Particle Pollution Estimation Based on Image Analysis

Chenbin Liu; Francis Tsow; Yi Zou; Nongjian Tao

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145955

Particle Pollution Estimation Based on Image Analysis

PLoS One. 2016 Feb 1;11(2):e0145955. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145955. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Chenbin Liu¹, Francis Tsow², Yi Zou³, Nongjian Tao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, JiangSu, China.
² Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America.
³ Beijing Kinto Investment Management Co., Ltd, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Exposure to fine particles can cause various diseases, and an easily accessible method to monitor the particles can help raise public awareness and reduce harmful exposures. Here we report a method to estimate PM air pollution based on analysis of a large number of outdoor images available for Beijing, Shanghai (China) and Phoenix (US). Six image features were extracted from the images, which were used, together with other relevant data, such as the position of the sun, date, time, geographic information and weather conditions, to predict PM2.5 index. The results demonstrate that the image analysis method provides good prediction of PM2.5 indexes, and different features have different significance levels in the prediction.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Air Pollution / analysis*
China
Color
Humidity
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted*
Light
Particulate Matter / analysis*
Principal Component Analysis
Regression Analysis
Support Vector Machine
Weather

Substances

Particulate Matter

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant numbers 21575062, 21327902, http://isisn.nsfc.gov.cn/egrantweb/, Nongjian Tao. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Beijing Kinto Investment Management Co., Ltd provided support in the form of salaries for an author [YZ], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of this author is articulated in the author contributions section.