2016 International Conference on ICT for Smart Society 49

Surabaya, 20-21 July 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5090-1620-4

Integrated Pollution Monitoring System for Smart City

Baihaqi Siregar Ahmad Badril Azmi Nasution Fahmi Fahmi*

Faculty of Computer Science and Faculty of Computer Science and Dept. Electrical Engineering,
Information Technology, Information Technology, University of Sumatera Utara,
University of Sumatera Utara, University of Sumatera Utara, Medan-Indonesia
Medan-Indonesia Medan-Indonesia fahmimn@usu.ac.id
baihaqi@gmail.com abanz19@gmail.com (*correspondence author)

Abstrak: The continuous monitoring of pollution level in
urban areas is important for a smart city. There are several
parameters changes that indicate the pollution: dust particle
density in the air, humidity, light intensity, and the level of
sound noise. A technology that can be developed for an
integrated pollution monitoring system is wireless sensor
network (WSN) utilizing waspmote smart cities device,
connected with several sensors, such as dust sensor PM-10
(GPY21010AU0F), humidity sensor (808H5V5), luminosity
sensor (LDR), and microphone (dBA). As a communication
protocol we used 3G connectivity to store the data to cloud
system. Prototype of this system had been tested in controlled
laboratory environment and the performance of developed
system was as expected. Result of this system can be used by
government and policy makers as basic information to take
further actions reducing pollution level.
Keywords: wireless sensor network, smart cities,
waspmote, pollution, dust, luminosity, humidity, noise
1.INTRODUCTION
A smart city should be able to monitor pollution level of
the urban areas in effective and efficient way. Pollution level
can be measured by several parameters: dust particle density
in the air, humidity, light intensity, and the level of sound
noise.
On the other hand, the rapid growth in development of
information technology, followed by high demand and
dependency of human needs to recent technology, helps us
overcome our problems and make life easier. It is demanding
for such technology that is automatic, accurate, available
along the time, easy to access everywhere, environmental-
friendly and also reliable. One of the current technology
deploy all of these features is wireless sensor network
(WSN).
WSN was built based on several sensor devices,
connected and integrated to nodes which wirelessly connected
to controller. The sensor devices can be in number of
hundreds or even thousands and sometimes installed in
remote area. The accessibility of these sensors somehow
becomes a great problem. That’s why in wsn, the wireless
sensor is not only functioning as sensor itself, but have also
capabilities to do on-board processing, communication and
storage. With these features, the entire sensor is not only used
for collecting data but should also be able to analyze the data
themselves [1].
It is predicted that in 2020, there will approximately be
eight billion digital devices connected to communication
network, whether it is wired or wireless. These devices will
be connected and integrated with so many other sensors and
can be used in several area like homes, transportation,
healthcare, infrastructure, education and industry. These new
devices will help people doing remote monitoring analysis,
controlling and automation, logistic management, security,
location mapping and tracking, and also financial [2]
Waspmote Smart Cities Board is an integrated
microcontroller produced by Libelium. This product is
specialized in monitoring several parameters related to
environmental condition captured by many available sensors.
Sensors used to detect the pollution attached and function as
an integration system.
Previous studies had been conducted by utilizing boards
developed based on Waspmote to collect data containing
testing parameters of the research object. Kaur et al, used
Waspmote to investigate parameters related to food security
[3]. In the other hand, Khan et al utilized Waspmote as a tool
to control irrigation in Pakistan [4]. And also Odey et al used
Waspmote in aquaculture monitoring and control [5].
In this study, we use Waspmote Sensor Cities Board to
collect data related to environmetnal condition, especially
pollution level in urban area near to human population.
2. MATERIAL AND METHOD
2.1 Parameters and sensors
Several parameters of pollution were measured in this
study, i.e dust particle density, noise level, humidity and light
intensity.
Smart Cities Board was integrated with several sensors to
measure related parameters. We utilized simultaneously 4 of
these sensors:
- Dust Sensor PM-10 (GPY21010AU0F)
- Humidity Sensor (808H5V5)
- Luminosity Sensor (LDR),
- Microphone (dBA).
Table 1 describe layout for each sensor, its function and
specifications.
Table 1.Layout of sensors on Smart Cities Board *
Sensor Pin # Function Specification
GPY21010AU0F 3 Vcc 0.35V/(0.1mg/m3) ~
0.65V/(0.1mg/m3)
4 Vo

