BELGIUM
In June 2019, Hager Environmental & Atmospheric Technologies (HEAT) performed a remote-sensing emissions-testing campaign in the Flanders region of Belgium at five locations over a month in the cities of Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges and Erpe-Mere. This measurement campaign performed over two weeks resulted in 210,000 valid measurements, of which more than 50,000 were trucks and lorries. HEAT conducted this campaign in cooperation with the Flemish Government Environment Department, the Free University of Brussels (VUB), and the Dutch Organization for Applied Natural Science (TNO).
EDAR made history!
Belgium is the first country in the history of remote sensing to set up a remote-sensing system on a high-speed, multi-lane highway. During the measurement campaign, EDAR deployed on a bridge overlooking the busy E40 motorway. The speed limit on the E40 is 120kmh, and EDAR detected, with high accuracy, vehicles traveling up to 170kmh. (A video of the bridge installation is available at this link.) The unique installation proved that the EDAR system performs just as well in high-speed conditions as it does on slower city roads.
In addition to EDAR's groundbreaking performance on the high-speed highway, HEAT also contributed to an extraordinarily successful Anti-Tampering Campaign, in which heavy-duty trucks were tested on-road in real-time by EDAR. During testing, if the EDAR system detected tampering based on the truck's emissions on-road, the truck was pulled over for further inspection. This extremely successful campaign using EDAR increased the Flemish Government’s tamper-detection success rate from 9% to over 86%.
EDAR gantry deployment in Belgium
EDAR truss deployment in Belgium
"As the project leader for Belgium's first 'Remote Sensing' campaign aimed at vehicle emissions, I have had the pleasure of working with Hager Environmental & Atmospheric Technologies (HEAT). Without prior experience from our part, the organization of an ambitious measurement campaign collecting a very high amount of emission data in a short time interval at high volume roads was deemed to be an enormous challenge. However, thanks to their professionalism and exceptionally result-oriented mindset, HEAT surpassed all our expectations and actually delivered significantly more than was initially promised."
-- Flemish Government
EDAR gantry deployment in Belgium
In the News During the Campaign
Findings Report
May 26, 2021, the findings report by the Flemish Government, VUB, and TNO was released to the public. The report highlights the world's first remote-sensing campaign performed on motorways. A great deal of data was collected in a short amount of time by EDAR, and the outstanding results are presented in the report, which is accessible below.
Report Press
The report and EDAR's findings are featured in Belgium's national news outlets including De Standaard, The Brussels Times, and VRT News.
