Implementation of low-cost, small sensors for urban air pollution measurements on stationary and mobile platforms

Air pollution is linked to about nine million premature deaths worldwide in 2015 according to the last Lancet commission report. The classical view of urban air pollution monitoring is based on well-established and expensive reference methods installed in scarce and static monitoring stations. The use of small sensors as a complementary tool for air quality monitoring could give us high spatial density and temporal resolution relevant for city scale measurements and more information related to air pollution exposure of the population. This potential is however associated with challenges, such as interferences and the impact of environmental influences that require significant evaluation and calibration of the sensors to ensure data quality. In summer 2017, in the framework of the project ―Urban Climate Under Change‖, a field campaign was carried out in Berlin, Germany where NO2 , O3 and particulate matter were measured using low-cost, small air quality sensors (Earthsense Zephyrs). The sensors were implemented over the course of a number of months to measure the vertical distribution of pollutants in a street canyon, as well as more limited implementation for mobile measurements. The results of these deployments, as well as the calibration and performance of these sensors will be discussed