Assessment and application of a low-cost air quality sensor network
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Ocean and Earth Science
Abstract
Rationale: The issue of air quality has an impact on every human on the planet and there are many initiatives to reduce pollution sources. These initiatives can only target pollution hotspots and measure the effects if we have reliable sensor data. However, monitoring air quality is not a simple task and pollution sources can be very localized, e.g. a single traffic light, road or industry. Reference standard pollution sensors are very expensive (£25k+) resulting in relatively few sensor stations to cover large cities with multiple pollution sources. This PhD will focus on low-cost sensors, applied to air quality.
Seven cities in the UK have been identified as breaching air quality regulations on a regular basis, Southampton is one of them. A government report has recently outlined a loose strategy to improve this situation, but it is not clear if the mitigation will be sufficient to bring Southampton to within regulation limits, particularly given the lack of monitoring currently in place. Indeed, similar measures implemented elsewhere have frequently failed to yield their stated aims potentially due to lack of data with sufficient granularity.
Ultra-low cost gas sensors exist (under £50) but are generally thought to be of such low quality that they are largely inappropriate for air quality monitoring, but offer the potential for a relatively inexpensive large scale network that may be useful, provided sufficient data quality checks/screening are in place. Conversely there exist a range of sensors and particulate monitors in the low-medium cost (£500-5000) category that can potentially be used gain insights into air quality, this however would provide a less resolved network but one with more reliable data.
The solution to which strategy (low-cost/high resolution vs. higher-cost/lower resolution) provides the optimal air quality sensor network remains to be determined.
Seven cities in the UK have been identified as breaching air quality regulations on a regular basis, Southampton is one of them. A government report has recently outlined a loose strategy to improve this situation, but it is not clear if the mitigation will be sufficient to bring Southampton to within regulation limits, particularly given the lack of monitoring currently in place. Indeed, similar measures implemented elsewhere have frequently failed to yield their stated aims potentially due to lack of data with sufficient granularity.
Ultra-low cost gas sensors exist (under £50) but are generally thought to be of such low quality that they are largely inappropriate for air quality monitoring, but offer the potential for a relatively inexpensive large scale network that may be useful, provided sufficient data quality checks/screening are in place. Conversely there exist a range of sensors and particulate monitors in the low-medium cost (£500-5000) category that can potentially be used gain insights into air quality, this however would provide a less resolved network but one with more reliable data.
The solution to which strategy (low-cost/high resolution vs. higher-cost/lower resolution) provides the optimal air quality sensor network remains to be determined.
Publications
Johnston SJ
(2019)
City Scale Particulate Matter Monitoring Using LoRaWAN Based Air Quality IoT Devices.
in Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
Bulot FMJ
(2019)
Long-term field comparison of multiple low-cost particulate matter sensors in an outdoor urban environment.
in Scientific reports
Basford PJ
(2020)
LoRaWAN for Smart City IoT Deployments: A Long Term Evaluation.
in Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
Basford P
(2019)
LoRaWAN for city scale IoT deployments
Studentship Projects
Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
NE/R012156/1 | 30/09/2017 | 29/09/2022 | |||
1942738 | Studentship | NE/R012156/1 | 30/09/2017 | 30/11/2021 | Florentin Bulot |
NE/W503150/1 | 31/03/2021 | 30/03/2022 | |||
1942738 | Studentship | NE/W503150/1 | 30/09/2017 | 30/11/2021 | Florentin Bulot |
Description | Comparison of sensor readings with a nearby background station showed moderate to good correlation (0.61 < r < 0.88, p < 0.0001), but indicated that low-cost sensor performance varies with different PM sources and background concentrations, and to a lesser extent relative humidity and temperature. This may have implications for their potential use in different locations. Data also indicates that these sensors can track short-lived events of pollution, especially in conjunction with wind data. We conclude that, with appropriate consideration of potential confounding factors, low-cost PM sensors may be suitable for PM monitoring where reference-standard equipment is not available or feasible, and that they may be useful in studying spatially localised airborne PM concentrations. Eight units each of five different models of low--cost optical PM sensors, (40 individual sensors in total), were tested under controlled laboratory conditions, against higher-grade instruments for: lower limit of detection, response time, responses to sharp pollution spikes lasting \<1min, and the impact of differing humidity and PM source. All sensors detected the spikes generated while presenting different sensitivity mainly to sources of pollution and to size distributions with a lesser impact of humidity. It is concluded that improved performance in field monitoring campaigns, including tracking sources of pollution, could be achieved by using a combination of some of the different models to take advantage of the additional information made available by their differential response. |
Exploitation Route | The solution developed are open source and the data of the measurement taken will be made available for download. That represents two years of measurements every <10 second in about 20 locations in Southampton. |
Sectors | Environment Government Democracy and Justice |
Description | Monitoring Particulate Matter levels at schools and for the collocation of sensors at the reference station |
Amount | £4,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Southampton City Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2018 |
End | 12/2020 |
Description | NEXUSS and NERC Marine Autonomous Systems (MAS) Capital Programme |
Amount | £28,845 (GBP) |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2018 |
End | 09/2019 |
Description | NEXUSS and NERC Marine Autonomous Systems (MAS) Capital Programme |
Amount | £34,655 (GBP) |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2019 |
End | 04/2020 |
Description | Public Engagement with Research unit (PERu) - University of Southampton - Public engagement in Morocco around air pollution and sea level rise |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Southampton |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2019 |
End | 05/2019 |
Description | Public Engagement with Research unit (PERu) - Workshop on air pollution sensors at EMF festival |
Amount | £4,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Southampton |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2018 |
End | 09/2018 |
Description | SMMI Research Stimulus Collaboration Stimulus Fund 2018-19 |
Amount | £13,050 (GBP) |
Organisation | Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI) |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2019 |
End | 07/2019 |
Description | Collaboration to study low cost Particulate Matter under laboratory conditions |
Organisation | University of Copenhagen |
Country | Denmark |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Collaboration to study low-cost Particulate Matter (PM) under laboratory conditions: I designed, assembled and brought 4 air quality boxes with a total of 40 PM sensors along with two high-grade instruments to the University of Copenhagen. I designed and conducted the experiments to test the PM sensors and later analysed the data. |
Collaborator Contribution | They hosted me, gave me access to a temperature-controlled room and a sealed enclosure to generated smoke and test the sensors. The laboratory study lasted two weeks at the end of August 2019. They assisted me to conduct the experiments and to write a paper on the study. |
Impact | Paper under review submitted to Sensors MDPI. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Organisation and deliveries of a series of public engagement events in Morocco |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Organisation and deliveries of a series of public engagement events in Morocco around air pollution and the impact of sea-level rise on natural heritage in different schools and universities and Morocco. Organisation of a half day exhibition in the exoctic garden of Bouknadel and a Café Scientifique. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Poster at Public Health England 2019 pollution conference and short presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Poster at PHE 2019 pollution conference and short talk about my research |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Poster at Sensors 2019 - Sensors and Networks for Environmental Monitoring Systems - Royal Society of Chemistry |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Poster at Sensors 2019 - Sensors and Networks for Environmental Monitoring Systems |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Presentation of a poster at Monitoring Ambient Air 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation of a poster at Monitoring Ambient Air 2018 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Southampton - Poster at Clean Air Futures: working together for cleaner air |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Southampton - Poster at Clean Air Futures: working together for cleaner air. Presentation of a poster and assisted to run the event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Talk at Solent University for the British Computer Society |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Talk at Solent University for the British Computer Society |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Talk at St Denys Community Centre for the Science Cafe |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Talk at St Denys Community Centre for the Science Cafe |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Workshop at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland, on programming low-cost PM sensors |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Run a Workshop at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland, on programming low-cost PM sensors |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Workshop in Ho Chi Mihn, Vietnam, about low cost PM sensors |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Workshop in Ho Chi Mihn, Vietnam, about low cost PM sensors |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |