Spatiotemporal air quality inference of low-cost sensor data: Evidence from multiple sensor testbeds

2022 ◽  
pp. 105306
Author(s):  
Jelle Hofman ◽  
Tien Huu Do ◽  
Xuening Qin ◽  
Esther Rodrigo Bonet ◽  
Wilfried Philips ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Multiple Sensor

scholarly journals NanoSen-AQM: From Sensors to Users

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (04) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Pedro Lucas ◽  
Jorge Silva ◽  
Filipe Araujo ◽  
Catarina Silva ◽  
Paulo Gil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
The Public ◽  
Nano Sensors ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Air Quality Data ◽  
Monitoring Platform

With the raising of environmental concerns regarding pollution, interest in monitoring air quality is increasing. However, air pollution data is mostly originated from a limited number of government-owned sensors, which can only capture a small fraction of reality. Improving air quality coverage in-volves reducing the cost of sensors and making data widely available to the public. To this end, the NanoSen-AQM project proposes the usage of low-cost nano-sensors as the basis for an air quality monitoring platform, capa-ble of collecting, aggregating, processing, storing, and displaying air quality data. Being an end-to-end system, the platform allows sensor owners to manage their sensors, as well as define calibration functions, that can im-prove data reliability. The public can visualize sensor data in a map, define specific clusters (groups of sensors) as favorites and set alerts in the event of bad air quality in certain sensors. The NanoSen-AQM platform provides easy access to air quality data, with the aim of improving public health.

Stand-alone low-cost sensor network in the inner city of Munich for modeling urban air pollutants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Wenzel ◽  
Jia Chen ◽  
Florian Dietrich ◽  
Sebastian T. Thekkekara ◽  
Daniel Zollitsch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Sensor Network ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Sensor Nodes ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Urban Air

<p>Modeling urban air pollutants is a challenging task not only due to the complicated, small-scale topography but also due to the complex chemical processes within the chemical regime of a city. Nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM) and other tracer gases, e.g. formaldehyde, hold information about which chemical regime is present in a city. As we are going to test and apply chemical models for urban pollution – especially with respect to spatial and temporally variability – measurement data with high spatial and temporal resolution are critical.</p><p>Since governmental monitoring stations of air pollutants such as PM, NOx, ozone (O<sub>3</sub>) or carbon monoxide (CO) are large and costly, they are usually only sparsely distributed throughout a city. Hence, the official monitoring sites are not sufficient to investigate whether small-scale variability and its integrated effects are captured well by models. Smart networks consisting of small low-cost air pollutant sensors have the ability to provide the required grid density and are therefore the tool of choice when it comes to setting up or validating urban modeling frameworks. Such sensor networks have been established and run by several groups, achieving spatial and temporal high-resolution concentration maps [1, 2].</p><p>After having conducted a measurement campaign in 2016 to create a high-resolution NO<sub>2</sub> concentration map for Munich [3], we are currently setting up a low-cost sensor network to measure NOx, PM, O<sub>3</sub> and CO concentrations as well as meteorological parameters [4]. The sensors are stand-alone, so that they do not demand mains supply, which gives us a high flexibility in their deployment. Validating air quality models not only requires dense but also high-accuracy measurements. Therefore, we will calibrate our sensor nodes on a weekly basis using a mobile reference instrument and apply the gathered sensor data to a Machine Learning model of the sensor nodes. This will help minimize the often occurring drawbacks of low-cost sensors such as sensor drift, environmental influences and sensor cross sensitivities.</p><p> </p><p>[1] Bigi, A., Mueller, M., Grange, S. K., Ghermandi, G., and Hueglin, C.: Performance of NO, NO2 low cost sensors and three calibration approaches within a real world application, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3717–3735, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3717-2018, 2018</p><p>[2] Kim, J., Shusterman, A. A., Lieschke, K. J., Newman, C., and Cohen, R. C.: The BErkeley Atmospheric CO2 Observation Network: field calibration and evaluation of low-cost air quality sensors, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 1937–1946, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-1937-2018, 2018</p><p>[3] Zhu, Y., Chen, J., Bi, X., Kuhlmann, G., Chan, K. L., Dietrich, F., Brunner, D., Ye, S., and Wenig, M.: Spatial and temporal representativeness of point measurements for nitrogen dioxide pollution levels in cities, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13241–13251, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13241-2020, 2020</p><p>[4] Zollitsch, D., Chen, J., Dietrich, F., Voggenreiter, B., Setili, L., and Wenig, M.: Low-Cost Air Quality Sensor Network in Munich, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-19276, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19276, 2020</p>

scholarly journals Semantic Traffic Sensor Data: The TRAFAIR Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (17) ◽  
pp. 5882
Author(s):  
Federico Desimoni ◽  
Sergio Ilarri ◽  
Laura Po ◽  
Federica Rollo ◽  
Raquel Trillo-Lado
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Semantic Annotation ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Transportation Systems ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Future Evolution

