{"id":2948,"date":"2020-08-02T08:27:30","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T08:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/?p=2948"},"modified":"2020-08-02T08:27:39","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T08:27:39","slug":"new-sensor-technology-at-face-level-for-more-accurate-air-quality-measurements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/en\/health-nutrition\/new-sensor-technology-at-face-level-for-more-accurate-air-quality-measurements\/","title":{"rendered":"New sensor technology \u201cat face level\u201d for more accurate air quality measurements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Traffic jam in Tel Aviv. Photo by Jens Herrndorff on Unsplash<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the most tangible and immediate environmental manifestations of the coronavirus crisis has been the reduction in emissions of air pollutants. According to a recent Israeli article published in the scientific journal “Ecology and the Environment,” the decline in pollutant emissions ranged from 3 to 13 percent (for sulfur and benzene oxides, respectively) and is largely due to decreased car, train and boat traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dense urban centers such as Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem also saw a 49-61\npercent decrease in the concentration of nitrogen dioxide measured at transport\nmonitoring stations – encouraging news amid the corona pandemic, both from an\nenvironmental and public health standpoint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the World Health Organization<\/a>, every year, 4.2 million people die from environmental (external) air pollution. In Israel alone, experts estimate that air pollution is responsible for the untimely death of 2,000 people each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Every year, 4.2 million people die from environmental (external) air pollution. Photo by Ria Puskas on Unsplash<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Where\nare the gauges?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when analyzing scientific data, one should also consider how\nand where they were measured. The National Air Monitoring\nNetwork<\/a> encompasses more than\n140 air monitoring stations spread throughout Israel, and are jointly operated by\ndifferent environmental associations, local authorities, the Israel Electric\nCompany, industrial plants, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection.\nRegulations stipulate that measurements must be made at a minimum height of 12\nmeters, which is why monitoring stations can usually be found on very high\nroofs or masts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto Associate Prof. Barak Fishbain of the Technion’s Faculty of Civil and\nEnvironmental Engineering, the fact that the monitoring stations are located at\na higher altitude and not closer to the ground \u201cat face level,” makes the collected\ndata less accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From\nthe moment a pollutant is emitted – from a car, for example – until it reaches\nthese heights, chemical processes have already completely changed the\ncomposition of the substance. Therefore, the relationship between what we\nmeasure and what we breathe is not strong enough for us to reach definitive\nconclusions about the relationship between air pollution and morbidity,”\nhe says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto Fishbain, another problem with conventional measurements is that most\nmonitoring stations are located mainly in residential areas. Thus, most\npollutants are not measured at their sources – that is, in industrial parks, or\nin areas where factories and power plants are located. If the sensor is\npositioned far from the source of pollution, then lower measurements are\nobtained.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFurther,  when there is a harmful contaminant leaking\ninto the environment, and you want to pinpoint the plant where the leakage is\ncoming from, there is no way of doing so. The sensors are not located near the\nfactories, so it\u2019s impossible to trace the origin of a leak,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\naddition, Fishbain notes that it is common to build air pollution maps based on\nmodels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These models are accurate when it comes to large scale mappings, such as the entire State of Israel or the entire Bay of Haifa, but when it comes to small areas, like a single neighborhood or a street, conventional models are no longer relevant. In those cases, experts use interpolation methods (a technique that allows new information to be generated from existing data sets) instead of models,\u201d Fishbain says. “The problem is that interpolation is a mathematical method that does not take into account the pollutants’ chemical and physical behavior,” he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Associate Prof. Barak Fishbain of the Technion’s Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Photo by Sharon Tzur Technion Spokeswoman<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Smaller\nsensors and an updated algorithm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to\nget a better picture of the actual level of air pollution, Fishbain and his lab\ndeveloped a new type of cheap, low-cost wireless sensors that can be easily\ndistributed on a large scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These\nare small sensors, the size of a cigarette box, so they are portable and can be\ncarried in one\u2019s pocket. Anyone can take one of these sensors anywhere and make\ntheir own measurements. The sensor detects the pollution levels \u200b\u200bat the exact spot\nwhere the person is standing, giving the user not only more authentic air\npollution measurements, but also a much better exposure assessment,\u201d he\nemphasizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to\nthe development of the portable sensors, Fishbein also created a fixed\ninfrastructure using the same technology as part of a research study. This\nproject included the deployment of a small network of sensors throughout the\nNeve Sha’anan neighborhood in Haifa in order to measure the degree of air\npollution in different streets of the area. The research itself was part of a\nlarger European project called CITI-SENSE<\/a>, whose primary purpose is to make\nthe public aware of the air quality in their city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nFishbain and his team did not settle for the distribution of their “at\nface level” sensors. The scientists also developed a designated algorithm\nthat combines the model method with the interpolation method, which can be\napplied to the data obtained by the sensors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto Fishbain, the new algorithm makes it possible to create more accurate air\npollution maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Once\nyou take a model and utilize its ability to relate to the physics and chemistry\nof pollutants and connect it to the interpolation methods capable of addressing\nthe nuances of small scales, their conjunction produces an algorithm that\nallows the construction of accurate maps that take into account the highly\nsophisticated chemical and physical properties,” Fishbein explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto Fishbain, air pollution maps created with this method could become essential\nfor regulatory purposes as they enable the detection of pollutant sources,\nwhich would make it possible to hold factories and the people in charge\naccountable and make it easier to ensure better air quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, through the right application of the data from the new maps, it will become possible to obtain more accurate information about the relationship between concentrations of a particular air pollutant and the degree of morbidity. Those findings could significantly advance the field of research on air pollution and public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ZAVIT article was also published in\u00a0NoCamels<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>on 07\/20\/2020.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most tangible and immediate environmental manifestations of the coronavirus crisis has been the reduction in emissions of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":2961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,11,9],"tags":[],"acf":[],"post-meta-fields":{"_edit_lock":["1596357417:11"],"_thumbnail_id":["2961"],"_edit_last":["11"],"subtitle":["Israeli scientists from the Technion are developing a set of small portable sensors and a unique algorithm for accurate air pollution mapping in order to monitor the air we breathe more effectively"],"_subtitle":["field_59d3d36ea7fe1"],"_wpml_media_duplicate":["1"],"_wpml_media_featured":["1"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2967,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions\/2967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}