New Strategy for a good Management and Control of Pollution Caused by urban Traffic

Abstract

Pollution control is based on correctly measuring pollutant concentrations but, at the moment,the principal European cities only monitor pollution levels by means of a few fixed stations co-located inselected points of the urban layout far from hotspots and/or by means of meteorological prediction models offuture pollution. Few cities integrate the information from both sources. The implementation of wirelesssensor network provides an alternative solution by deploying a larger number of disposable sensor nodes andit is the key that enable more flexible real-time environmental monitoring. This paper presents a new systemfor sustainable traffic management by using models that predict pollution levels, which are fed with data,gathered by the air quality sensors network and may help to take early action. This new system has beenimplemented in Salamanca (Spain), thus allowing, to test in real urban environments the collection and processingof data from 35 motes located in experimental roads during a year-round period. Monitoring results allowbuilding a database with the temporal evolution of the different environmental indicators registered. In generalthe prediction model has an average error around 20% for predictions at one hour and 30% at three hours. Theresults highlight the very good performance of the prediction model. The strategic approach proposed ishighly innovative and embodies great scientific and technological advances. The use and integration of measuredand modeled data thus becomes a key element in the future management of atmospheric pollution.