Modern cities face pressing problems with transportation systems including, but not limited to, traffic congestion, safety, health, and pollution. To tackle them, public administrations have implemented roadside infrastructures such as cameras and sensors to collect data about environmental and traffic conditions. In the case of traffic sensor data not only the real-time data are essential, but also historical values need to be preserved and published. When real-time and historical data of smart cities become available, everyone can join an evidence-based debate on the city’s future evolution. The TRAFAIR (Understanding Traffic Flows to Improve Air Quality) project seeks to understand how traffic affects urban air quality. The project develops a platform to provide real-time and predicted values on air quality in several cities in Europe, encompassing tasks such as the deployment of low-cost air quality sensors, data collection and integration, modeling and prediction, the publication of open data, and the development of applications for end-users and public administrations. This paper explicitly focuses on the modeling and semantic annotation of traffic data. We present the tools and techniques used in the project and validate our strategies for data modeling and its semantic enrichment over two cities: Modena (Italy) and Zaragoza (Spain). An experimental evaluation shows that our approach to publish Linked Data is effective.

scholarly journals Measure particulate matter by yourself: data-quality monitoring in a citizen science project

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aboubakr Benabbas ◽  
Martin Geißelbrecht ◽  
Gabriel Martin Nikol ◽  
Lukas Mahr ◽  
Daniel Nähr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Data Quality ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Quality Monitoring ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
And Control ◽  
Future Work ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The concern about air quality in urban areas and the impact of particulate matter (PM) on public health is turning into a big debate. A good solution to sensitize people to this issue is to involve them in the process of air quality monitoring. This paper presents contributions in the field of PM measurements using low-cost sensors. We show how a low-cost PM sensor can be extended to transfer data not only over Wi-Fi but also over the LoRa protocol. Then, we identify some of the correlations existing in the data through data analysis. Afterwards, we show how semantic technologies can help model and control sensor data quality in an increasing PM sensor network. We finally wrap up with a conclusion and plans for future work.

scholarly journals City Wide Participatory Sensing of Air Quality

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rebeiro-Hargrave ◽  
Pak Lun Fung ◽  
Samu Varjonen ◽  
Andres Huertas ◽  
Salla Sillanpää ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Automated System ◽  
Participatory Sensing ◽  
Good Correspondence

Air pollution is a contributor to approximately one in every nine deaths annually. Air quality monitoring is being carried out extensively in urban environments. Currently, however, city air quality stations are expensive to maintain resulting in sparse coverage and data is not readily available to citizens. This can be resolved by city-wide participatory sensing of air quality fluctuations using low-cost sensors. We introduce new concepts for participatory sensing: a voluntary community-based monitoring data forum for stakeholders to manage air pollution interventions; an automated system (cyber-physical system) for monitoring outdoor air quality and indoor air quality; programmable platform for calibration and generating virtual sensors using data from low-cost sensors and city monitoring stations. To test our concepts, we developed a low-cost sensor to measure particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3) with GPS. We validated our approach in Helsinki, Finland, with participants carrying the sensor for 3 months during six data campaigns between 2019 and 2021. We demonstrate good correspondence between the calibrated low-cost sensor data and city’s monitoring station measurements. Data analysis of their personal exposure was made available to the participants and stored as historical data for later use. Combining the location of low cost sensor data with participants public profile, we generate proxy concentrations for black carbon and lung deposition of particles between districts, by age groups and by the weekday.

scholarly journals Stationary and portable multipollutant monitors for high-spatiotemporal-resolution air quality studies including online calibration

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 995-1013
Author(s):  
Colby Buehler ◽  
Fulizi Xiong ◽  
Misti Levy Zamora ◽  
Kate M. Skog ◽  
Joseph Kohrman-Glaser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Atmospheric Pollutants ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Concentration Data ◽  
Spatiotemporal Resolution ◽  
Online Calibration ◽  
High Spatiotemporal Resolution ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract. The distribution and dynamics of atmospheric pollutants are spatiotemporally heterogeneous due to variability in emissions, transport, chemistry, and deposition. To understand these processes at high spatiotemporal resolution and their implications for air quality and personal exposure, we present custom, low-cost air quality monitors that measure concentrations of contaminants relevant to human health and climate, including gases (e.g., O3, NO, NO2, CO, CO2, CH4, and SO2) and size-resolved (0.3–10 µm) particulate matter. The devices transmit sensor data and location via cellular communications and are capable of providing concentration data down to second-level temporal resolution. We produce two models: one designed for stationary (or mobile platform) operation and a wearable, portable model for directly measuring personal exposure in the breathing zone. To address persistent problems with sensor drift and environmental sensitivities (e.g., relative humidity and temperature), we present the first online calibration system designed specifically for low-cost air quality sensors to calibrate zero and span concentrations at hourly to weekly intervals. Monitors are tested and validated in a number of environments across multiple outdoor and indoor sites in New Haven, CT; Baltimore, MD; and New York City. The evaluated pollutants (O3, NO2, NO, CO, CO2, and PM2.5) performed well against reference instrumentation (e.g., r=0.66–0.98) in urban field evaluations with fast e-folding response times (≤ 1 min), making them suitable for both large-scale network deployments and smaller-scale targeted experiments at a wide range of temporal resolutions. We also provide a discussion of best practices on monitor design, construction, systematic testing, and deployment.