978-1-5090-1620-4/16/$31.00©2016 IEEE 5 S-GND

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6 LED The raw data measured form each sensor then sent to
Waspmote PRO through digital pin number 3.
7 LED-GND Inside the Waspmote PRO, a program code was first
8 V-LED installed. This program was intended to save the data into a
microSD card. Furthermore, another program code was
808H5V5 17 Vcc 0 ~ 100%RH uploaded to the board that had function to send data to cloud
18 Output
system using 3G connectivity. The transmission of data was
done utilizing SIM 5218E module. In this step, the data was
19 GND forwarded to a web server that executes Apache service and
MySQL using POST method.
LDR 12 Vcc 5 ~ 20kŸ (light: 10lux)
20MŸ (darkness) The data sent from Waspmote PRO was not only
13 Output information containing those 4 parameters of dust particle
density, humidity, noise level and light intensity but also
Microphone 1 Output 26 ± 1 dBA
contained additional information such as temperature and
2 GND battery capacity.
*(Smart Cities Technical Guide, 2015)[6] Based on information gained from the sensors, we built a
web based notification system that provides warning when
2.2 Waspmote Configuration the pollution level was above accepted level. This system was
built with PHP programming language. In Figure 2, we can
The Smart Cities Board consisted of 4 different sensors see the flow chart of complete process of triggering the
connected to Waspmote 802.15.4 PRO SMA 5 dB through notification on the user side.
SPI-UART Socket and Sensor I/O interface.
Meanwhile, the SIM5218E module was attached through
Radio Socket 0 at Waspmote PRO. The module SIM5218E is
used as transmitter that work in frequency ranges of
2100/1900/900MHz, the transmit power is 0.25W, and have
sensitivity at -106dBm. The limit of uplink and downlink was
respectively 384Kbps [7].
The basic architecture of the overall pollution monitoring
system can be seen in figure 1.

Figure 2. Flow chart of Notification on System

Figure 1. Basic Architecture
The process of acquiring, gathering and sending data was
started from the activation of the sensors attached at the
Smart Cities Board.
All data parameters acquired included the dust particle
density in the air, the humidity, light intensity and noise level.
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Main indication to decide such a level of pollution was stated
in government regulations, Decree of the Minister of Health
No. 1405 / Menkes / SK / XI / 2002 regarding Requirements
of Environmental Health at office, work and Industry. In this
regulation it is stated that the threshold limit value for
temperature in in the range of 180-280C. Threshold limit for
humidity is in the range of 40-60%, threshold limit for density
2
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of dust particles at a maximum of 0:15 mg / m3, threshold
limit for maximum noise level of 85dBA, and threshold limit
for light intensity of at least 300lux for routine work such as
in the administration room, control room, machine work and
assembly.
On the basis of those threshold limit then we created
the notification system as monitors whether it has reached a
condition referred to as pollution or not to utilize the
algorithm.
Data reaching the server will then be processed in the form of
visualization in term of graphic and pictures. This
visualization aims to help users do the monitoring regarding
the pollution parameters.
At figure 4, we can see the dashboard display of the
application. Here we can monitor the change of parameters
with real time mode, including also the battery level of each
sensor.

3. RESULTS

We first conducted the installation of Smart Cities Board,

Waspmote PRO, and 4 related sensors into a compact unit as
shown in Figure 3.

Figure 4. Dashboard display

History of parameter data recorded for the dust particle

density from day to day will be visualized in the form of
table, for example as seen in Figure 5.

