Applications of wireless sensor networks in the real-time ambient air pollution monitoring and air quality in metropolitan cities — A survey

Advanced studies in the technology of sensor network and wireless communications have contributed a wide range of applications of wireless sensor network in environmental monitoring and pollution control. Pollution detection and pollution control are the major research issue in today's world. We discuss here a detailed study on ambient air pollution monitoring and air quality in metro cities using sensor nodes in a wireless sensor network. This paper mainly focusses on how a sensor network is used in a wide range to monitor the levels of air pollutants such as CO2, NO2, SO2, PM, NH3 and other toxic gases present in an urban ambient place where a major human activities and industrial activities takes place. Role of WSN in air pollution monitoring involves deployment of sensor nodes in a large scale at very low cost and to collect the real-time data and produce accurate results. This paper carries a detailed survey work on major contribution of several authors towards air pollution monitoring and determines the air pollutants in several methods using sensor network technology. This work is helpful to forecast and send the warning to the public.