Integration of low-cost sensors with utmc for assessing environmental impacts of traffic in urban area

Newcastle University Integrated Database and Assessment Platform (NUIDAP) has been developed to integrate a new generation of low cost wireless pervasive sensors (Motes) with Urban Traffic Management and Control (UTMC), meteorological and precision pollution monitoring systems. NUIDAP provides access to the Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique (SCOOT) traffic model data which is used to estimate capacity sensitive link emissions. These cycle by cycle estimates facilitate the assessment of the impact of Traffic Demand Management Strategies on the environment in near real-time. The new capacity sensitive emissions model and meteorological conditions monitoring are input to a dispersion model to predict the pollution concentrations within canyon streets. These are validated using data captured by the pervasive sensors and Automatic Urban and Rural Network) (AURN). These validated empirically based estimates along with the, mote data compliment the legacy systems measurements through their ability to cover detection gaps in existing urban networks. In this way NUIDAP has the ability to monitor the environment status of the network, characterise problems, explore strategies and assess their impact. This paper presents evidence that the self calibration algorithms for temperature and humidity sensitivity of the chemical sensors with R2 value of 0.61 for nitric oxide shows promise and the accuracy of the mote measurements will improve as the volume of data increases. The SCOOT emission/canyon dispersion estimated concentrations tended to overestimate peak pollutant levels however this is believed to be due to localized natural ventilation effects which are not accounted for with the more idealized street canyon models