Community Standards Odour Assessment: An AI cross-referencing solution for mapping odour complaints

The Problem

The City's Community Standards branch faces a critical operational challenge in managing and enforcing odour-related regulations. Historically, the branch has lacked a reliable, objective method to definitively identify and verify the sources of numerous odour complaints.

The Solution

To reliably identify the sources of frequent odour complaints, a cross-referencing system for Community Standards that maps complaints and witness statements was created. Implemented using open-source tools within the existing budget.

The Impact

By showing exactly how the wind carried the smell to people's homes at specific times, the City turned casual complaints into solid, scientific evidence that can stand up in a court of law.

Lessons Learned

An increasing majority of projects include a GIS component along with the analysis. This gave us some clues early that we'd have to be technical generalists.

Launch year: 2020