A Portable Non-Motorized Smart IoT Weather Station Platform for Urban Thermal Comfort Studies

Raju Sethupatu Bala, Salaheddin Hosseinzadeh (), Farhad Sadeghineko, Craig Scott Thomson and Rohinton Emmanuel
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Raju Sethupatu Bala: School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK
Salaheddin Hosseinzadeh: Department of Cybersecurity and Networks, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK
Farhad Sadeghineko: Department of Construction and Surveying, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK
Craig Scott Thomson: The Research Centre for Built Environment Asset Management (BEAM), Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK
Rohinton Emmanuel: The Research Centre for Built Environment Asset Management (BEAM), Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK

Future Internet, 2025, vol. 17, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: Smart cities are widely regarded as a promising solution to urbanization challenges; however, environmental aspects such as outdoor thermal comfort and urban heat island are often less addressed than social and economic dimensions of sustainability. To address this gap, we developed and evaluated an affordable, scalable, and cost-effective weather station platform, consisting of a centralized server and portable edge devices to facilitate urban heat island and outdoor thermal comfort studies. This edge device is designed in accordance with the ISO 7726 (1998) standards and further enhanced with a positioning system. The device can regularly log parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity, globe temperature, wind speed, and geographical coordinates. Strategic selection of components allowed for a low-cost device that can perform data manipulation, pre-processing, store the data, and exchange data with a centralized server via the internet. The centralized server facilitates scalability, processing, storage, and live monitoring of data acquisition processes. The edge devices’ electrical and shielding design was evaluated against a commercial weather station, showing Mean Absolute Error and Root Mean Square Error values of 0.1 and 0.33, respectively, for air temperature. Further, empirical test campaigns were conducted under two scenarios: “stop-and-go” and “on-the-move”. These tests provided an insight into transition and response times required for urban heat island and thermal comfort studies, and evaluated the platform’s overall performance, validating it for nuanced human-scale thermal comfort, urban heat island, and bio-meteorological studies.

Keywords: internet of things; smart sensors; smart cities; thermal comfort; urban heat island; weather station (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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