A Proposal for An Air Quality Monitoring System

for Cartagena de Indias

Marı́a José González Campo Jairo Enrique Serrano Castañeda Juan Carlos Martı́nez-Santos
School of Engineering School of Engineering School of Engineering
Universidad Tecnológica de Bolı́var Universidad Tecnológica de Bolı́var Universidad Tecnológica de Bolı́var
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia 130010 Cartagena de Indias, Colombia 130010 Cartagena de Indias, Colombia 130010
mgonzalez@utb.edu.co jserrano@utb.edu.co jcmartinezs@utb.edu.co
Abstract—This paper presents an Air Quality Monitoring However, correlation can not be determined due to the
System for the city of Cartagena de Indias. The goal of this system fact that the points, time-frames and periodicity of
is to monitor the air quality in the city and to establish the current
state of the air Cartagena’s citizen breathe. Data is going to be monitoring are not comparable. The only thing that can
acquired through a sensor network, and the information is going be concluded is that in fact at this time there is not enough
to be displayed on web or mobile application allowing access from information to estimate the quality of the air that Cartagena’s
anywhere in the world to anyone that may be interested. It is citizens breathe. There is also no information that could
expected that the availability of this information allows research correlate the pollutants concentration levels with respiratory
centers, educational institutions, and government to design plans
for prevention and improvement of the air quality in the city diseases.
based on historical and real-time data.
In conclusion, there is no real-time or updated data about
I. I NTRODUCTION Air Quality for Cartagena or the Colombian Caribbean [4].
According to the 2017 Cartagena’s Quality of Life Report Therefore, an interdisciplinary research team was assembled
from ”Cartagena Como Vamos” [1], it is not possible to to design a short term plan with the following goals: (i)
establish the state of the environment in Cartagena, because to position Cartagena as the first city in the Caribbean and
there are no up-to-date measurements on both air and noise, fourth in Colombia providing detailed real-time information
which not only ratifies what was previously affirmed, but also regarding the Air Quality Cartagena’breatizen hs cit, (ii) to
the need for information to serve as a key instrument for make the University XYZ the motor of this initiative, and
making quick and timely decisions, as well as a key tool for (iii) to connect the current work on AquApp [5] regarding the
the achievement of new projects for a city in constant growth. quality of the internal swamps and lagoons system in the Bay
Based on the Air Quality Diagnosis of Cartagena de Indias of Cartagena.
in 2014 and 2015, air quality in Cartagena was moderate The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Section II
at that time. For 2014 available information is insufficient presents the design and implementation of our information
in terms of concentration of pollutants. From the 11 moni- system. Section III presents the design and implementation of
toring equipments operating that year, just six of them had our sustainable plan. Section IV shows the methodology to
information availability equal to or greater than 75% of the use. Finally, Section V concludes the paper.
annual data. Meanwhile, during 2015 the number of stations
operating integrated to the Air Quality Monitoring System
increased from four to five but none provided an amount equal
to or greater than 75% of the total annual data. For those
years, Cartagena’s Air Quality Index for O3 indicated good air
quality, for PM10 it is mostly a good air quality with isolated
events where a moderated air quality was presented, and
for PM2.5 a moderate air quality is reported and sometimes
unhealthy for sensitive groups [2].
A 2016 report, Design of the Intelligent System of Environ-
mental Quality Monitoring of Cartagena District, estimated
that the Air Quality Index for the locations Bomba del
Amparo, Peaje de Ceballos, and Maria Auxiliadora was, in
all three cases, between Unhealthy for sensitive groups and
Unhealthy. The highest concentrations of pollutants is located
in high vehicular traffic sectors, such as Peaje Ceballos and
Bomba del Amparo [3]. Fig. 1. Methodology of the project implementation

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): II. I NFORMATION S YSTEM

http://dx.doi.org/10.18687/LACCEI2019.1.1.280 Information systems are several for different environmental
ISBN: 978-0-9993443-6-1 ISSN: 2414-6390 variables. However, water is the most monitored [6]. In ref-
erence to air, there are several approaches. AirSensEUR uses

