Improving public health in smart cities in the air pollution context

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesThe public has continually developed interest in knowing the air quality around them. This is of great importance not only for planning their activities, but also for taking precautionary measures for their health. With support from smart cities infrastructure that supports taking measurements of pollutant concentrations, several countries and researchers have used the concept of air quality index (AQI) in its different forms of air quality or air pollution to interpret and communicate such measurements. In this study we have reviewed the implemented indices by government bodies and some formulations from researchers in relation to the available data to determine an optimum index for Madrid city. This comparison has helped to formulate the Madrid Local Air Quality Index (MLAQI), which considers the local situation in Madrid city. In relation to the available data from the city council, we have reviewed and compared some of the spatial interpolation methods that have been applied in the field of air pollution. This helped us to identify IDW for support of automated hourly pollution interpolation for the available data from Madrid pollution sensors. We have then used MLAQI and IDW to create an hourly pollution Web Feature service aimed at helping with public awareness of the air quality around them. The surfaces are categorised with the index categories from good to very poor categories with defined colour coding. We used the created service to develop a routing web application where high MLAQI categories of poor and very poor are used as polygon barriers to limit the route calculation in those polluted areas thereby helping the public to protect their health from such areas