Abu Dhabi is using artificial intelligence to get a more detailed picture of the traffic pollution people are exposed to as they move around the city.
The new tool, called Exposure AI, tracks pedestrians’ exposure to traffic emissions in real time. It was developed through a partnership between the Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) and MIT’s Senseable City Lab.
The technology works alongside Emission AI, a second tool that analyses dashcam footage to estimate how much pollution individual vehicles produce.
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Together, the systems give Abu Dhabi a way to connect vehicle emissions with people’s actual exposure to pollution, rather than relying measurements taken at fixed monitoring stations.
How air quality is measured
Traditionally, air quality has been monitored through stations installed at specific locations, providing a snapshot of pollution levels at those points.
Exposure AI changes that by following pedestrians through the city, building a picture of what people are actually inhaling as they walk, not just what a sensor on a lamppost records.
Emission AI works upstream. By analysing dashcam video with AI, it estimates emissions vehicle by vehicle, allowing planners to pinpoint which roads, traffic patterns and vehicle types are driving the problem.
The two tools can therefore help answer a more specific question — who is being exposed to traffic emission, and where does that happen?
Abu Dhabi research behind the technology
The technology builds on research involving Abu Dhabi data.
A study on using AI and video footage to estimate vehicle emissions was published in Communications Engineering in September 2026. An earlier framework paper appeared in Nature Sustainability in April 2026, with DMT acknowledged as a consortium supporter. The research was also presented at the MIT Senseable City Lab Global Conference at the Venice Biennale in 2025, before representatives from 48 partner institutions worldwide.
What changes next
The renewed agreement, signed at LIVEX 2026 by DMT’s Acting Executive Director of Strategy Fatema Al Mutawa and MIT Senseable City Lab Director Carlo Ratti, opens new research under DMT Future Hub. Projects Trees in My Backyard and Re-Leaf would use AI to guide tree planting in the areas where heat and pollution are highest. A third project, Stellar Oasis, would target light pollution across the emirate.
The question is no longer whether the city can measure the problem. It already can.
Source: Khaleej Times