Ubiquitous Environmental Monitoring as Decision Tool

MONITAR SENSE: An Environmental Tool

Paulo Pinho

1,3

, Sérgio Lopes

1,2,3

, Gabriel Rodrigues

and Pedro Colaço

CI&DETS, Center for Studies in Education, Technologies and Health, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu,

Campus Politécnico, 3504-510, Viseu, Portugal

ADAI/LAETA, Association for the Development of Industrial Aerodynamics, Coimbra University,

Rua Pedro Hispano, 12, 3030-289, Coimbra, Portugal

MONITAR, Lda, Repeses, Viseu, Portugal

Keywords: Environmental Monitoring, Web-based Platform, Ubiquitous Monitoring, Decision Tool.

Abstract: Ambient (outdoor) Environmental Quality (AEQ) of urban areas and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)

of buildings are recognized as key factors that contribute to improve the position on ranking of smart cities.

The challenge is being able to evaluate AEQ and IEQ in large scale, and making the results available, in

real-time, so that decision makers can react according to the received information. Monitar started the

implementation of an AEQ and IEQ monitoring network based on new environmental sensors and

information and communication technologies (ICT), such as a web-based platform, in order to monitor

environmental parameters in a large area at a lower cost than conventional environmental monitoring

networks and to disseminate information to become available for decision. The data collected are the base

for decision support tool to be used by building and district managers and also individual people. In terms of

Smart City, in its component Smart Environment, the monitoring network uses different equipment that due

to their dimension and price can be placed in several locations. ICT supports Smart Governance and Smart

Living, also addressed by accessing information helping changing people’s behaviour. This paper describes

the Environmental Monitoring Network applied by Monitar (designated MONITAR SENSE) in Central

Portugal namely the mainframe and some results.

1 INTRODUCTION

A poor ambient environmental quality (AEQ) is a

current problem in urban areas. The continuous

exposure to noise has a significant impact on health

and well-being resulting, for example, in an

increased of cardiovascular disease risk caused by

the increase of hypertension and stress (e.g. WHO,

2001) and available data shows that 65% of the

Europeans living in urban areas are exposed to high

noise levels (Decision n. º 1386/2013/EU). Health

problems associated with exposure to air pollutants

are also an major concern, with particulates (mainly

small ones PM

2,5

and PM

), ozone (O

) and nitrogen

dioxide (NO

) (e.g. EEA, 2015), as main pollutants.

The lack of instantaneous data on environmental

parameters such as: air pollutants, noise,

temperature, relative humidity, ultraviolet radiation,

among others, is due to the fact that most of the

measurement techniques and web-based platforms

have not yet reached a threshold technological

development versus costs, that allow its global

spread.

In developed countries there are several

convencional AEQ monitoring networks and

databases that allow access to historical data,

however, usually, they do not measure important

environmental parameters such as noise, neither are

stable databases nor provide real time data.

European Union obliges member states to have a

network of air quality monitoring stations using

reference methods and equipment with very strict

technical specifications (Directive 2008/50/EC of

the European Parliament and of the Council of 21

May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for

Europe). These equipments are expensive, need to

be in a large conditioned compartment, with great

consumption of energy. This type of stations is not

expected to increase due to its high cost.

Information produced by this type of network

usually does not have the necessary interaction with

274

Pinho, P., Lopes, S., Rodrigues, G. and Colaço, P.

Ubiquitous Environmental Monitoring as Decision Tool - MONITAR SENSE: An Environmental Tool.

DOI: 10.5220/0006344002740280

In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems (SMARTGREENS 2017), pages 274-280

ISBN: 978-989-758-241-7

public due to several failures in data communication

process, nonfunctional communication platforms,

information not updated in real time and limited

spacial coverage. Same issues are verified in

meteorological stations.

In developed societies, most people spend about

90% of their time doing indoors activities and, in

most cases, exposed to poor indoor environmental

quality (IEQ) associated with health problems,

performance decrease and absenteeism (e.g.

Shendell et al., 2004; WHO, 2010; Mendell and

Heath, 2005; Madureira et al. 2009; Haverinen-

Shaughnessy et al., 2011 and Bakó-Biró et al.,

2012).

However, there is no ubiquitous monitoring of

indoor environmental parameters for public

administration buildings (schools, hospitals, public

departments, etc.) or private social services (nursing

homes, kindergartens, etc.), neither assessment of

workers exposure or building users.

