Current trends in network based air quality monitoring systems

Air quality is a serious problem in modern cities due to the significant impact of air pollution on the health of the population, the global environment and economy. Recent studies point to the crucial role of information about pollution on micro level, which translates into direct exposure of people to air pollutions. To provide such information, it is necessary to create real-time systems with large spatio-temporal resolution, since such information cannot provide conventional measurement systems performing measurements according to the legislative regulations of particular countries. Current researches focus on the concept of a next-generation air pollution monitoring systems that use new measurement technologies and techniques for communicating and delivering data. These systems can be complementary to traditional air quality monitoring systems. The article presents current trends in the world in this area – the example of static, social and vehicle measurement systems. There are also shown Polish initiatives related to environmental quality monitoring.