Post disaster, the quality of air can have a huge impact on the ability of communities to recover, as well as emergency management and disaster relief teams to provide assistance. A recent event at the University of Toronto offered some insights into the future of air quality monitoring, and indicated that these monitors may soon be mobile. Held at Hart House, the third annual Air & Odour Management Conference and Technology Showcase featured both presentations of new technologies and discussions of new techniques.
Among the key items of discussion was the need for increased amounts of data, as the size and cost of air quality monitoring stations limits their introduction. Experts within the field offered suggestions as to the need for smaller and more mobile air quality measurements. Says Omid Youssefi, a research and development engineer at Scentroid, “We need enough mobile stations that can be mounted on buildings or poles near schools or other locations of interest to measure the air quality and pollution levels in many locations.” Youssefi also suggests the mounting of these air quality sensors on public vehicles, which could allow the incorporation of real time information in response to pollutants, to help steer people away from areas with potentially adverse health effects.
Says Dr. Marianne Hatzopoulou, a Canada Research Chair in Transportation and Air Quality, “We need sensors and instruments that are able to penetrate within what we call urban micro environments into citizens’ homes and into very small spaces, so that we can really understand what people are exposed to.”
