Low value, sensor-based screens efficient in monitoring air high quality: Study

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3 years ago

The 20 low-cost sensor-based air high quality monitoring tools developed by indigenous start-ups have proven an accuracy of practically 85-90% in comparison with at present in use regulatory grade screens, a seven-month pilot undertaking performed by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-Ok) and Bloomberg Philanthropies has discovered.
The sensors, which measure ambient air high quality, function real-time communication for information transmission of the air high quality.
These 20 sensors had been amongst 40 low-cost sensors developed by 4 totally different start-ups and had been deployed for the examine between November 2020 and May 2021 within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) alongside MPCB’s 15 present steady (real-time) ambient air high quality monitoring stations.
While regulatory grade screens which can be at present in use might value upward of Rs 20 lakh, these small sensors value round Rs 60,000.
The findings of the examine had been offered at a webinar on Friday with contributors from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Forest and Climate Change, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Central and State Pollution Control Boards, technical specialists, and civil society to debate the way in which ahead below the NCAP, which plans to develop the air high quality monitoring community within the nation.

Prof S N Tripathi, Head of Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur and National Coordinator, National Knowledge Network, NCAP mentioned, “The future of air quality monitoring lies in a hybrid approach ..”
Sudhir Srivastava, Chairperson of MPCB, mentioned, “We have about 100 monitors for the state’s large area and this is a patchy network … but we realise that the cost of regulatory grade sensors is a prohibiting factor. Through the study, we now have a lot of data and it enables us to compare it (data from low-cost sensors) with regulatory grade monitors.”