Low-Cost Environmental Monitoring System with IoT Sensors, Mobile Data Collection and Spatial Analysis of Urban Islands
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20873/uft.2675-3588.2026.v7n3.p35-46Keywords:
Low-cost sensors, Mobile monitoring, Urban microclimate, Spatial aggregation, Environmental sensingAbstract
This paper presents a low-cost environmental monitoring system designed for collaborative urban mapping using commercial sensors, an embedded microcontroller and mobile data collection. The system integrates particulate matter, temperature, humidity, pressure and gas sensors with wireless transmission to an Android application that records location, buffers measurements and sends data to a cloud service. The main contribution is an open and reproducible architecture that combines mobile sensing with spatial aggregation algorithms at multiple scales and qualitative detection of urban heat, pollution, humidity, comfort, air circulation and albedo-related islands. Field tests were conducted on bus routes in Natal, Brazil, with the device carried in a backpack near the vehicle window. The observed particulate matter values ranged from 4 to 15 micrograms per cubic meter, mostly between 4 and 8, while relative humidity remained between 68 and 75 percent and was stable around 70 to 73 percent during the route. The results indicate that the platform can support the conceptual validation of the methodology, urban microclimate studies and future deployments in public transport fleets.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Lucas Freitag
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