IoT System for Air Pollutants Assessment in Underground

Infrastructures
George Suciu Mihaela Balanescu Carmen Nadrag
R&D R&D R&D
BEIA Consult International BEIA Consult International BEIA Consult International
Bucharest, Romania Bucharest, Romania Bucharest, Romania
george@beia.ro mihaela.balanescu@beia.ro carmen.nadrag@beia.ro

Andrei Birdici Cristina Mihaela Balaceanu Marius Alexandru Dobrea

R&D R&D R&D
BEIA Consult International BEIA Consult International BEIA Consult International
Bucharest, Romania Bucharest, Romania Bucharest, Romania
andrei.birdici@beia.ro cristina.balaceanu@beia.ro marius.dobrea@beia.ro

Adrian Pasat Radu-Ioan Ciobanu

R&D Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers
BEIA Consult International University Politehnica of Bucharest
Bucharest, Romania Bucharest, Romania
adrian.pasat@beia.ro radu.ciobanu@cs.pub.ro

ABSTRACT friendly perspective. Also, it diminishes the negative effects on the

This paper describes an IoT system capable of capturing
information about hazardous working environments and analyzes
the health risks associated with increased air pollution. The case
study regards the underground transportation systems, which are
key components in commuting networks of large cities, providing
fast and affordable transport for urban communities. First, a risk
analysis of the categories of people working in this space or
commuting through the city using the subway was performed.
Furthermore, the situation in other similar environments and the
main sources of pollution was analyzed. By designing and
implementing a WSN system could be managed to gather air
quality data and process the sensors measurements. The
experimental results consist of a predictive model of PMs
emissions which can aid in mitigating air pollution.
KEYWORDS
Air Quality, IoT, railway metro system, PMs emissions
1 Introduction
The underground transportation systems are key components in
commuting networks of large cities, providing fast and affordable
transport for urban communities. For example, Bucharest metro
network ensure (in 2017) the daily transit of over 600000 people
representing around 25% of total city inhabitants, [1].
The benefits of metro transportation are numerous and are mainly
driven by the reduction of car use, which leads to an environment-
health of the population, by reducing the emissions generated by
car traffic. In addition, by limiting congestion and providing vital
transport links in a city, the usage of subways also improves the
overall quality of urban communities. Although all these benefices,
the increased air pollutants concentrations from underground
environment ([2], [3], [4], [5]) had a negative effect on human
health, [6]. The main pollutant is represented by particulate matter
(PM) which may be associated with an increased risk of
carcinogenicity and non-cancer health effects considering their
metal rich composition, [6]. However, in order to maximize the
positive impact on the urban environment, underground transport
systems must ensure a safe and healthy environment for both
passengers and workers in this system.
The main objective of the paper is describing the system capable of
capturing information about these work environments, the health of
workers and even the network infrastructure deployed in these
environments, in order to analyses and present this information, and
thus having more information about the environments of railway
metro system and the workers, as well as helping in the Data Driven
Decision Making, ensuring and thus improving the safety within
these hazardous operating environments (not just physical security
but also the network security).
Despite the scientific and technical efforts to connect to everything
that is happening in the field of mobile communications research,
there is still a need for agile and reliable solutions in hazardous
industrial environments. Within this paper, a solution will be
developed in order to design a wireless communication system in
underground environments (railway metro system). The goal is to
reduce air pollution exposure by using various types of Internet-of- In a different study the authors describe the air quality in the main
Things (IoT) sensors that can capture data from this environment. metro station in Rome from the point of view of PM concentration.
Various indoor and outdoor environments have been studied and
2 Related Work compared. Also, the paper highlights the influence of the air
The metro system infrastructures and operation condition varied conditioning over the air quality of an indoor environment and
significantly worldwide and the focus of air research work. A first compares the results obtained with the gravimetric procedure and
study was performed in Newark, U.S and was focused on chemical the optical particle counter methods [10].
composition of PM and source emissions identification (traffic, A study conducted in 4 different metro stations in Athens provided
power plants, incineration, braking operations and track-wheel a comparison of the air quality depending on the type of ventilation
abrasion), [7]. Since then more studies were performed in all the implemented in the locations (natural ventilation or using air-
continents. In general, the air research studies start with conditioning). The measurements were made continuously using
identification of chemical species and measurements of air portable devices and the results also depended on how deep and
pollutants concentrations. The primary air pollutants identified in how crowded the subway station is [11].
the in the metro air were PM, aromatic hydrocarbons, carbonyls and
airborne bacteria, [8]. Must be noted that, in general the PM
3 Methods
concentration in metro are higher than the those in outside
The main pollutants identified in the literature inside the
environments, [8]. For example, in Stockholm the PM
underground areas are represented by PMx (particulate matter with
concentration were 5 to 10 times higher than those measured at the
diameter less than x µm) and gaseous pollutants (Volatile Organic
most crowded streets [9]. Also, the research studies investigate the
Compounds – VOC, nitrogen dioxide – NO2, carbon monoxide –
influence of ventilation on metro air quality and develop measures
CO, carbon dioxide - CO2, etc), [8]. Their concentrations vary
to reduce air pollutant concentrations, [8].
depending on the degree of ventilation of the interior spaces as well
In Beijing’s metro stations variations of PM concentrations as the temperature and humidity levels.
appeared periodically with the trains arriving in the station, which
The establishment of the most representative location to install the
was caused by the piston wind effect produced by the train.
measurement equipment in the Bucharest underground
Measurements were also made inside the train that showed a
transportation network is based on a risk analysis of the categories
considerable fluctuation of PM2.5 from 220 µg/m³ to 370 µg/m³
of people working in this space or commuting through the city
when the door opened. A total of 8 different rooms were measured
using the subway (Table 1). The analysis includes identifying the
in the working areas of the subway of which only 3 of them were
exposure area, the risk factors associated with both the environment
equipped with a ventilation system while another was closed. The
and the type of activity being carried out, and the exposure time.
measurement took place in a lightly polluted day and concluded
The employees number working at the location of the
