Yangcheon District to Make Daycare Center Air Quality 'Visible' with Smart Monitoring

Support for IoT Environmental Sensor Installation
Real-Time Monitoring of Fine Dust and Carbon Dioxide

Yangcheon District in Seoul (District Mayor Lee Kijae) has started managing indoor air quality in local daycare centers to protect the health of infants and young children, who are vulnerable to fine dust and respiratory illnesses.

On August 14, Yangcheon District announced that it will implement the "IoT-Based Environmental Sensor Installation Support Project" for daycare centers in the district. This project utilizes Internet of Things (IoT) technology to measure and manage air quality in daycare centers—including fine dust, ultrafine dust, and carbon dioxide—in real time.

IoT-based environmental sensor installed in a local daycare center. Provided by Yangcheon District.

Based on the results measured by the environmental sensors, daycare centers can quickly take necessary actions such as ventilation or operating air purifiers. The initiative is expected to enable more systematic management of the indoor environment in daycare centers where many young children spend long hours together.

Beginning in 2023, Yangcheon District has supported the installation of IoT environmental sensors, starting with eight daycare centers with a total floor area of at least 430 square meters, the legal threshold set by the Indoor Air Quality Control Act. To date, sensors have been installed in a total of 34 centers.

Since last year, the district has lifted the floor area restriction and expanded the support to include all daycare centers in the district that wish to participate. The district plans to continue the project to ensure that environmental sensors are installed throughout all local daycare centers.

This year, 31 new centers will receive support, including 16 public daycare centers, 2 private centers, and 13 home-based centers. The district selected these centers after reviewing each application and comprehensively considering factors such as the number of enrolled children and the total floor area. Each selected daycare center will receive 500,000 won to cover the installation cost of an environmental sensor.

Yangcheon District is also continuing support to improve the childcare environment and enhance the quality of childcare services. In the first half of this year, the district supported 37 centers through a program that provides funding for educational materials and teaching aids needed for infant and toddler development and care activities, such as building blocks, art, and language-based activities. In the second half of the year, an additional 45 centers will receive support to help ease the operational burden on daycare centers and establish a stable childcare environment.

District Mayor Lee Kijae stated, “Managing the indoor air quality of daycare centers in real time, where infants and toddlers with weak immune systems spend much of their day, is a critically important task directly tied to the health of our children. Through continuous air quality monitoring using IoT technology, we will create a childcare environment where children can live healthily and parents can entrust their children with peace of mind.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.