Abstract
Air quality monitoring for subway tunnels in South Korea is a topic of great interest because more than 8 million passengers per day use the subway, which has a concentration of particulate matter (PM10) greater than that of above ground. In this paper, an Internet of Things (IoT)-based air quality monitoring system, consisting of an air quality measurement device called Smart-Air, an IoT gateway, and a cloud computing web server, is presented to monitor the concentration of PM10 in subway tunnels. The goal of the system is to efficiently monitor air quality at any time and from anywhere by combining IoT and cloud computing technologies. This system was successfully implemented in Incheon’s subway tunnels to investigate levels of PM10. The concentration of particulate matter was greatest between the morning and afternoon rush hours. In addition, the residence time of PM10 increased as the depth of the monitoring location increased. During the experimentation period, the South Korean government implemented an air quality management system. An analysis was performed to follow up after implementation and assess how the change improved conditions. Based on the experiments, the system was efficient and effective at monitoring particulate matter for improving air quality in subway tunnels.
Highlights
The subway is a major transportation system in South Korea used by approximately eight million commuters per day [1,2]
The goal of this study was to implement an Internet of Things (IoT)-based air quality monitoring system in a subway tunnel in order to investigate the condition of particulate matter
The results showed that the AQI and concentration of particulate matter varied based on location and time, even in the same tunnel
Summary
The subway is a major transportation system in South Korea used by approximately eight million commuters per day [1,2]. While the subway has provided environmentally sustainable transit by reducing traffic congestion on the road, it has become evident that subway systems have air pollution problems. Such problems may present potential health risks to commuters and working staff because the concentration level of particulate matter (PM10 ) is generally higher than that above ground, proven by published studies [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. The government has been diversifying its efforts to improve the air quality of subway systems by installing air purifiers, installing wind guard doors, and conducting national research projects [15,16,17,18].
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