Wearable Sensors for Human Environmental Exposure in Urban Settings

Abstract

Global population growth, urbanization, and climate change worsen the immediate environment of many individuals. Elevated concentrations of air pollutants, higher levels of acoustic noise, and more heat days, as well as increasingly complex mixtures of pollutants pose health risks for urban inhabitants. There is a growing awareness of the need to record personal environmental conditions (“the human exposome”) and to study options and implications of adaptive and protective behavior of individuals. The vast progress in smart technologies created wearable sensors that record environmental as well as spatio-temporal data while accompanying a person. Wearable sensing has two aspects: firstly, the exposure of an individual is recorded, and secondly, individuals act as explorers of the urban area. A literature review was undertaken using scientific literature databases with the objective to illustrate the state-of-the-art of person-based environmental sensing in urban settings. We give an overview of the study designs, highlight and compare limitations as well as results, and present the results of a keyword analysis. We identify current trends in the field, suggest possible future advancements, and lay out take-home messages for the readers. There is a trend towards studies that involve various environmental parameters and it is becoming increasingly important to identify and quantify the influence of various conditions (e.g., weather, urban structure, travel mode) on people’s exposure.

Miniaturized surface engineered technologies for multiplex biosensing devices

“…Nowadays, wearable biosensing platforms were also used in the screening of hazardous chemicals including pesticides, insecticides, and antibiotics in agri-food and environmental samples [118,119]. A multiplexed wearable glove was designed for detection of four pesticide classes: diuron, carbendazim, fenitrothion, and paraquat in cabbage, apple, and orange (Figure 8III).…”

A game engine based application for visualising and analysing environmental spatiotemporal mobile sensor data in an urban context

“…This development is triggered by research in four fields of the highest relevance: urbanization, climate change, digitization and innovations in hardware development. There is also a trend towards monitoring multiple parameters (Helbig et al, 2021;Chatzidiakou et al, 2019, Cao andThompson, 2016;Gaskins and Hart, 2019). These sensors provide data that enable the analysis of the interactions between environmental parameters of individuals and thus provide a building block for research into the human exposome.…”

Impacts of Personalized Sensor Feedback Regarding Exposure to Environmental Stressors

“…Given its severity, there is a need to further investigate how noise exposure can be communicated outside of work/school during everyday activities (e.g., exposure to road/rail traffic noise during daily commute) [83]. Similarly, more studies on feedback about outdoor air pollution exposure in urban areas are needed, though research interests in this field are increasing [7]. Due to the fact that urban heat islands are threatening human health and comfort [3,4], individual temperature feedback also deserves more attention in the future.…”

“…This has become easier in recent years by the dissemination of personal sensors that are installed at home or in the workplace or by wearable sensors (wearables), which individuals can carry during everyday activities. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of studies using wearables [7]. Not only can these capture exposure patterns (exposome) [8], but they can also improve our knowledge of the distribution of pollutants in space and time.…”