Integrated open source air quality monitoring platform

Abstract

In recent years, great importance has been paid to air quality monitoring, exhibiting a rapid development both in industrialization as well as in the transportation segment, especially in the cities and the urban area. Installation and maintenance of commercial air quality monitoring instruments are overpriced, thus making such existing air quality monitoring networks scarce, despite the significant growth in the usage of low-cost sensor technology for the monitoring of air pollution. The aim is to encourage citizens to actively contribute in such actions as monitoring air quality in the place where they live and work. Open source software seems the better way for the implementation of the low-cost constructions as it enables direct access and software customization according to implementation needs, and encourages participatory engagement between people with common concerns and common goals and actions such as air quality in their area. This work presents the implementation of an integrated open source air quality monitoring platform which includes low-cost air quality stations and an application server for the data visualization. The parts of the low cost station are the cpu wemos@arduino as well as gas [nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone ((O3)] and particle sensors (PM2.5). The low-cost sensors present an affordable solution which covers real-time and high spatial resolution for air quality measurements with best effort performance.