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Cities in 4D: The era of air sensors and a case for environmental engineers and scientists
Citation:
Hagler, G. Cities in 4D: The era of air sensors and a case for environmental engineers and scientists. Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, Phoenix, Arizona, May 14 - 16, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
This is a presentation about the evolution of air sensor technology to an audience of environmental engineering and science faculty. The goal of the presentation is to introduce the audience to air quality measurement in general and explain the important shift that is occurring with the era of air sensors. Additionally, the presentation talks about the types of new skills that are needed for environmental engineers and scientists in today's workforce.
Description:
In less than a decade, low cost air pollution sensors have rapidly developed and proliferated in use worldwide. This technology innovation is fueled by a worldwide demand for higher spatial and temporal information on air pollutants and enabled by recent developments in microprocessors, miniaturized sensors, data telemetry and storage, and data science. The vision for the widespread development and deployment of these sensors aligns with the National Research Council’s Environmental Engineering in the 21st Century Grand Challenges #4 (Create efficient, health, resilient cities) and #5 (Foster informed decisions and actions). In support of health goals, air sensors are growing in use for indoor air quality monitoring, wearable individual monitoring, outdoor sensor networks and mobile monitoring. Other applications include sensor networks for pollutant source identification and apportionment, industrial applications for leak detection, and emergency response scenarios. On international scale, air sensor technology is considered a potential solution for countries lacking any air quality observations altogether. Some key challenges include the development of robust sensor systems, processing and interpretation of data, data accessibility, and data ownership. This revolution in how we measure air pollution needs the problem-solving capabilities of environmental engineers, however, also motivates a broad lens of knowledge and interdisciplinary teams that encompass engineering, environmental science, data science, social science, and law.
