Urban Air Quality Monitoring with Networked Low-Cost Sensor-Systems

A sensors network based on 11 nodes (10 stationary and 1 mobile mounted on public bus) distributed in Bari (Italy) has been deployed for urban air quality (AQ) monitoring. The low-cost sensor-systems have been installed in specific sites (buildings, offices, schools, streets, port, airport) to enhance environmental awareness of the citizens and to supplement the expensive official air monitoring stations with cost-effective sensor-nodes at high spatial and temporal resolution. Continuous measurements were performed by low-cost electrochemical gas sensors (CO, NO2, O3, SO2), optical particle counter (PM1.0, PM2.5, PM10), NDIR infrared sensor (CO2), photo-ionisation detector (total VOCs), including microsensors for temperature and relative humidity. The sensors are running to assess the performance during a campaign (June 2015–December 2017) of several months for citizen science in sustainable smart cities. The air quality index (AQI) for a given pollutant has been measured and compared to the public reference environmental data. The results of the AQ monitoring long-term campaign for selected sensor-nodes are presented