Neighborhood-Level Particle Pollution Assessment during the COVID-19 Pandemic via a Novel IoT Solution

Christos Spandonidis, Dimitrios Paraskevopoulos () and Christina Saravanos
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Christos Spandonidis: Prisma Electronics S.A., Research, and Development, 87 Democratias Avenue, 68132 Alexandroupolis, Greece
Dimitrios Paraskevopoulos: Prisma Electronics S.A., Research, and Development, 87 Democratias Avenue, 68132 Alexandroupolis, Greece
Christina Saravanos: Prisma Electronics S.A., Research, and Development, 87 Democratias Avenue, 68132 Alexandroupolis, Greece

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: In recent years, the concentration levels of various air pollutants have been constantly increasing, primarily due to the high vehicle flow. In 2020, however, severe lockdowns in Greece were imposed to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a rapid reduction in the concentration levels of air pollutants such as PM 2.5 and PM 10 in the atmosphere. Initially, this paper seeks to identify the correlation between the concentration levels of PM 10 and the traffic flow by acquiring data from low-cost IoT devices which were placed in Thessaloniki, Greece, from March to August 2020. The correlation and the linearity between the two parameters were further investigated by applying descriptive analytics, regression techniques, Pearson correlation, and independent T -testing. The obtained results indicate that the concentration levels of PM 10 are strongly correlated to the vehicle flow. Therefore, the results hint that the decrease in the vehicle flow could result in improving the quality of environmental air. Finally, the acquired results point out that the temperature and humidity are weakly correlated with the concentration levels of PM 10 present in the atmosphere.

Keywords: air pollution; IoT platform; linear regression; Pearson correlation coefficient; T -test independent analysis; particulate matter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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