A GPS-enabled portable air pollution sensor and web-mapping technologies for field-based learning in health geography

Abstract

Geographic technologies and perspectives are important for understanding health issues because places and locations influence human health and diseases. Despite the increasing use of a geographic information system (GIS) in health research, and the explosion of new and emerging technologies, little is known about their potential as educational tools for health geography and the effectiveness for student learning. Focusing on air-sensing and web GIS technologies, this article presents an innovative pedagogical strategy to integrate these technologies as tools for field-based learning in health geography and discusses the effectiveness and challenges of this teaching method. A class project, undertaken in a university health geography course, was developed to offer students hands-on training and real-world experience with state-ofthe-art technologies. It consisted of (1) a lecture and pre-fieldwork training; (2) field data collection using a low-cost, GPS-enabled portable air-pollution sensor; (3) data visualization using web GIS; and (4) sharing the findings through a web-based story map application. The successful implementation of the teaching method, as indicated by students' positive comments, demonstrated that such class projects can reinforce students' knowledge of air pollution and health risks; improve their technical, critical thinking, and research skills; and prepare students for entering a technology-driven society.

Laboratory Evaluation of Low-Cost Optical Particle Counters for Environmental and Occupational Exposures

“…Therefore, we used the GeoAir1 device that contains the PMS A003 to store and obtain the output of the PMS A003 sensor. Details on the GeoAir1 device can be found in Park’s [ 30 ] paper. The AirBeam2 also contains a Plantower PM sensor.…”

GeoAir—A Novel Portable, GPS-Enabled, Low-Cost Air-Pollution Sensor: Design Strategies to Facilitate Citizen Science Research and Geospatial Assessments of Personal Exposure

“…Due to its ease-of-use, GeoAir also holds significant potential for community-based participatory research or public participation GIS (PPGIS) projects that focus on environmental justice or health disparities. Its user friendliness substantially reduces the burden of participation and facilitates the engagement of underserved communities, particularly people who are technically less capable [ 11 ]. Engaging members of these communities in monitoring the environmental conditions of their immediate surroundings or communities can empower them to modify their behaviors to reduce air pollution and exposure in their daily lives.…”

“…However, data are often lost when their Bluetooth connection is interrupted. As observed in previous studies, smartphone applications paired with these sensor devices often crash, causing data loss; they also require technical proficiency in users, leading to frustration for research participants and high dropout rates [ 11 , 17 , 18 , 23 ]. Furthermore, these mobile applications frequently work only on Android phones and do not function properly on low-quality smartphones, limiting the eligible participants to a subset of the population.…”

“…Recent advancements in air-sensing and positioning technologies have opened new possibilities for collecting both highly localized, real-time air pollution data and individuals’ movement pattern data that allow geospatial assessments of exposure [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. In particular, the emergence of low-cost, compact air sensors has made it possible for citizens to participate in community air monitoring or personal air sampling in their places of daily activity [ 12 , 13 ].…”

“…Its concept and design build on GeoAir1—a prototype developed by Park [ 11 ]—by adding a multi-gas sensor, an LTE modem, and a larger battery, as well as by utilizing a more reliable PM sensor and GPS module. The details of GeoAir1 and its real-world application can be found in Park [ 11 ]; a manuscript that presents laboratory experiment results about GeoAir1 (which uses the PMS A003 sensor (Plantower, Beijing, China) is currently under review [ 24 ]. From this point forward, GeoAir2 will be called “GeoAir” for convenience.…”