Urban Air Pollutant Monitoring through a Low-Cost Mobile Device Connected to a Smart Road

Air pollutant monitoring is a basic issue in contemporary urban life. This paper describes an approach based on the diffused use of low-cost sensors that can be mounted on board urban vehicles for more abundant and distributed measures. The system exchanges data, exploiting a Smart Road infrastructure, with a central computing facility, the CIPCast platform, a GIS-based Decision Support System designed to perform real-time monitoring and interpolation of data with the aim of possibly issuing alarms with respect to different town areas. Experimental data gathering in the Rome urban area and subsequent processing results are presented. Algorithms for data fusion among different simulated monitoring systems and interpolation of data for a geographically denser map were utilised. Thus, in the framework of the Smart Road, protocols for data exchange were designed. Finally, air pollutant distribution maps were produced and integrated into the CIPCast platform. The feasibility of a full system architecture from the sensors to the real-time pollutant maps is shown.

Automated summary

This paper presents an approach utilizing low-cost sensors mounted on urban vehicles for air pollutant monitoring. The system exchanges data with a central computing facility and generates real-time pollutant distribution maps.