17th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education, and Technology: Industry, Innovation,
And Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities and Communities, 24-26 July 2019, Jamaica.
low cost sensors for regulatory purposes [7], the Making Sense access from anywhere in the world to anyone that may be
H2020 CAPS Project made an analysis of high impact and interested. It allows research centers, educational institutions,
sustainable examples of urban citizen and community centred and government to design plans for prevention and improve-
sensing initiatives around the world [8] and other authors have ment of water bodies surrounding the city, and provide updated
also researched on the subject [9], [10], [11], [12], [13]. For information.
public service purposes, there is The Smart Ring Experience, a For air quality, new sensors will be added across the city
smart sensor network in Italy [14]. However, the best example to cover all the sectors. The integration would be safe and
for air quality monitoring is Air Quality Index Project [4], faster. This is possible thanks to the RESTful API, which was
which comprises real-time air quality information for more designed to create and integrate new utilities and to allow a
than 10,000 stations around the globe. Specifically in Colom- wider use of the data and to be able to deploy these changes
bia, the most relevant work is SIATA [15], an early warning in any application or device that consumes this information.
system for Medellin and the Aburr Valley. The AquApp architecture, shown in Fig. 3, allows us to create
According to the World Air Quality Index parameters [4] services and applications that can be used by any device or
and in order to provide information relevant for this index, the client who understands HTTP. As a result, it is incredibly easy
measures the system has to monitor are shown in Table I and to add new devices for air quality monitoring.
Table II.
Variable Description III. S TUDY C ASE
PM10 Particulate Material 10um - large particles ( ug/m3 )
PM2.5 Particulate Material 2.5um - small particles ( ug/m3 ) Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals rather
SO2 Sulfur dioxide ( ug/m3 ) than adding value to the industry is a need for the nation to
NO2 Nitrogen dioxide ( ug/m3 ) strength its economic development and a commitment with the
CO Carbon monoxide ( ug/m3 )
O3 Tropospheric ozone ( ug/m3 ) international community. The National Planning Department
stipulated the strategies to achieve said implementation, and
TABLE I
A IR Q UALITY PARAMETERS environmental regulations at national levels are regulated in
order to achieve sustainable development, Conpes 3918 [17].
An example of this is the Resolution 2254 of 2017 [18],
which adopts the ambient air quality standard and promotes
Variable Description
Temperature ◦C the management of air quality to protect human health and
Relative Humidity % well-being in the framework of sustainable development.
Atmospheric Pressure Pa In Cartagena, even though it is not possible to establish
Wind Km/h
the state of the environment in the city because there are
TABLE II no air measurements [1], it is necessary and urgent to take
M ETEOROLOGICAL PARAMETERS
measures in this regard if better results in the indicators of
quality of life in the city are expected, as well as improving
As information system, AquApp is going to be used [16], economic development and, consequently, urban indicators;
which is a collaborative sensor network that collects infor- and strengthening and breaking institutional barriers, such as,
mation regarding the quality of the water bodies of the city for example, deficiencies in information systems, monitoring
of Cartagena. AquApp monitors the water bodies surrounding and follow-up, and articulation between sectors [19], [20].
the city and establishes the current state of the water. The In the world and in Colombia itself, actions have already
system determines the degree of pollution, water levels and been taken in this direction, where different sectors of society
environmental conditions of marine fauna and flora through a are articulated to strengthen the information and monitor-
sensor network. At the same time, this sensor network can help ing systems of their territories (see SIATA case, scientific
detect contaminants such as oil, which can help take action citizens [15]), through affordable tools to the communities
quickly, reducing damage to the ecosystems. Fig. 2 shows the and where it involves all citizens in the monitoring and
actual application. empowerment of air quality in their region.
Some adaptations are needed to connect the new Air Quality The University is an academic center that gathers an in-
Sensor Network to AquApp and make that monitor system terdisciplinary team that allows identification and problem
ready for air quality monitoring such as a new layer as solving in an integral way. In the particular case of air quality
shown in the Fig. 4. The general idea is to collect data in the city of Cartagena, the institution has expert investigative
from a sensor network and to show the different air indexes teachers in areas such as air quality, social development,
using a color scale legend (based on the World Air Quality information management from the new communication tech-
Index [4]), following the standards: good, moderate, unhealthy nologies, among others; and from which, and through this
for sensitive groups, unhealthy, very unhealthy, hazardous. project, it intends to generate synergy between sectors in
Following the original idea, the collected data will continue a joint work for the management of access to air quality
available to scientists and institutions for further analysis. information and baseline for making timely decisions for the
The information can be acquired through a website, allowing sustainable development of the district.

17th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education, and Technology: Industry, Innovation,
And Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities and Communities, 24-26 July 2019, Jamaica.
 Fig. 2. AquApp user interface.

