The rise of low-cost sensing for managing air pollution in cities

Prashant Kumar; Lidia Morawska; Claudio Martani; George Biskos; Marina Neophytou; Silvana Di Sabatino; Margaret Bell; Leslie Norford; Rex Britter

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2014.11.019

The rise of low-cost sensing for managing air pollution in cities

Environ Int. 2015 Feb:75:199-205. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2014.11.019. Epub 2014 Dec 5.

Authors

Prashant Kumar¹, Lidia Morawska², Claudio Martani³, George Biskos⁴, Marina Neophytou⁵, Silvana Di Sabatino⁶, Margaret Bell⁷, Leslie Norford⁸, Rex Britter⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (FEPS), University of Surrey Guildford, GU2 7XH Surrey, United Kingdom; Environmental Flow Research Centre, FEPS, University of Surrey Guildford, GU2 7XH Surrey, United Kingdom. Electronic address: P.Kumar@surrey.ac.uk.
² International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.
³ Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, 1-5 Scroope Terrace, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PX, United Kingdom.
⁴ Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, University Hill, 81100 Mytilene, Greece; Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands; Energy Environment and Water Research Center, The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia 1645, Cyprus.
⁵ Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat, 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy.
⁷ School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, Claremont Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE17RU, United Kingdom.
⁸ Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁹ Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

PMID: 25483836
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2014.11.019

Abstract

Ever growing populations in cities are associated with a major increase in road vehicles and air pollution. The overall high levels of urban air pollution have been shown to be of a significant risk to city dwellers. However, the impacts of very high but temporally and spatially restricted pollution, and thus exposure, are still poorly understood. Conventional approaches to air quality monitoring are based on networks of static and sparse measurement stations. However, these are prohibitively expensive to capture tempo-spatial heterogeneity and identify pollution hotspots, which is required for the development of robust real-time strategies for exposure control. Current progress in developing low-cost micro-scale sensing technology is radically changing the conventional approach to allow real-time information in a capillary form. But the question remains whether there is value in the less accurate data they generate. This article illustrates the drivers behind current rises in the use of low-cost sensors for air pollution management in cities, while addressing the major challenges for their effective implementation.

Keywords: Air pollution; Cities and megacities; Exposure assessment; Health risks; Sensors.

MeSH terms

Air Pollution / analysis*
Cities
Costs and Cost Analysis
Environmental Monitoring / economics*
Environmental Monitoring / methods*