Advanced Monitoring, Modelling, and Intelligent Systems for Urban Air Pollution and Environmental Management

Dear Colleagues,

Urban air pollution is a highly active and important area of research the significance of which stems from the wide-ranging adverse effects it causes—from health impacts on vulnerable and general populations to environmental effects, such as reduced visibility, climate changes, and damage to urban surfaces, to name but a few. Interdisciplinary approaches are often essential to tackling its complex and multifaceted nature and in order to arrive at effective solutions, a complexity that is often reflected by the diverse set of research topics explored by the scientific community. This Special Issue will focus on advances and applications in three closely intertwined areas: urban air pollution monitoring, modelling, and environmental management.

The high temporal and spatial variability of urban air pollution shapes the applied monitoring approaches and their underlying principles, which encompass both traditional and emerging air pollution monitoring at the urban scale by governmental, non-governmental, and citizen science sensor networks, as well as the emerging field of sensor network metrology, implementing intelligent systems to varying degrees, from the node to the network level. Various types of sensors are used to monitor urban air pollution, spanning a broad cost–accuracy spectrum from low-cost or soft (virtual) sensors, on one end, to the highly accurate reference-grade instrumentation in automatic monitoring supersites, on the other. These are often complemented by additional advanced monitoring efforts (e.g., mobile monitoring) and advanced data processing algorithms (such as machine learning algorithms, data fusion utilizing remote sensing data products, etc.). Furthermore, because urban air pollution is a complex mixture of various chemical species, monitoring a suitable set of metrics is essential in terms of providing a comprehensive understanding of air pollution in a given urban area. The research community has long recognized this, prompting the introduction of new, information-rich metrics. For example, in addition to the well-established standard metrics of particulate matter pollution (the mass concentration of PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ fractions), additional metrics in PM monitoring are also widely explored, such as ultrafine particles concentration, black/brown/total carbon concentration, and the oxidative potential of PM, as recognized in the new European directive on Ambient Air Quality.

By enhancing the temporal, spatial, and qualitative resolution of urban air monitoring and by using a comprehensive set of metrics, better understanding of air pollution can be achieved, along with the overarching goal of improved urban air quality and wellbeing for all.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome, and the research areas that are the focus of this Special Issue are as follows:

- Advanced Monitoring:

• Sensor networks and sensor networks metrology in urban air pollution;
• New pollutants (metrics) in urban air pollution (e.g., ultrafine particles, black carbon concentration, oxidative potential);
• Mobile monitoring of urban air pollution.

- Modelling:

• Source apportionment of urban air pollution;
• Statistical/physical modelling and intelligent systems in urban air pollution (e.g., digital twins in air pollution, sensor calibration and anomaly detection, agent-based systems for addressing uncertainty in urban sensor networks, etc.).

- Environmental Management and Mitigation:

• Strategies to reduce urban air pollution, including emission control and sustainable urban planning;
• Indoor air quality and wellbeing—healthy buildings and mitigation measures;
• Managing the direct effects of urban air pollution (e.g., damage to urban surfaces, solar panels, and particulate matter).

We look forward to receiving your contributions,

Dr. Milos Davidovic
Dr. Saverio De Vito
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• air quality monitoring
• sensor networks
• sensor networks metrology
• machine learning
• digital twins in air pollution
• healthy buildings