Search

Mobile monitoring can offer data of high spatial resolution within various urban contexts. Yet, devising efficient monitoring protocols for mobile campaigns is still a challenge. Relevant studies typically follow protocols based on the accumulated knowledge of authors and not standardized protocols. Thus the results may be prone to biases. Here, we present a transect monitoring methodology focused on urban areas' thermal environment and air quality. The methodology follows a specific protocol for choosing the monitoring days and evaluating post-process corrections of the retrieved data and is applied within a city in central Italy at a seasonal scale with respect to the Sky View Factor. The presented method is simple, yet comprehensive and can be easily applied to almost any city and urban context. Results showed significant variations of the parameters measured, i.e. air temperature, humidity, short-wave radiation, wind speed, CO 2 and PM10. For example, differences of air temperature within the same city may be up to 5.1 °C in autumn and differences of short-wave radiation may be up to 501 W/m 2 in spring. The results of this study enhance the understanding of how to efficiently assess the quality of urban environments. As such, they could serve as a catalyst for developing mobile monitoring protocols, with the goal of enhancing the evaluation of urban environmental quality. • A simple yet comprehensive mobile monitoring technique for almost any city is presented. • A protocol for post-processing the data is evaluated. • An evaluation of the thermal environment and air quality of a historical city in Italy is presented. • The evaluation of the variables is performed with respect to seasonality and urban geometry. • A reverse thermal stress is found within the suburbs as compared to the city-center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring efficiently urban microclimates is necessary for rendering cities resilient against climate change impacts. Aiming to retrieve data of high spatial resolution, mobile monitoring techniques have been introduced and applied within various urban contexts around the globe. Mobile monitoring campaigns may indeed contribute toward a high-granularity evaluation of the intra-urban characteristics of each city. In addition, it can help exploit resiliency planning at different aggregation levels when implemented in conjunction with traditional monitoring systems, such as fixed stations and satellites. Under this scenario, this study presents for the first time a systematic and critical review of the recent and most comprehensive mobile monitoring systems, and the corresponding field campaigns and protocols followed. The reviewed monitoring systems are developed on either motorized (e.g. cars, vans) or non-motorized (e.g. bicycles, carts, humans) agents for measuring the main parameters regulating urban canopy layers with respect to the (i) hygrothermal environment, (ii) air quality, (iii) light pollution, (iv) noise pollution. Overall, 94 articles are analyzed for concluding to the current state of the art, the corresponding scientific gaps, and proposed future research paths. Most of the reported monitoring systems are developed to monitor only one environmental domain, while the lack of standardized monitoring protocols is found to be the biggest challenge that needs to be addressed for minimizing biases and rendering the outcomes of different studies comparable. Relevant technological advancements and human-centric frameworks are further discussed aiming to exploit mobile monitoring for establishing efficient decision-making and risk assessment within urban environments. • Systematic literature review of urban mobile monitoring is performed for the first time. • Thermal environment, air quality, noise and light pollution monitoring protocols are reviewed. • The review reports on monitoring campaigns performed at a global scale. • The challenges and future paths for an efficient urban mobile monitoring are devised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]