Mobile pollution monitoring

Scientists are to turn the UK into a moving laboratory today (June 30) by using bicycles, pedestrians, buses and cars into mobile pollution sensors. Researchers from the Imperial College London are hoping its Mobile Environmental Sensing System Across Grid Environments (MESSAGE) initiative will demonstrate to transport authorities that using mobile sensors gives a better idea of pollution in our towns and cities.

"There is a lot that we do not know about air quality in our cities and towns because the current generation of large stationary sensors don't provide enough information," says project Director Professor John Polak, from the Centre for Transport Studies at Imperial College London. "We envisage a future where hundreds and thousands of mobile sensors are deployed across the country, to improve the way we monitor, measure and manage pollution in our urban areas."

Three types of mobile sensors will be used in the experiment, measuring the effects of traffic emissions and noise pollution. Along with sensors attached to cars and buses pedestrians and cyclists will be used to monitor their exposure to pollutants. The sensors will utilise their mobile phone to transmit data on local contaminants from cars and even carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke.

The experiment also hopes to analyse the link between traffic congestion and levels of pollution at locations like pedestrian crossings, traffic intersections, industrial areas and motorways. The three-year project is jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Department for Transport and brings together internationally leading specialist research groups in the fields of e-Science, transport, sensors and communications technologies from Imperial College London and the Universities of Cambridge, Leeds, Newcastle and Southampton.

Kyle Fortune