New technique monitoring and transmission environmental data with mobile systems

The deterioration of air quality in urban areas has become a problem to be reckoned with, the greater levels pollution, in addition to subject the inhabitants at risks substantial for the health, poses a risk potential of degradation of the historical-artisticarchitecture. The Department of Engineering of Messina together with the Department of Energetic and Environmental Researches (DREAM) of the University of Palermo, in cooperation with the Municipal Transport Company of Messina has development a project called "Project SET: Eco-efficient and Environmental Friendly Transport Systems". The project aims to define an integrated system of services to facilitate the deployment of ITS (Intelligent Transport System) solutions and of new techniques for the assessment of the urban microclimate and pollution conditions using original data acquisition equipments installed on moving vehicles. These instruments, equipped with various kinds of sensors, are able to measure the most important weather date and climate quantities and the most relevant pollution parameters and to save the position of the acquired data (latitude, longitude, altitude, speed) by means of a Global Positioning System (GPS). Data can be downloaded from a remote station through the GSM/GPRS mobile phone network. These equipments, continuously moving across the urban area, could integrate the data coming from existing fixed stations, and create a virtual network of hundreds of measuring points. In the field of the pollution control they can contribute to the characterization of causes, the localization of sources and to the application and check of control strategies with a relevant spin-off to town planning.In this paper the research activities carried out by the Departments of the two Universities of Messina and Palermo within the SET project and prototype of a standalone unit for detection and remote data acquisition are described.