollution based on median values can distort the overall picture: lead concentrations in industrial and background areas of Chelyabinsk differ by a factor of 25.
Data for the Irkutsk region is available through the Kachestvo atmosfernogo vozdukha v Irkutskoy oblasti (Atmospheric Air Quality in the Irkutsk Region) portal, built on the NextGIS Web platform. The resource is accessible without registration and lets users compare pollution zones with the locations of industrial plants and residential neighborhoods. The researchers plan to expand the monitoring network and study other regions with long winters.
