DYNAMIC AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT THROUGH MOBILE SENSORS INSTALLED ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT BUSES

Summary

The measure will consist in installing mobile sensors for air quality measurement on the top of four buses of the public transport fleet. The sensors will provide reliable data on the evolution of air quality in several areas of the city, which are not covered by the four fixed stations currently existing in Malaga.

Implementing sustainable mobility

Currently there are just four fixed stations for monitoring the air quality levels in the City of Malaga, which are managed by the Andalusia regional government. Those stations are located in places distant and with different features comparing with the locations of CIVITAS demonstration measures. Moreover, they do not relate air quality evolution with the implementation of sustainable mobility measures in the city, not even their relation with other indicators such as the traffic situation.

This information would be of substantial importance for two reasons:

1. from one side, to evaluate the impact of the mobility measures to be developed, verifying the correlation between mobility and air quality improvement;
2. from the other, to understand which are the critical traffic nodes in Malaga, prioritizing them as possible targets of mobility measures to be carried out in the future.

With the implementation of this measure it will be possible to obtain reliable data on the evolution of air quality due to the implementation of other sustainable mobility measures. Therefore, this project is critical in relation to the strategic decisions of the city.

This measure presents an innovative approach. Procedures for air quality measurement in cities normally foresee just the use of fixed monitoring stations. Mobile sensors will be installed on top of four buses of the Malaga public transport fleet, which will go through itineraries where other demonstration measures will be implemented. This will allow to measure the air quality levels in a dynamic way and to estimate the measures’ impact on air quality improvement.

Mobile sensors will complement the information provided by fixed stations as for the following indicators:

• CO levels
• NOx levels
• Ozone levels

Nevertheless, it is still necessary to use both types of air quality monitoring because some of the air quality indicators – such as the solid particles – cannot be achieved through mobile sensors.

Progress

A study on air quality indicators was made in order to select the most relevant ones. On the other hand, a market study on the typologies of mobile sensors was carried out, demonstrating that just some of those core indicators can be measured through this type of sensors, among them: CO, NOx, and Ozone.

An analysis of the hardware infrastructure requirements (types of sensors, protections and installation conditions within vehicles), the installation and boarding requirements and the hardware connections technical requirements was elaborated..

The set of sensors selected at first was rejected after preliminary tests. Currently, a second type of sensors is being submitted to a calibration process in laboratory before its installation on the buses. In addition, wireless communications have already been tested.

By the end of 2014 the mobile stations will start the demonstration air quality measurements.

Outcomes

The general outcomes expected through the measure implementation are:

• To control pollutant emissions level.
• To achieve reliable information regarding CO, NOx and Ozone emissions in several areas of the city of Malaga.

More concretely, the measure expected outputs are to:

• To assess the air quality levels before and after the development of the other measures to be carried out within the CIVITAS framework,
• To integrate the air quality information within the Malaga Mobility Management Centre (MOVIMA).
• To provide information regarding the current situation of air quality in several areas of the city, both to citizens and to the decision-makers of mobility policies in Malaga..
• To increase the percentage of sustainable means of transport in the whole modal split by 8% from 2008 to 2016, also due to the increasing citizenship awareness  on the air quality situation..
• To verify the effectiveness and reliability of mobile monitoring stations. To meet a minimum reliability rate of 90%.