with a higher concentration of PM pollution than the one outside,
communications center varies between 3-5 people. Also, the
the highest contaminated rooms were the ones with the poor
categories of persons considered for the analysis are represented by
ventilation while the closed room had the lowest PM concentration.
passengers, system maintenance workers and qualified personnel
PM2.5 to PM10 average ratio was 79.6% outside the subway while in
in the communication or command centers.
the underground locations it was at 68.7% [2].
TABLE 1. HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ANALYSIS
Studies have shown that the concentrations of PM measured in
railway metro systems are considerably higher than the values Risk Exposed individuals
measured at the street level, mainly due to mechanical processes of Factors Passengers Workers Qualified
employees
the trains. Therefore, experiments were conducted in order to
Exposure Staying in and Stations, Communication
analyze the air quality improvement in the case of using high- area going through tunnels Centers, Command
quality materials and solutions for the metro system [3]. metro stations Centers
Type of Light physical Intense Static positions
In addition to this, researchers have investigated the evolution of physical activity or physical generating
PM10 pollution levels in a new section of a metro line in Italy activity static position activity for pain/musculoskeletal
compared to the values measured in a subway line section which short periods disorders.
of time Light physical
had been used for a longer period. The results for the two areas were
activity for short
comparable from a statistical point of view, as the pollutants were periods of time.
transferred from the old section to the new one due to the piston Duration Waiting time in Maximum 8 8 hours per day
effect [4]. of subway hours per day,
activity/ stations and depending on
Another study identified street traffic as being the pollution source exposure transit between the repair and
with particles of dimensions below 500 nm in the subway station in them. maintenance
process.
which the study was conducted. The correlation was done based on
Risk Atmospheric Atmospheric Atmospheric
the comparison of the size distributions of PMs [5]. factors pollutants pollutants pollutants (PM10,
(PM10, PM2.5, (PM10, PM2.5, PM2.5, VOC, NO2,
 CO2), CO2, CO), CO2, CO), humidity,
humidity, humidity, temperature, stress
temperature temperature related to work
responsibility
Analyzing the table above, the category of qualified employees of
the Communication Centers or Command Centers are identified as
the category most exposed to environmental and health risks.
For this use-case a specific architecture was developed. At the
lowest level of the architecture the sensors and the actuators stand
out, which will be responsible for measuring and collecting
information of the environment itself. These sensors will send the
collected metrics to a main Gateway using wireless communication
system. The Gateway oversees the coordination of all the sensors
and will send the information to the Data Acquisition level. Data
processing/ data analytics level are responsible for pre-processing
and processing the data regarding the environmental pollutants,
monitoring the network. The last level includes data presentation
components and represent the interface with the system users. At
this point, the data and metrics collected go through different stages
of enrichment, indexing, storage and analysis to offer this
information to the subsequent stages of visualization and action.
Thus, the information analyzed will be offered to the presentation
and application layers, to be presented to the final user through a
friendly and intuitive interface. In the same way, within this phase,
it will be possible to define triggers that generate alarms or infer
other events based on the metrics obtained. The architecture
implemented is presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Platform architecture
For the acquisition of environmental data and physiological
parameters, the following equipment were tested, [17] and used:
 one router LANCOM 1780EW 4G + [12];
 one air quality monitoring station uRADMonitor Industrial,
uRAD (D#1) [13];
 two devices (D#2 and D#3) Libelium Plug and Sense SCP
(Smart Cities Pro) air quality monitoring stations [14];
 one Libelium Gas Board data acquisition board with air
quality monitoring sensors;
 one smart Fitbit Charge bracelet.
The main advantages of the LANCOM 1780EW 4G + router is:
 cloud router device management through Lancom Cloud
Management application;
 providing reliable network security performance thanks to
the LCOS10 operating system;
 availability of a 4G LTE wireless connection.
In order to achieve the experimental model for wireless
communications in hazardous environments and to identify the
signal strength diminution of the router due to interference with
other access points, measurements were made at the location of the
pilot project and in a controlled test environment. The experimental
wireless communications model in hazardous environments is
functional and has enabled data acquisition from sensor devices.
The data acquisition process is presented below.
For accessing data measured by Libelium devices, the user has to
login in the Meshlium platform. Data can be viewed and accessed
directly or through the PhpMyAdmin administration tool. The data
acquisition process monitored by the Libelium sensors was carried
out as follows:
 accessing the Meshlium GW (Gateway) interface (Manager
System).
 accessing the Tools menu in order to connect to the MySQL
database interface where sensor data is stored and logging into the
PhpMyAdmin interface;
 querying the database using query functions;
 downloading the data selected by the query function.
The data acquisition process monitored by the uRADMonitor
device (D#1) was as follows:
 accessing the uradmonitor.com WEB platform.
 accessing the Dashboard (Device View) menu;
 accessing the DATA tab;
 select the period and parameters of interest;
 downloading the selected database.
The device D#1 was placed on the main hall far from the air
admission points and will be used to characterize the average air
quality inside the Centre. D#2 and D#3 devices was placed in two
working rooms of the Communication Centre near outdoor air
admission points. D#1 send data with a frequency of 1 minutes,
while D#2 and D#3 send date at every 15 minutes.
The selection of the parameters (PM10 and PM2.5 hourly
concentration values) for which a simulation model was developed
was based on the preliminary statistical analysis of the measured
data and by comparison with the limit values provided in the E.U.
environmental legislation [15].
First step was represented by a qualitative analysis of the data based
on the comparison with standard data requirements (i.e.
concentration values must be a positive or null value) and
calculation of hourly average concentrations. The second step was
represented by a preliminary analysis using statistical descriptive
methods (i.e. mean value, variation, standard deviation). The
dataset included in the modelling process are represented by PM10
and PM2.5 hourly average concentration values for a period of 11
days (in October 2018).
In section IV are presented the results of this analysis and the
predictive model developed. The predictive model obtained using
a multiple linear regression method were tested for validation and
the results are presented in the section V.

