Continuous Measurement of Air Pollutant Concentrations in a Roadway Tunnel in Southern Italy

Air Quality is of significant concern in modern life. Since pollutants are harmful for health and environment, it is important to measure their concentration in the air. In this work the authors report on a tool for the measurement of the concentration of CO, NO2, O3, VOC and PM in the air in harsh environments such as motorway tunnels or underground transportation system. Inside a tunnel, pollution is for the major part composed of gasses released by vehicles and particulate matters, mainly due to vehicle’s brake particles, asphalt erosion and tires wearing. The tool is composed of a network of rugged low-cost solid-state sensor nodes placed in the environment to continuously monitor the gas concentrations and a remote backend that stores, handles and presents the information received via cellular network. The sensor network has been installed in a roadway tunnel in southern Sicily (Italy) and here the authors report preliminary results related to the continuous measurement of CO and NO2. The aim of this work is to contribute to make continuous the monitoring of gases concentrations inside a roadway tunnel. The sensors have been designed to be online for a long period, allowing remote maintenance. The results will be deeply investigated after a long period of data collection. The analysis of data will be useful to pose in place appropriate actions to mitigate dangerous concentrations of gases.