High-resolution urban air pollution and thermal comfort mapping: an application of drive mobile sensing platform for smart city services

TL;DR

This study demonstrates how a fleet of sensor-equipped taxis can effectively map high-resolution urban air pollution and thermal comfort, revealing hotspots and spatial variability to inform smarter city health policies.

Contribution

It introduces a mobile sensing platform using taxis to capture detailed on-road air quality data, overcoming limitations of fixed monitoring stations.

Findings

Identified localized air pollution hotspots in urban areas.

Mapped spatiotemporal variability of air pollutants.

Showed mobile sensing provides finer detail than stationary stations.

Abstract

Air pollutant exposure exhibits significant spatial and temporal variability, with localized hotspots, particularly in traffic microenvironments, posing health risks to commuters. Although widely used for air quality assessment, fixed-site monitoring stations are limited by sparse distribution, high costs, and maintenance needs, making them less effective in capturing on-road pollution levels. This study utilizes a fleet of 314 taxis equipped with sensors to measure NO\textsubscript{2}, PM\textsubscript{2.5}, and PM\textsubscript{10} concentrations and identify high-exposure hotspots. The findings reveal disparities between mobile and stationary measurements, map the spatiotemporal exposure patterns, and highlight local hotspots. These results demonstrate the potential of mobile monitoring to provide fine-scale, on-road air pollution assessments, offering valuable insights for policymakers to design targeted interventions and protect public health, particularly for sensitive populations.