Figure 3. Waspmote Smart Cities Board with installed

Sensors

On the side of programming, we first included the library

for 3G connectivity at the beginning within the Smart Cities
Board, as follows:

#include "Wasp3G.h"
#include <WaspFrame.h>
#include <WaspSensorCities.h>

For the connectivity of data sent to the cloud system we

choose POST method implemented with the code of Figure 5. Recorded dust particle density in a graph
programming as follows:
Example of a graphical display showing parameter produced
//POST method
int8_t answer; by periodic recorded data gained from sensor 808H5V5 to
char aux_str[500]; measure the humidity can be seen in Figure 6.
char aux_str2[500];
int counter;

The next programming code is focused on the process of

sensor reading to gain the raw data:

//Read the sensor values LDR

luminosity = SensorCities.readValue(SENS_CITIES_LDR);
temp = SensorCities.readValue(SENS_CITIES_TEMPERATURE);
humidity = SensorCities.readValue(SENS_CITIES_HUMIDITY);
audio = SensorCities.readValue(SENS_CITIES_AUDIO);
dust = SensorCities.readValue(SENS_CITIES_DUST);
dust_calib = dust * 100; Figure 6. Recorded Humidity parameter in a graph
And the next line of code processed the transmitting of data
Furthermore, example of a graphical display showing
from the sensors to web based application by setting the IP
parameter of light intensity produced by LDR sensor is seen
address 202.x.y.z at the cloud side:
on Figure 7.
//Data transmit
sprintf(aux_str, "POST /smartcities/write_data.php HTTP/1.1\r\nHost:
202.x.y.z\r\nContent-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\nContent-
Length: %d\r\n\r\n%s", strlen(aux_str2), aux_str2);

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5.CONCLUSION

We have successfully developed a WSN system with

Waspnote Smart Cities by integrating 4 sensors
simultaneously in real time situation to monitor the pollution
level in urban area. This result will encourage the idea of
smart city in relation with pollution reduction and
environmental issue handling.

Figure 7. Recorded light intensity parameter in a graph

And finally, for the noise level measurement, example of the
recorded data is shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8. Recorded noise level parameter in a graph
Notification feature in the system has function to warn user if
the pollution level is above the normal level, which means
condition of the environmental nearby is dangerous for
human being. For example, the dust particle is too dense, or
noise level is above normal convenience hearing level.
REFERENCES
1. Dargie, W., & Poellabauer, C. (2010). Fundamentals of
Wireless Sensor Networks. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
2. What Exactly Is The "Internet of Things"? (2015).
Retrieved from Postscapes: http://postscapes.com/what-
exactly-is-the-internet-of-things-infographic
3. Kaur, G., Joshi, S., & Singh, G. (2014). Food
Sustainability Using Wireless Sensors Networks:
Waspmote and Meshlium. International Journal of
Computer Science and Information Technologies.
4. Khan, R., Ali, I., Suryani, M. A., Ahmad, M., & Zakarya,
M. (2013). Wireless Sensor Network Based Irrigation
Management System for Container Grown Crops in
Pakistan. World Applied Sciences Journal.
5. Odey, A. J., & Daoliang, L. (2013). Aquamesh - Design
and Implementation of Smart Wireless Mesh Sensor
Networks for Aquaculture. American Journal of
Networks and Communications.
6. Smart Cities Technical Guide. (2015). Retrieved from
Libelium:
http://www.libelium.com/downloads/documentation/sma
rt_cities_sensor_board.pdf
7. Waspmote Datasheet. (2015). Retrieved from Libelium:
http://www.libelium.com/downloads/documentation/was
pmote_datasheet.pdf

Figure 9. Pollution Level Indication

4. DISCUSSION

Continuous monitoring of the environmental condition is

important to get the indications whether the pollution level is
above normal or not, whether it is harmful for human or not.
This is important in the smart city concept where the
environmental issue is playing big role. In urban area, the
dust particle density, humidity, light intensity and noise level
has become major problems regarding the environmental
issue. By using wireless sensor network implemented with
high speed 3G connectivity, the monitoring process can be
done in more efficient and effective way.
Comparing to the conventional way, where manual
measurement is done by sending people do checking the
parameters, this system was not only automatic but also able
to provide real time data and larger coverage. This system
guarantee the accuracy and reliability of the data that support
the decision making process by city government.
Using Waspmote Smart Cities is the best approach to
implement such a pollution monitoring system. Our result
from limited laboratory environment shown that the
integrated system we built running well as expected and
successfully provide parameters data needed to justify the
pollution level. History of parameters data can also be stored
in a specific repository for further big data analysis.

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