Promoting Pollution-Free Routes in Smart Cities Using Air Quality Sensor Networks

Nowadays, citizens have a huge concern about the quality of life in their cities, especially regarding the level of pollution. Air quality level is of great importance, not only to plan our activities but also to take precautionary measures for our health. All levels of governments are concerned about it and have built their indexes to measure the air quality level in their countries, regions or cities. Taking into account the existing sensor infrastructure within smart cities, it makes possible to evaluate these indices and to know anywhere the level of pollution in real-time. In this scenario, the main objective of the current work is to foster citizens’ awareness about pollution by offering pollution-free routes. To achieve this goal, a technology-agnostic methodology is presented, which allows for creating pollution-free routes across cities depending on the level of pollution in each zone. The current work includes an extensive study of existing air quality indices, and proposes and carries forward to deployment of the defined methodology in a big city, such as Madrid (Spain).