You are here:
Assessment of Temporal and Spatial Trends of Air Pollutants Using Low-Cost Sensors in Peñuelas, Puerto Rico
Citation:
Reece, S., R. Williams, AND M. Colon. Assessment of Temporal and Spatial Trends of Air Pollutants Using Low-Cost Sensors in Peñuelas, Puerto Rico. ISES-ISEE 2018 Joint Annual Meeting, Ottawa, CANADA, August 26 - 30, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation which evaluates the performance of three low-cost sensors under harsh environmental conditions (high relative humidity in a coastal environment) and assess local temporal and spatial trends using EPA developed Citizen Science Air Monitor (CSAM).
Description:
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is involved in the discovery, evaluation, and application of low-cost air quality sensors to support citizen scientists by directly engaging with them in the pursuit of community-based interests. The recent advancement of low-cost (<$2,500) air quality sensors has allowed a wide range of stakeholders, including communities, tribes, and industry, to deploy low-cost sensors in a range of applications to better understand local air quality conditions and to supplement regulatory monitoring locations. The low-cost advantage of these sensors enables a network of multiple sensors to be deployed to assess temporal and spatial trends in micro-environments at high-time resolution. Here we present results from the deployment of the EPA developed Citizen Science Air Monitor (CSAM) used to conduct approximately five months (October 2016 – February 2017) of intensive air quality monitoring in an area of Puerto Rico (Tallaboa-Encarnación, Peñuelas) with little historical data on pollutant spatial variability. The CSAMs were constructed by combining various low-cost original equipment manufacturer (OEM) sensors and system integration technologies into a single unit to maximize ease of operation, while meeting a specific research requirement. The CSAMs were distributed across eight locations to collect real-time measurements of the particulate matter size fraction 2.5 micron (PM2.5), total volatile organic compounds (tVOCs), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). In addition to the CSAMs, meteorological parameters (wind speed, wind directions, temperature, relative humidity) were obtained from four collocated weather stations. Initial analysis of 24-hour averaged pollutant measurements showed concentrations did not exceed 12.0 μg/m3, 60.0 ppb, and 40.0 ppb for PM2.5, tVOCs, and NO2, respectively. These results highlight the added value provided by low-cost sensors to supplement regulatory monitors despite their known limitations."
