Hardware Implementation of IoT Enabled Real-Time Air Quality Monitoring for Low- and Middle-Income Countries

The environment and human health are both impacted by air quality. In Africa, where air quality monitoring systems are rare or nonexistent, poor air quality has caused far more deaths and environmental damage than anywhere else in the world. Air pollution in Africa is a result of the continent’s growing urbanization, industrialization, road traffic, and air travel. Particularly in Africa, air pollution continues to be a silent killer, and if it is not addressed, it will continue to cause fatal health disorders like heart disease, stroke, and chronic respiratory organ disease. In this study, the potential of IoT is greatly exploited to measure air pollution levels in real time. An Arduino Uno microcontroller board based on the ATmega328P integrated with the Arduino Integrated Development Environment is used to build the prototype. The designed prototype consists of the different sensors that capture air pollutant concentration levels from the environment. All the data pertaining to air quality are monitored in real-time using Thingspeak, an IoT-based platform. The monitoring results are visible through the mobile application developed; as a result, this creates awareness to the public and the concerned policy makers can make well informed decisions.