ISSN: 2182-2069 (printed) / ISSN: 2182-2077 (online)
A Cloud-Linked Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Apparatus for Gaseous Pollutants in Urban Areas
The quantity of motor vehicles in the Philippines is continuously increasing with a substantial number, which consequently worsen its traffic condition, especially in many metropolitan cities. In proportion to the rising road congestion level, the quality of air in these areas is persistently degrading due to vehicle emissions. Individuals who live near the roadway or even those passengers that got stuck in the middle of road traffic have high chances of getting a plethora of diseases due to the gaseous pollutants emitted by vehicles. In order for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians to carry-out the appropriate preventive measures, it is important for them to get near to real-time information about the actual measure of the quality of ambient air outside. This paper presents the development of an air quality monitoring and information system that provide details of the level of target gaseous pollutants in a particular area where sensors are deployed. A low-powered wireless sensor device equipped with gas sensors that measures the CO, NOx, and C6H6 concentrations in ambient air is developed.The device is also equipped with a GSM module to transmit valuable information to a cloud server. In addition, a web application is also developed to tabulate and visualize data in realtime as well as present the air quality index and short-term exposure limit warning. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the monitoring device’s readings are comparable to a particular commercialized exhaust gas analyzer.