Field assessment of the Village Green Project: an autonomous community air quality monitoring system.
Environ Sci Technol
; 49(10): 6085-92, 2015 May 19.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25905923
ABSTRACT
Continuous, long-term, and time-resolved measurement of outdoor air pollution has been limited by logistical hurdles and resource constraints. Measuring air pollution in more places is desired to address community concerns regarding local air quality impacts related to proximate sources, to provide data in areas lacking regional air monitoring altogether, or to support environmental awareness and education. This study integrated commercially available technologies to create the Village Green Project (VGP), a durable, solar-powered air monitoring park bench that measures real-time ozone, PM2.5, and meteorological parameters. The data are wirelessly transmitted via cellular modem to a server, where automated quality checks take place before data are provided to the public nearly instantaneously. Over 5500 h of data were successfully collected during the first ten months of pilot testing in Durham, North Carolina, with about 13 days (5.5%) of downtime because of low battery power. Additional data loss (4-14% depending on the measurement) was caused by infrequent wireless communication interruptions and instrument maintenance. The 94.5% operational time via solar power was within 1.5% of engineering calculations using historical solar data for the location. The performance of the VGP was evaluated by comparing the data to nearby air monitoring stations operating federal equivalent methods (FEM), which exhibited good agreement with the nearest benchmark FEMs for hourly ozone (r(2) = 0.79) and PM2.5 (r(2) = 0.76).
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Monitoreo del Ambiente
/
Contaminantes Atmosféricos
/
Contaminación del Aire
Límite:
Humans
País/Región como asunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Environ Sci Technol
Año:
2015
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos