An evaluation tool kit of air quality micro-sensing units.
Recent developments in sensory and communication technologies have made the development of portable air-quality (AQ) micro-sensing units (MSUs) feasible. These MSUs allow AQ measurements in many new applications, such as ambulatory exposure analyses and citizen science. Typically, the performance of these devices is assessed using the mean error or correlation coefficients with respect to a laboratory equipment. However, these criteria do not represent how such sensors perform outside of laboratory conditions in large-scale field applications, and do not cover all aspects of possible differences in performance between the sensor-based and standardized equipment, or changes in performance over time. This paper presents a comprehensive Sensor Evaluation Toolbox (SET) for evaluating AQ MSUs by a range of criteria, to better assess their performance in varied applications and environments. Within the SET are included four new schemes for evaluating sensors' capability to: locate pollution sources; represent the pollution level on a coarse scale; capture the high temporal variability of the observed pollutant and their reliability. Each of the evaluation criteria allows for assessing sensors' performance in a different way, together constituting a holistic evaluation of the suitability and usability of the sensors in a wide range of applications. Application of the SET on measurements acquired by 25 MSUs deployed in eight cities across Europe showed that the suggested schemes facilitates a comprehensive cross platform analysis that can be used to determine and compare the sensors' performance. The SET was implemented in R and the code is available on the first author's website.
The Technion Center of Excellence in Exposure Science and Environmental Health (TCEEH), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Electronic address: fishbain@technion.ac.il.
Barak
B
Fishbain
The Technion Center of Excellence in Exposure Science and Environmental Health (TCEEH), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Uri
U
Lerner
Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Kjeller, Norway.
Nuria
N
Castell
ISGlobal, Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain.
Tom
T
Cole-Hunter
Centre for Atmospheric Science, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, UK.
Olalekan
O
Popoola
The Technion Center of Excellence in Exposure Science and Environmental Health (TCEEH), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
David M
DM
Broday
ISGlobal, Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain.
Tania Martinez
TM
Iñiguez
ISGlobal, Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain.
Mark
M
Nieuwenhuijsen
VINČA Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
Milena
M
Jovasevic-Stojanovic
VINČA Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia; School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
Dusan
D
Topalovic
Centre for Atmospheric Science, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, UK.
Roderic L
RL
Jones
Centre for Human Exposure Science, Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
Karen S
KS
Galea
The Technion Center of Excellence in Exposure Science and Environmental Health (TCEEH), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Yael
Y
Etzion
The Technion Center of Excellence in Exposure Science and Environmental Health (TCEEH), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Fadi
F
Kizel
The Technion Center of Excellence in Exposure Science and Environmental Health (TCEEH), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Yaela N
YN
Golumbic
Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Ayelet
A
Baram-Tsabari
The Technion Center of Excellence in Exposure Science and Environmental Health (TCEEH), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Tamar
T
Yacobi
The Technion Center of Excellence in Exposure Science and Environmental Health (TCEEH), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Dana
D
Drahler
Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Johanna A
JA
Robinson
Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
David
D
Kocman
Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Milena
M
Horvat
Department of Genetic Ecotoxicology, Institute of Experimental Medicine AS CR, Prague, Czech Republic.
Vlasta
V
Svecova
UBIMET GmbH, Vienna, Austria.
Alexander
A
Arpaci
Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Kjeller, Norway.
Alena
A
Bartonova
Air quality; Environmental monitoring; Micro sensing units; Sensors performance; Wireless distributed sensor network