Abstract
Abstract. Ambient air pollution continues to be a major human health burden around the world. Cities with existing smart data infrastructure, and those with smart city aspirations, would benefit from the integration of real-time data from an air quality sensor network. AirSENCE™ is one such sensor which monitors eight common pollutants at low cost. It has been deployed in Canada in cities of the Greater Toronto Area, e.g. the City of Oshawa, to augment the existing urban data network and study the impacts of traffic flow and land usage on air quality. Results reveal that distributed sensors are highly useful for detecting localized pollution events that would otherwise go undetected, providing policymakers with a valuable, actionable data for protecting public health. Coupling air quality sensors with other smart city data (traffic monitors in this case) was shown to provide a more comprehensive representation of how air pollutant levels are affected by human activity, which can better inform city planning decisions.
Highlights
Introduction to AirSENCETMAirSENCETM (Air SENsor for Chemicals in the Environment) is a compact and low-cost air monitoring product conceived of by the Southern Ontario Centre for Atmospheric Aerosols operated public event space, and near a regional air monitoring station
Great strides in air emissions mitigation technologies have been made in recent decades, air pollution remains a serious threat to public health around the world
This study evaluated the performance of low-cost ambient air pollutant sensors by comparison with reference monitoring stations
Summary
Great strides in air emissions mitigation technologies have been made in recent decades, air pollution remains a serious threat to public health around the world. Estimates of the number of premature deaths attributable to particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5) in outdoor air worldwide vary between 4.2 million for 2016 (WHO, 2018) to 8.9 million for 2015 (Burnett et al, 2018). Other studies point out that PM2.5 does not fully account for the apparent mortality risk correlated with ambient pollution exposure, and that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) contribute significantly (Crouse et al, 2015; Turner et al, 2016; Lelieveld et al, 2020). All three of these pollutants are well-known to contribute to cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, as well as cancer. The need for governments to measure air pollution accurately and proactively disseminate the results to the public is readily apparent
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