SparksAIR: A Low-Cost IoT Solution to Manage Air Pollution in Urban Areas

The combustion of polluting materials in industrial processes and motor vehicles, among other factors, causes atmospheric pollution that gradually degrades human health. Thus, air pollution monitoring has become an essential requirement for cities worldwide. However, traditional fixed monitoring stations present challenges in terms of cost and installation difficulty. In this context, monitoring solutions based on emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things and embedded systems have shown increasing interest. In this article, SPARKS-AIR, a low-cost fixed solution for air pollution monitoring, is described. SPARKS-AIR combines the design of an electronic board with a Raspberry Pi. The board allows connecting of up to six electrochemical gas sensors manufactured by Alphasense. The collected data is stored in a local database and sent directly to the cloud. The solution has been deployed in Manta, Ecuador, to validate our proposal. Our purpose is to analyse the behaviour of the solution in two areas of high vehicular traffic. In particular, we monitor and analyze the levels of Carbon monoxide (CO), Sulfur dioxide (SO \(_2\) ), and Nitrogen dioxide (NO \(_2\) ). Experimental results show that, in the two target locations, the hour associated with the highest pollution levels is 10 am. In addition, we observed that the values obtained for NO \(_2\) exceed the permitted thresholds by 200%, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).