AQMesh can be used for a wide range of applications. As this type of product is so new, practitioners are only starting to appreciate the ways in which better data – high time resolution and high spatial resolution – can open up new applications. This list is just the beginning for low-cost air quality monitoring.
Traffic
Modern intelligent traffic systems are designed to move traffic in an efficient manner as well as reduce the environmental impact of traffic on nearby populations. This includes the effects of noise, particle pollution and gases.
Conventional air quality monitoring systems are often too large and complex to install in the locations where monitoring is necessary, such as junctions and interchanges as well as busy trunk roads. In this application, the absolute accuracy of the sensors is of secondary importance to being able to prove reliable trend information and the ability to be placed at multiple locations along major roadways.
AQMesh pods are an ideal solution for this type of monitoring as they are small and operate on battery power. Data is returned in near real-time to a web-based application in formats recognised by most traffic management systems. The trends can then be compared with traffic flow and meteorological information to allow traffic managers to better understand the conditions leading to pollutant excursions and thus how to minimise and prevent them in future.
Examples of traffic applications include:
- Checking pollutant levels in a traffic tunnel and a ventilation shaft to confirm effectiveness
- Confirming that pollution along bus routes is improved by upgrading of exhaust processing on the local bus fleet
- Attributing local pollution around an airport to aviation and traffic sources
- Street canyon effects – measuring pollution across a road to understand the contribution made by local (traffic) sources and wider background pollution
- Smart City integration
Industrial
- Source apportionment of pollution – establishing where pollution of a particular profile is coming from
- Establishing where and when an industrial plume has touched the ground
- Fence line monitoring around an industrial site
Health protection
- Mobile monitoring (on foot) around an urban route to understand personal exposure
- Monitoring pollution at different levels up an urban high rise building to understand exposure with windows open
- Assessing employee pollutant exposure with indoor/outdoor air quality monitoring
If you have an application and would like advice about whether AQMesh would be suitable, please contact us.