4 Results
The comparison with the PM10 and PM2.5 concentration limit values
provided by environmental legislation [15] indicates daily values
exceedances for both pollutants. Thus, the value of the daily PM10 Figure 2: The daily variation of hourly PM10 concentrations
concentration is exceeded in 66% of cases while the daily PM2.5 recorded by D#2 equipment
concentration value is exceeded in 91% of cases.
For the selected parameters (PM10 and PM2.5), simulation models
were developed and tested for values obtained in common spaces
(common hall) based on concentration values measured at outdoor
air admission points.
The main statistical parameters for the data recorded by three of the
monitoring equipment are presented in Table 2.

TABLE 2. STATISTICAL PARAMETERS VALUES FOR THE PM10 AND PM2.5

MEASURED CONCENTRATION

Statistical PM2.5 PM10

Parameter
D#1 D#2 D#3 D#1 D#2 D#3 Figure 3: The daily variation of hourly PM10 concentrations
recorded by D#3 equipment
Mean 47.75 42.52 79.02 64.66 43.14 81.27
The stepwise regression method was applied in order to achieve a
Median 45.09 39.55 73.48 61.12 40.08 75.17
mathematical model for estimating concentrations of PM10 in the
Standard 24.81 15.53 24.10 33.01 16.07 25.37
central corridor of the case study location. Since D#2 and D#3 are
Deviation located near outdoor air admission points, they were considered as
inputs, having as dependent variable the concentration values
Variance 615.95 241.27 580.80 1089.55 258.54 643.68 measured in the central hall of the location with the D#1 equipment.
The model equation is presented below.
Minimum 9.89 16.33 44.65 14.30 16.61 45.42

