The Long-Term Regional Development Plan (RPJPD) of DKI Jakarta Province for 2025-2045 aims to position Jakarta as a global city by targeting a top 20 ranking in the Global City Index. To achieve this goal, the RPJPD emphasises the importance of environmental management, focusing on several key aspects, including improving urban environmental quality, such as air, water, and land, to make the city more livable on a global scale. One of the major challenges for DKI Jakarta Province in attaining global city status is the quality of ambient air. Air quality analysis from 5 reference grade Air Quality Monitoring Stations (AQMS) in the DKI Jakarta area in 2023 indicates that the air quality in Jakarta is classified as ‘polluted,’ with the main parameters being PM 2.5 and PM 10. In recent years, the annual concentration of PM 2.5 in Jakarta has exceeded the annual ambient air quality standards set by Government Regulation No. 101/2014 of 15 μg/m³.

In addition to obtaining information on pollution levels, air quality monitoring (AQM) is crucial to provide insights into the implications of air quality on human health. Currently, Jakarta is equipped with eight (8) reference-grade AQMS, six of which are owned by the government. The monitoring network covers a population of 10 million individuals, with an average monitoring density of 0.8 stations per million people. However, this distribution is still insufficient to obtain a comprehensive understanding of air pollution exposure in Jakarta.

The advancement of low-cost sensor (LCS) technologies for air quality monitoring, along with the growing number of vendors offering LCS services, has led to an increased use of these sensors in Jakarta. More than a hundred of sensors are deployed by the public in various locations in Jakarta, ranging from neighbourhood to industrial areas. Some of the real-time data from these sensors are published on mobile apps or website platforms, allowing users to share this information on social media or mass media. This has led to a huge response and feedback from the public, as shown by the social media trends in 2023. The air quality information has resulted in social unrest and critiques towards the government policy on air quality management. On the other hand, LCS usage for air quality monitoring is beneficial in improving the existing AQM system and filling the data gap from Jakarta’s limited AQMS cost-effectively. Essentially, the use of LCS could expand the spatial coverage as well as accommodate hyper-local monitoring to support the impact assessment of air quality intervention, identify hotspots, and increase awareness of local communities (C40 Cities, 2022). 

Though usage and deployment of LCS in Jakarta have increased significantly, the data from various owners and operators of these sensors have not been fully integrated on the same platform that the government uses to display their data – the Udara Jakarta platform. Therefore, these data can not be utilised directly to inform decision-making on strategy and policy regarding air pollution control.

As the implementation of this relatively new LCS technology continues to grow, clear regulatory support is required to ensure its use and application adhere to established standards and are effectively aligned with the existing air quality monitoring network. Therefore, it is necessary to draft regulations governing the use of air quality sensors in Jakarta, particularly to manage the dissemination of air quality monitoring information. Additionally, several limitations of LCS technology must be considered in its usage to ensure that the data published to the public meets the appropriate operational standards for LCS. Things to be considered include:

1. Accuracy and Precision of Data: The accuracy and precision of LCS tend to be lower compared to reference grade AQMS, thus requiring more careful calibration and data adjustment. LCS must undergo calibration and field co-location processes to ensure the accuracy of the produced data. This calibration is essential to adjust the sensor’s sensitivity to local conditions and the types of pollutants present.
2. Sensor Lifespan: The effective lifespan of LCS generally ranges from 1 to 3 years and is influenced by environmental and extreme weather conditions, which can shorten the lifespan. This may lead to the need for regular sensor replacement.

It is hoped that the regulation could improve the governance of LCS use across all stakeholders, including the community, private sector, and government institutions. This activity aims to draft an academic manuscript for regulating the deployment procedures, operationalisation, data management, and LCS monitoring results dissemination. This regulatory draft will also discuss the possibility of collaboration between sensor providers and the government in activities that would support the use of LCS in Jakarta. This collaboration will be translated into the rights and obligations of each involved party. This regulation proposal will also comprise an overview of community participation using LCS to contribute to AQM in Jakarta. 

The objectives of the proposed regulation on LCS utilisation for air quality monitoring are the following;

• Regulates collaboration between the government and sensor providers regarding sensor utilisation and deployment area under the Decree of the Governor of DKI Jakarta Number 576 of 2023 on Air Pollution Control Strategies (SPPU).
• Ensures the implementation of Indonesian National Standard (SNI) 9178:2023 regarding Ambient Air – Device Performance Test of Low-Cost Sensor Utilisation for Air Quality Monitoring, including important indicators beyond SNI, such as sensor lifespan.
• Ensures the accuracy and precision of publicly available data from LCS owned by individuals or non-government institutions.
• Integrates air quality data from LCS owned by individuals or non-government institutions into the air quality monitoring platform owned by the DKI Jakarta Province.
• Designs the division of roles between government agencies for supervising LCS utilisation activity, especially for data publication 

Appropriate regulations are expected to support all related parties, including the government, private sector, and the community to foster effective collaboration in order to improve air quality in Jakarta. In line with this, DLH DKI Jakarta has partnered with C40 Cities and the Resilience Development Initiative (RDI) in the Breathe Jakarta program to develop an academic manuscript for formulating regulations on the LCS utilisation for monitoring Jakarta’s air quality. To develop the proposed regulation, DLH DKI Jakarta seeks to gather stakeholders to discuss the need and importance of LCS utilisation regulation and the integration of monitoring data, with the main objective of ensuring the reliability of air quality monitoring data from LCS.