In recent years there has been a substantial

development and/or improvement of technologies

for measuring environmental parameters. These

technologies allow the modular development with

several environmental sensors and communication

components with lower costs, less space required,

good temporal and spatial representativeness and

lower energy requirements than traditional

equipment. However, it is necessary to develop the

equipment and not only the sensor, also auxiliary

components and validation and calibration protocols

that will guarantee the quality of results (MacDonell

et al., 2013; sneider, et al., 2013; spinelle et al.,

2013; Jovašević-Stojanovića et al., 2015)

For temperature, relative humidity, ultraviolet

radiation, noise and CO

, low cost sensors have got

range and precision required, almost, for their

immediate application. For air quality parameters,

several recent studies show that low cost technology

is already available for reduced concentration ranges

and with some stability (e.g. Mead et al., 2013 and

Ikram et al., 2012; spinelle et al., 2015; spinelle et

al., 2017). For pollutants such as O

or NO

, the

electrochemical sensors allow determine its

concentration in the range observed in ambient air,

but there are also other aspects that compromise

their use, namely the operating conditions

(temperature and humidity) and electronic noise

which affects the output signal (Aleixandre et al.,

2014, Spinelle et al., 2015 and Spinelle et al., 2017).

Therefore, the main challenge for these sensors is to

improve its operation sensitivity, stability and

longevity (e.g. Kumar et al., 2015).

For measurement fine particles (PM

or PM

2,5

the low cost sensors are based on counting particles

as they interrupt a light beam. Particle concentration

is further determined by signal processing

(separating size intervals as function of beam

interruption time) and on a calculation algorithm that

considers particle density, counting efficiency

amongst other parameters. The device results

depends on the operating conditions and the

calculation algorithm used for converting particle

count to concentration (Gozzi et al., 2016, Johnson

et al., 2016 and Williams et al., 2014).

Several projects of ubiquitous environmental

monitoring are being developed (e.g. Hwang et al.,

2010; Ghobakhlou et al., 2011; Bagula et al., 2012;

Yun et al., 2012; Moltchanov et al., 2015) intending

to use current communication technologies and

equipment to support the decision making of

governmental entities, private entities and everyday

people’s behavior.

2 MONITAR SENSE: AN

ENVIRONMENTAL TOOL

Monitar has been developing an environmental

monitoring network associated to a web-based

platform MONITAR SENSE (sense.monitar.pt) as

frame for a decision tool.

In terms of Smart City, the components of Smart

Governance, Smart Environment and Smart Living,

are contemplated. The calculation of indexes based

on real-time data that summarize reality (in final

development, not implemented yet) will support

decision makers and therefore support a Smart

Governance. Smart Environment was achivied by

increasing temporal and spatial representativeness of

environmental data through the use of

communication technologies and equipment that due

to their dimension and price have been placed in

several locations. Smart Living is also addressed by

the dissemination of real-time data helping people

changing their behaviour in daily life and

contributing to improve their health.

In terms of Citizens' Observatories, MONITAR

SENSE is developing home monitoring equipment

that will enable citizens to contribute and participate

in environmental information sharing, influencing

the rest of the community, social priorities and

decision making.

In terms of IOT, MONITAR SENSE equipment

has real-time communication systems and web-

based platform that connects people to real-time

equipment data. Most of the environmental

Ubiquitous Environmental Monitoring as Decision Tool - MONITAR SENSE: An Environmental Tool

275

monitoring equipment operates on an "Off-Grid" or

"Stand-Alone" logic, collecting data over a long

period of time, which are then analysed in

backoffice, resulting in reports that reflect a past

episode. This time lapse between the monitored

episode and the data communication gives rise to an

ineffective, or even non-existent decision.

MONITAR SENSE platform, see Figure 2, is a

user friendly tool to interact with decision makers

and general public allowing visualization of

measured parameters in real time, perform historical

query, download editable files to data post-

processing and view equipment location in a map.

Also, enable to create private and public monitoring

networks, user management, equipment

management and network management.

At a final development stage, not yet

implemented, are the possibilities of: configure

alerts when exceeded a predetermined value of a

measured parameter, calculate in real time several

indexes that will be used to support decisions and

also statistical treatment and reports of measured

data and access to data through the application

programming interface (API).

Figure 1: Environmental monitoring network and web-

based platform MONITAR SENSE concept.

The network is composed by equipament that

measure several environmental parameters.

Collected data are transmitted to backoffice to be

analysed and become available in a user-friendly

frontend.

Concerning ambient environmental quality, as

shows Figure 3, equipments that are being installed

by MONITAR are: SmartAIRSense for monitoring

ambient air quality, measuring parameters such as

ozone (O

) and nitrogen dioxide (NO

) (using

electrochemical sensors) and particle matter (PM

and/or PM

2,5

) (using a particule counter);

SmartNOISESense for monitoring noise levels

(using an microphone type 2); SmartMETEOSense

for monitoring meteorological parameters such as air

temperature and relative humidity (using capacitive

sensors); ultraviolet and total radiation (using

photodiode); wind speed and direction (using a vane

anemometer); atmospheric pressure (using a resistor

sensor) and rainfall intensity (using a rain collector).