Maximum 138.96 97.01 184.80 185.97 108.85 192.91 y = 1.270 × x1 + 0.347 × x2 – 18.610

Count 305 304 269 305 304 269 where:

y - PM10 concentration in central corridor, µg/N𝑚 ;
Confidence ± 2.79 ± 1.75 ± 2.89 ± 3.71 ± 1.81 ± 3.04 x1 - PM10 concentration measured next to the admission
level (95%) point in room 1 (D#2), µg/N𝑚 ;
x2 - PM10 concentration measured next to the admission
The analysis of daily PM10 hourly concentrations was necessary in point in room 2 (D#3), µg/N𝑚 .
order to identify possible patterns of concentration variations.
Figure 2 and Figure 3 show the measurements variation for the data The high value of the multiple correlation coefficient (0.867) and
acquired during the experimental test period. the F test (379.103), cumulated with the standard distribution of
standardized residual values (Figure 4) and the linearity of the
cumulative probability curve (Figure 5) indicates that the
mathematical model of estimating the PM10 in the central hall of the
case study location are representative.

Figure 4: Distribution of residual values for the estimation
model for PM10 concentrations
Figure 5: Cumulative probability curve for residual values for
the PM10 estimation model
The analysis of daily PM2.5 hourly concentrations was necessary in
order to identify possible patterns of concentration variations.
Figure 6 and Figure 7 show the measurements variation for the data
acquired during the experimental test period.
Figure 6: The daily variation of hourly PM2.5 concentrations
recorded by D#2 equipment
Figure 7: The daily variation of hourly PM2.5 concentrations
recorded by D#3 equipment
In the similar way with the model for PM10 concentration, the
stepwise regression method was applied in order to achieve a
mathematical model for estimating concentrations of PM2.5 in the
central corridor of the case study location. The model equation is
presented below.
y = 0.975 × x1 + 0.305 × x2 – 18.013
where:
y - PM2.5 concentration in central corridor, µg/N𝑚 ;
x1 - PM2.5 concentration measured next to the admission
point in room 1 (D#2), µg/N𝑚 ;
x2 - PM2.5 concentration measured next to the admission
point in room 2 (D#3), µg/N𝑚 .
The high value of the multiple correlation coefficient (0.884) and
the F test (444.773), cumulated with the standard distribution of
standardized residual values (Figure 8) and the linearity of the
cumulative probability curve (Figure 9) indicates that the
mathematical model of estimating the PM10 in the central hall of the
case study location are representative.
Figure 8: Distribution of residual values for the estimation
model for PM2.5 concentrations

Figure 9: Cumulative probability curve for residual values for
the PM2.5 estimation model
5 Testing and Validation
The models developed for PM10 and PM2.5 hourly concentrations
were tested on a dataset for 16 hours. The comparison between the
measured and estimated concentrations are presented in Figure 10
and Figure 11.
Figure 10: The comparison between the measured and
estimated PM10 concentrations
Figure 11: The comparison between the measured and
estimated PM2.5 concentrations
The linearity of the representations of the measured and estimated
PM10 and PM2.5 hourly concentrations indicates that equations used
predict very well the concentrations.
6 Conclusions
The pattern of the PM10 and PM2.5 hourly concentration values for
both measurement points (D#2, D#3) show a high similarity. These
are explained by the higher percentage of PM2.5 from PM10 (98.64%
for D#2 and 97.38% for D#3).
Considering also that PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations increase in the
morning (corresponding to the rush hours) there is a strong
indication that the main emissions source for these pollutants in the
Bucharest Communication Centre of the railway metro network are
urban road traffic.
The model for estimation of the PM10 and PM2.5 hourly
concentrations on the central hall point of the case study based on
concentrations measured near to the outside air admissions point
predict very well the concentrations. Nevertheless, the model needs
to be developed and test on much larger set of data and will be
realized in the next phase. Also, will be assessed several solutions
meant to reduce air pollution. By installing several air purifiers
which also integrate various air quality sensors (PM2.5, VOCs, air
temperature, and relative humidity), we expect to achieve an
important milestone in delivering a safer working environment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The work presented in this paper has been funded by UEFISCDI
Romania through WINS@HI project (PN-III-P3-3.5-EUK-2017-
02-0038), Tel-MONAER project (subsidiary contract no.
1223/22.01.2018, from NETIO Project ID: P 40270, MySMIS
CODE: 105976) and ESTABLISH project (PN-III-P3-3.5-EUK-
2016-0011).
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