Raising awareness of citizens by interactively providing environmental data

Abstract

This synthesis project is focused on implementing an Internet of Things (IoT) network to measure environmental data in the city of Delft. This network consists of sensor platforms that are placed in the urban environment. Each sensor platform is mounted on fixed locations and it is not moved during the measurement time. The aim is to raise community’s environmental awareness to improve the quality of the environment.
Recent developments in technology made it possible to fabricate small, efficient, and reliable sensors boards which are the base of these sensors platforms and making them efficient and reliable. Sensor boards like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and LoPy are some examples of these small sensor boards. In this project, the LoPy is used which is a sensor board that is equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy, Wifi and a LoRa radio. This last one is a communication technology that makes longer communication distances possible.
The sensor network measures four different environmental indicators that will be distributed to the public: temperature, humidity, noise and air quality. The network then communicates via LoRa this data to one centralized server where the data is stored, processed and sent back to the citizens. This data is made publicly accessible to academia, citizens and the stakeholders alike. The network is also made interactive, people who pass by can interact with the sensors and request specific environmental data in real time.
The sensor network has been build and deployed in the city. During the uptime of the network it succeeded to provide the data to the citizens via the feedback mechanisms: a website with a dashboard and an automated twitter account. Local differences have been measured with temperature and humidity sensors. With regard to the noise sensor and air quality sensors no definitive conclusions could be drawn.