Air Quality Data Collection in Hyderabad Using Low-Cost Sensors: Initial Experiences

Exposure to ambient Particulate Matter (PM) of air pollution is a leading risk factor for morbidity and mortality. The most common approach for air quality monitoring is to rely on environmental monitoring stations, which are expensive to acquire as well as to maintain. Moreover, such stations are typically sparsely deployed, thereby resulting in limited spatial resolution for measurements. Recently, low cost air quality sensors have emerged as an alternative for improving the granularity of monitoring. We are making an effort to explore the framework for air quality data collection by employing low-cost sensors. In this paper, we have reported our initial experiences and observations concerning PM data collection for four months starting from October 2021 in the city of Hyderabad in India.