(Yicai Global) Oct. 26 -- Jinan, a city in China's eastern Shandong province, is promoting car-mounted pollution monitoring devices which have already been installed in 100 taxis as it looks to increase its supervision of atmospheric pollution.

The system took two years for Shandong University and Shandong Nova Fitness Co. to develop. Mounted on top of vehicles, the devices are all-weather, heat-resistant and able to survive high speeds and strong vibrations, state-owned news agency Xinhua reported on Oct. 25.

Jinan Environmental Protection Bureau is now working with the traffic department to introduce more of the devices. The first phase of the project includes 100 cabs and covers more than 95 percent of the city roads.

The 100 taxis run around 23,000 kilometers every day and generate 1.2 million data sets. Put into an environmental Big Data platform, this information can form a city map of high-pollution areas which can be evaluated by the authorities.

Using taxis as carriers can effectively avoid monitoring dead zones and fill the gap left by a lack of fixed monitoring stations to ensure effective supervision, the environmental protection bureau said.