scholarly journals Wireless Sensors Network Monitoring of Saharan Dust Events in Bari, Italy

Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (13) ◽  
pp. 898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Penza ◽  
Domenico Suriano ◽  
Valerio Pfister ◽  
Mario Prato ◽  
Gennaro Cassano
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Saharan Dust ◽  
Quality Monitoring ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Air Quality Monitoring ◽  
Dust Events ◽  
Air Quality Monitoring Stations ◽  
Monitoring Stations

A sensors network based on 8 stationary nodes distributed in Bari (Southern Italy) hasbeen deployed for urban air quality monitoring during advection events of Saharan dust in theperiod 2015–2017. The low-cost sensor-systems have been installed in specific sites (buildings,offices, schools, streets, airport) to assess the PM10 concentration at high spatial and temporalresolution in order to supplement the expensive official air monitoring stations for citizen sciencepurposes. Continuous measurements were performed by a cost-effective optical particle counter(PM10), including temperature and relative humidity sensors. They are operated to assess theperformance during a long-term campaign (July 2015–December 2017) of 30 months for smart citiesapplications. The sensor data quality has been evaluated by comparison to the reference data of the9 Air Quality Monitoring Stations (AQMS), managed by local environmental agency (ARPA-Puglia)in the Bari city.

scholarly journals Multisensor IoT Platform for Optimising IAQ Levels in Buildings through a Smart Ventilation System

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 5777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Chiesa ◽  
Silvia Cesari ◽  
Miguel Garcia ◽  
Mohammad Issa ◽  
Shuyang Li
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Ventilation System ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Pollutant Concentrations ◽  
Indoor And Outdoor

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) issues have a direct impact on the health and comfort of building occupants. In this paper, an experimental low-cost system has been developed to address IAQ issues by using a distributed internet of things platform to control and monitor the indoor environment in building spaces while adopting a data-driven approach. The system is based on several real-time sensor data to model the indoor air quality and accurately control the ventilation system through algorithms to maintain a comfortable level of IAQ by balancing indoor and outdoor pollutant concentrations using the Indoor Air Quality Index approach. This paper describes hardware and software details of the system as well as the algorithms, models, and control strategies of the proposed solution which can be integrated in detached ventilation systems. Furthermore, a mobile app has been developed to inform, in real time, different-expertise-user profiles showing indoor and outdoor IAQ conditions. The system is implemented in a small prototype box and early-validated with different test cases considering various pollutant concentrations, reaching a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 3–4.

scholarly journals Development and Implementation of a Platform for Public Information on Air Quality, Sensor Measurements, and Citizen Science

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesseling ◽  
Ruiter ◽  
Blokhuis ◽  
Drukker ◽  
Weijers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Quality Monitoring ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Air Quality Monitoring ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Air Quality Measurements ◽  
Calibration Methods

The use of low-cost sensors for air quality measurements is expanding rapidly, with an associated rise in the number of citizens measuring air quality themselves. This has major implications for traditional air quality monitoring as performed by Environmental Protection Agencies. Here we reflect on the experiences of the Dutch Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) with the use of low-cost sensors, particularly NO2 and PM10/PM2.5-sensors, and related citizen science, over the last few years. Specifically, we discuss the Dutch Innovation Program for Environmental Monitoring, which comprises the development of a knowledge portal and sensor data portal, new calibration approaches for sensors, and modelling and assimilation techniques for incorporating these uncertain sensor data into air pollution models. Finally, we highlight some of the challenges that come with the use of low-cost sensors for air quality monitoring, and give some specific use-case examples. Our results show that low-cost sensors can be a valuable addition to traditional air quality monitoring, but so far, their use in official monitoring has been limited. More research is needed to establish robust calibration methods while ongoing work is also aimed at a better understanding of the public’s needs for air quality information to optimize the use of low-cost sensors.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document