title: The rise of low-cost sensing for managing air pollution in cities.
abstract: Ever growing populations in cities are associated with a major increase in road vehicles and air pollution. The overall high levels of urban air pollution have been shown to be of a significant risk to city dwellers. However, the impacts of very high but temporally and spatially restricted pollution, and thus exposure, are still poorly understood. Conventional approaches to air quality monitoring are based on networks of static and sparse measurement stations. However, these are prohibitively expensive to capture tempo-spatial heterogeneity and identify pollution hotspots, which is required for the development of robust real-time strategies for exposure control. Current progress in developing low-cost micro-scale sensing technology is radically changing the conventional approach to allow real-time information in a capillary form. But the question remains whether there is value in the less accurate data they generate. This article illustrates the drivers behind current rises in the use of low-cost sensors for air pollution management in cities, while addressing the major challenges for their effective implementation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (FEPS), University of Surrey Guildford, GU2 7XH Surrey, United Kingdom; Environmental Flow Research Centre, FEPS, University of Surrey Guildford, GU2 7XH Surrey, United Kingdom. Electronic address: P.Kumar@surrey.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Prashant
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.
authors.forename: Lidia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Morawska
authors.affiliation: Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, 1-5 Scroope Terrace, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PX, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martani
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, University Hill, 81100 Mytilene, Greece; Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands; Energy Environment and Water Research Center, The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia 1645, Cyprus.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Biskos
authors.affiliation: Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neophytou
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat, 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Sabatino
authors.affiliation: School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, Claremont Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE17RU, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.affiliation: Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Norford
authors.affiliation: Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Rex
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Britter
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D002947:Cities; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Air pollution; Cities and megacities; Exposure assessment; Health risks; Sensors