Mobile monitoring of air pollution − a position paper on use cases, good practices, challenges, and opportunities
Mobile monitoring has proven to be a very efficient tool to measure and feed into models of air pollution as it complements fixed air quality monitoring networks by adding spatiotemporal resolution. This paper explores best practices, opportunities and challenges related to mobile monitoring of air pollutants, focusing on three key application areas, namely source-, exposure-, and health-related use cases. Use cases are linked to users, ensuring mobile monitoring is effectively tailored to diverse research and policy needs. Tailoring mobile monitoring involves experimental design choices (platform, instrumentation, route planning and spatiotemporal coverage) and data processing choices (data-only vs modelling) optimized towards the envisaged use case. This position paper aims to guide researchers and air pollution stakeholders in generating high-quality mobile monitoring datasets. We identify best practices, discuss monitoring strategies, and highlight future research directions. Additionally, mobile monitoring supports public engagement and actionability, allowing communities to advocate for cleaner air and drive behavior change.
Authors
- Lianne Sheppard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1622-508X)
- Magali N. Blanco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9998-995X)
- Jan Peters (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4153-8221)
- Neelakshi Hudda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2886-5458)
- Laura Minet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5729-0606)
- Marianne Hatzopoulou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7107-7086)
- Zhendong Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3326-5243)
- Allison P. Patton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8334-3580)
- Sasan Faridi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8855-8337)
- Jibran Khan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2080-2871)
- Roel C.H. Vermeulen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4082-8163)
- Sreekanth Vakacherla (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0400-6584)
- Heresh Amini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4825-1322)
- Meenakshi Kushwaha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0429-968X)
- Jules Kerckhoffs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9065-6916)
- John L. Durant (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7016-1622)
- Julian D. Marshall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4087-1209)
- Kees de Hoogh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5974-2007)
- Albert A. Presto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9156-1094)
- Matthew D. Adams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7236-8419)
- Keith Van Ryswyk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3349-0723)
- Jelle Hofman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3450-6531)
- Priyanka deSouza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2618-4050)
- Kerolyn K. Shairsingh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9529-3322)
- Steve Hankey
- Matthew C. Simon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0924-8630)
- Scott Fruin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2953-0457)
- Tuukka Petäjä (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1881-9044)
- Martine Van Poppel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2509-2373)
- Robert Wegener (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2042-9333)
- Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2916-5370)
- Gerard Hoek
Institutions
- University of Southern California (US)
- Tufts University (US)
- Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (CA)
- Health Canada (CA)
- World Health Organization - Pakistan (PK)
- Health Effects Institute (US)
- University of Denver (US)
- WWF-India (IN)
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (CH)
- Iran University of Medical Sciences (IR)
- Forschungszentrum Jülich (DE)
- University of Eastern Finland (FI)
- University of Basel (CH)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- University of Washington (US)
- University of Victoria (CA)
- Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (US)
- Government of Canada (CA)
- Vital Strategies (US)
- Seattle University (US)
- Flemish Institute for Technological Research (BE)
- Tehran University of Medical Sciences (IR)
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- Virginia Tech (US)
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Environment International
- Published
- 2025-06-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2025.109582
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Air Quality Monitoring and Forecasting
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.79