Mobile System for Air Pollution Evaluation

摘要

In recent years, the pollution monitoring in urban areas has become one of the most critical issues for local public authorities, in order to verify that pollution levels not exceed limits considered unsafe or that are regulated by local laws. Generally, the pollution monitoring is performed by using measurement stations located in few points of the region of interest, since these stations are generally characterized by high costs, weights, and dimensions. Then, the pollution levels over the remaining area are predicted by means of suitable interpolation models. Due to the great variety of urban scenarios, it becomes very difficult to obtain reliable pollution levels in area in which the measurements have not been directly taken but only predicted. Consequently, the pollution monitoring can suffer a lack of reliable information indispensable for the actuation of proper environmental management policies. In this scenario, it becomes of interest to use a number of low-cost measurement system installed on public vehicles in urban service, in order to measure the actual pollution level in all parts of the territory in which these vehicles perform their paths. In this way, a punctual, reliable, and real-time pollution data can be obtained.