Figure 2: Web-based platform MONITAR SENSE

(

sense.monitar.pt

Figure 3: SmartAIRSense, SmartMETEOSense and

SmartNOISESense.

Figure 4 shows equipment that are being developed

by MONITAR to evaluate indoor environmental

quality in schools and homes. SmartHOMESense

and SmartSCHOOLSense for monitoring parameters

such as CO

, O

+NO

), PM

and/or PM

2,5

, air

temperature and relative humidity, illuminance and

noise.

Figure 4: SmartHOMESense or SmartSCHOOLSense.

The equipment uses an electrochemical sensor to

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276

Figure 5: Display of web-based platform MONITAR SENSE (sense.monitar.pt) showing 13 MONITAR environmental

monitoring stations located in inland central Portugal.

measurement, a nondispersive infrared sensor for

measure, microphone type 2 for noise

measurement, a particule counter for PM

and/or

2,5

, capacitive sensors to measure temperature

and relative humidity and photodiode to measure

illuminance.

3 MONITAR SENSE

APPLICATION - AN

ENVIRONMENTAL

MONITORING NETWORK IN

CENTRAL PORTUGAL

MONITAR SENSE is being applied as a frame of an

environmental monitoring network located in central

Portugal.

The network has 13 locations. Each location has

a SmartAIRSense, a SmartNOISESense and a

SmartMETEOSense. Figure 5 presents the web-

based platform display MONITAR SENSE

(sense.monitar.pt), showing Monitar stations located

in central Portugal.

Since early network implementation, not every

station worked continuously due to internet

availability, stopping data communication, or

refrigeration fail in SmartAIRSense equipment

compromising liability of air quality data.

MONITAR SENSE platform displays

environmental parameters charts measured every 5

minutes, allowing selection of the visible data

period, see an example in Figure 6.

The obtained data from SmartNOISESense and

SmartMETEOSense are very reliable since sensors

are very stable and have good accuracy within a

large range of environmental conditions.

Air quality electrochemical sensors (O

and NO

)

are very sensible to temperature changes having less

accuracy if equipment is not temperature

conditioned. SmartAIRSense equipment has

conditioned temperature but in extreme

environmental conditions (when completely exposed

to sun during summer months, for example) cannot

always guarantee optimal temperature range.

Although this handicap obtained information can

still be very useful to decision makers.

In this location area (Inland Central Portugal) only

exists two conventional Air Quality Monitoring

Stations (AQMS) from the Environmental

Portuguese Agency Air Quality National Network

(Fornelo do Monte and Fundão, 75 km of distance

between them).

When ozone concentration are above 180 g/m

measured in these stations population should be

informed to avoid exposition to breathing air

containing ozone including people with asthma,

children, older adults, and people who are active

Ubiquitous Environmental Monitoring as Decision Tool - MONITAR SENSE: An Environmental Tool

277

Figure 6: Display of web-based platform MONITAR SENSE showing ozone data and noise data from one of the

MONITAR stations.

Figure 7: Display of web-based platform MONITAR SENSE (sense.monitar.pt) and the chart obtained in Environmental

Portuguese Agency Air Quality Platform showing data from Air Quality Monitoring Station located in Central Portugal

concerning to in 8 and 9 of august of 2016.

outdoors. However, it is verified that the informative

channels are not working correctly and people are

not informed in real time, and usually know only

after the exposition occurred.

As it can be seen in Figure 7, on August 8 and 9,

2016, two ozone episodes occurred in Central

Portugal detected by the Fornelo do Monte station

(AQMS from Environmental Portuguese Agency)

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but not detected in the other Central Portugal

AQMA (Fundão). These episodes were also detected

in the MONITAR SENSE station located

approximately in the middle location between these

two stations. Information from MONITAR SENSE

station, even less accurate, can be very useful for

decision makers that after receiving alert can

confirm the values in the National Network and act

in real time.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Ubiquitous environmental monitoring starts being a

reality since the technology become available and

affordable. However, for some parameters like air

quality pollutants (O

, NO

, PM

and PM

2,5

) the

technology is not available in a ready-to-use way,

needing to be tested and calibrated before use.

Also, some steps need to be done before this

ubiquitous environmental monitoring starts being a

decision tool.

MONITAR SENSE is already a real

environmental tool although it needs some

improvements.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledge the support from the

Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, namely the

CI&DETS – Center for Studies in Education,

Technologies and Health (Project I&D

CI&DETS/IPV/CGD), from ADAI/LAETA -

Association for the Development of Industrial

Aerodynamics and from Monitar, LDA and

Associação de Munícipios da Cova da Beira.

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