A. Partnership and networks

The project will be socialized to different sectors in the
city, in order to establish alliances for its development. In the
beginning, these alliances are focused on the following sectors:
1) Industrial: Support is seeked in this sector for its rele-
vance in the development and impact in the region, acquisition
of resources and project positioning.
Also support is required from companies that offer telecom-
munications infrastructure. For instance, there is already an
agreement with one of them, that will provide connectivity
for sensors and things throughout the fiber network distributed
across the city.
2) NG(D)O: This is a project for and with the community
and pretends that they feel part of it. So, it looks to articulate
networks with organizations that are working continuously
with communities and contribute in the accurate incidence of
the project.
3) Public Administration: This project seeks, through the
generated information, public policies that take appropriate
measures for the benefit of the environment and the com-
munities. This is why it is relevant to make the government
aware of the importance of having up-to-date information on
air quality and articulated work with the academy in order to
achieve those public policies in this area.
Fig. 3. AquApp’s Platform Architecture.

B. Mapping and Sensor Allocation

The purpose is to establish a sensors network that covers
IV. M ETHODOLOGY
strategic points of the city, and is expected to draw an air
quality integrated profile. Once this happens, information will
In this section are presented, concisely, the main steps for be generated through georeferencing, which is going to be
the achievement of the timely development of the project: represented in the University web platform: AquApp.

17th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education, and Technology: Industry, Innovation,
And Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities and Communities, 24-26 July 2019, Jamaica.
 socialized with the citizens in order to empower them through
this project, see it as their own, participate and support its
development. Their participation in this stage of the project
will be necessary to determine the sensors final location and
hosts, which will be in a citizen place according to the strategic
points established in the mapping.

F. Training
Once the citizen is selected to be part of the project, he/she
will train in the following skills:
• Air quality and parameters monitored by the sensors.
• Operation.
• Maintenance and care.
• Energy supply and internet for its operation.
• Monitor alerts.

G. Commissioning
After the project commissioning, a data management will
be carried out, with the aim of guaranteeing its confidentiality,
integrity and availability, in order that whoever wants to review
the data, can have the confidence that the information is
objective and has not been manipulated by conflict of interests
issues. The data will be open but safe.

H. Validation
A validation process will be carried out in determined
periods in order to verify that the sensors are working properly,
that the generated data is accurate and that the parameters and
conditions are being developed according to the established
project guidelines. It is important to make sure that the process
fulfills the need of validated information supply, if the aim of
Fig. 4. Air Quality Layer in AquApp the present proposal is to generate a positive impact on the
development of the region through data generation.
C. Equipment Procurement
V. C ONCLUSION
Select appropriate equipment for the environmental condi-
tions in which the sensors will be located, considering that The academical sector has to be active part of the construc-
Cartagena is a hostile environment, in terms of salinity and tion of sustainable regions and the creation of platforms such
humidity. as AquApp and SIATA Scientific Citizen in Colombia reflects
It is consider the use of IoT custom devices made with not only the compromise but also the need to provide Air
microcontroller boards (SoC) fabricated in University labora- Quality data in a context of lax information in the city. This
tory like [21] or [22] furthermore that turnkey specific devices is going to be an academical tool thought from the citizenship
made for it. for the citizens and build interdisciplinary work teams for
the best future for Cartagena, but also from objective and
D. System testing validated data that sees towards the incorporation to national
Once the nodes are deployed, the measurements delivered and international validation systems for Air Quality Index
by the sensors must be validated with certified equipment. Monitoring.
From this point the sensors and the monitoring measures must A secondary goal of this project is to continue the work
be calibrated; taking into account that this calibration process made with the academic community. The idea is to call for
is continuous. collaborators: government institutions and research centers as
the CIOH, the IDEAM (Instituto de Hidrologı́a, Meteorologı́a
E. Community Project Socialization y Estudios Ambientales), even the ENAP (Escuela Naval de
After establishing strategic points, validating information Cadetes Almirante Padilla) can use our platform and join
and making the necessary adjustments, the project will be forces in pro of Cartagena sustainability.

17th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education, and Technology: Industry, Innovation,
And Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities and Communities, 24-26 July 2019, Jamaica.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT [21] S. Kumar and A. Jasuja, “Air quality monitoring system based on IoT
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17th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education, and Technology: Industry, Innovation,
And Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities and Communities, 24-26 July 2019, Jamaica.