UnLuBW - Pollutant monitoring through technological development of UAS applications

In recent years, air quality in cities has increasingly become the focus of social, media and political attention. Studies classify particulate matter and nitrogen oxides in particular as harmful to health, which are caused, for example, by private motorised transport or energy and heat generation. In order to ensure the health and quality of life of the population, various measures have been designed on the basis of EU directives (e.g. driving bans, speed limits, moss areas). In most cities, however, the assessment of pollution is based on selective measurements at a few stations. Their informative value for entire cities - especially for the legitimisation of strict measures - is publicly and scientifically highly disputed (Hooftman et al. 2018; BMU 2021). An area-wide network of sensors, on the other hand, is expensive, maintenance intensive and leads to competition for use in public spaces. In order to increase the public acceptance of air pollution control measures and at the same time increase the resilience of local measurements with regard to traffic policy decisions, a concept is to be developed in UnLuBW (funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport) in cooperation with selected municipalities with which particulate matter and nitrogen oxides can be measured flexibly and meaningfully by small and cost-effective unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) (Lambey and Prasad 2021). The use of UAS in the field of pollutant dispersion is also described in a new VDI guideline (Foken and Bange, 2020).
During measurement campaigns before and after measures to reduce the emission of particular matter and nitrogen oxides, the small UAS are going to measure particles, nitrogen gases and meteorological data at different locations within a municipalities simultaneously. These results are compared and evaluated.