Smart Monitoring and Control in the Future Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) and related technologies have the promise of realizing pervasive and smart applications which, in turn, have the potential of improving the quality of life of people living in a connected world. According to the IoT vision, all things can cooperate amongst themselves and be managed from anywhere via the Internet, allowing tight integration between the physical and cyber worlds and thus improving efficiency, promoting usability, and opening up new application opportunities. Nowadays, IoT technologies have successfully been exploited in several domains, providing both social and economic benefits. The realization of the full potential of the next generation of the Internet of Things still needs further research efforts concerning, for instance, the identification of new architectures, methodologies, and infrastructures dealing with distributed and decentralized IoT systems; the integration of IoT with cognitive and social capabilities; the enhancement of the sensing–analysis–control cycle; the integration of consciousness and awareness in IoT environments; and the design of new algorithms and techniques for managing IoT big data. This Special Issue is devoted to advancements in technologies, methodologies, and applications for IoT, together with emerging standards and research topics which would lead to realization of the future Internet of Things

Aerosol and Precipitation Chemistry Relationships in Arizona during the Monsoon Season

This study identified the relationships between aerosol and precipitation chemistry during the monsoon season (June 15- September 15) in Arizona by using four co-located IMPROVE and NADP NTN sites: Chiricahua National Monument (Chir NM), Grand Canyon, Organ Pipe National Monument (Organ Pipe NM), and Petrified National Park (Petrified NP). Relationships between 1999 and 2014 were determined by using the using a two-tailed student’s t-test (95% confidence). In Chir NM and Grand Canyon, decreasing significant annual trends of sulfate aerosol fractions coincided with increasing significant annual trends of rain pH. This result suggests that in Chir NM and Grand Canyon, the decrease in sulfate aerosol concentrations result in more alkaline pH. Aerosol and rain interrelationships in all sites showed that calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and potassium (K) were highly related to each other suggesting their origin from common dust sources. Similarly based on these interrelationships, sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl-) were related to sea salt in all sites. At all sites, the highest correlation values between aerosol and precipitation concentration correlations were found for Ca, K, Mg, and Na (in decreasing order), suggesting the role of dust and sea salt as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) or ice nuclei (IN). The highest grand average of rain accumulation was found in Chir NM and this coincided with the most acidic pH and lowest rain concentrations. In Chir NM, the highest mass fractions and amount of moles in rain of Sulfate and Nitrate were found which justify the acidic pH. The opposite trends are found in Petrified NP, which has the lowest grand annual average of rain accumulation, most alkaline pH, highest rain concentrations, and lowest mass fractions and moles in rain of nitrate and sulfate. The use of rain concentrations are misleading due to the dilution of rain which does not provide information on the absolute amount and abundance of certain ions. Hence it is necessary to analyze the amount of moles and mass fractions in rain of acidic anions to determine the effect on rain pH. At all sites, the significant correlations between rain accumulation and aerosol and rain concentrations were negative, suggesting that the monsoon rain acts as a sink. However, the significant correlations between rain accumulation and amount of moles in rain were positive for all species in all sites. The positive relationships are justified by the uptake of aerosol concentrations by rain by cloud seeding and scavenging. Of these relationships, sulfate and nitrate exhibited the highest correlated values (r-values) where sulfate and nitrate gaseous precursors are capable of directly entering rain drops. Inverse relationships between air and rain mass fractions of nitrate were found with respect to pH where nitrate was more alkaline in the air and more acidic in the rain. The result suggests that in the air, precursor forms of nitrate which can react with dust emissions are found, and the product of this reaction (highly water soluble) serves as cloud condensation nuclei where the presence of nitrate in rain is acidic. In addition, the slope of the correlation value for air or rain mass fraction can be used as a proxy to determine whether it is acidic or alkaline. Acidic mass fractions would exhibit positive values with respect to sulfate air mass fractions and rain accumulation and negative values for all other aerosol and precipitation data. To determine the effects of moisture source on aerosol and precipitation chemistry, it was necessary to choose one site that had sources of moisture from the Gulf of California and compare this to another site that had moisture sources from the Gulf of Mexico. The Kruskal Wallis test was applied to aerosol concentrations to determine if sites shared similar air mass sources. The results of this test indicate that Chir NM, Grand Canyon, and Petrified NP share similar air mass sources while Organ Pipe NM did not share any similarities. Next, based on these results and previous studies, Chir NM and Organ Pipe NM were chosen to determine the effects of air mass source on the aerosol and precipitation chemistry. Air mass back trajectories revealed that Chir NM and Organ Pipe NM shared similar moisture sources from the Gulf of California and few dates were found where they differed. Future work will seek to compare sites in western Arizona (Organ Pipe NM) to other co-located NADP and IMPROVE sites in New Mexico. The results of this work suggest that the reactions between dust and precursors of nitrate and sulfate are commonly found in Arizona. During the monsoon period, higher rain accumulation is observed which uptakes more dust containing acidic ions and acidic precursor gases via scavenging, resulting in increasingly acidic rain pH. Therefore, the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems found in the area are exposed to acidic rain during the monsoon season. However, in 1999 to 2014, the reduction of sulfate aerosol concentrations due to air regulations has possibly led to an increase in alkalinity of rain pH

Accessibility in cities: transport and urban form

This paper focusses on one central aspect of urban development: transport and urban form and how the two shape the provision of access to people, goods and services, and information in cities. The more efficient this access, the greater the economic benefits through economies of scale, agglomeration effects and networking advantages. This paper discusses how different urban accessibility pathways impact directly on other measures of human development and environmental sustainability. It also presents the enabling conditions for increasing accessibility and low-carbon mobility in cities. This paper is one of three papers by LSE Cities that form part of the cities research programme of the New Climate Economy (NCE) project for the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. The two other contributing papers cover ‘Cities and the New Climate Economy: the Transformative Role of Global Urban Growth’ (NCE Paper 01) and ‘Steering Urban Growth: Governance, Policy and Finance’ (NCE Paper 02)

Energy Efficiency and Indoor Environment Quality

This Special Issue addresses a topic of great relevance. In developed countries, there is a higher prevalence of people choosing to spend time indoors. Data show that the time a person spends at home ranges from 60% to 90% of the day, and 30% of that time is spent sleeping, though this varies depending on the individual. Taking into account these data, indoor residential environments have a direct influence on human health. Furthermore, in developing countries, significant levels of indoor pollution make housing unsafe, impacting the health of its inhabitants. Housing is therefore a key health factor for people all over the world: various parameters such as air quality, ventilation, hygrothermal comfort, lighting, physical environment, and building efficiency can contribute to healthy architecture; poor application of these parameters can result in conditions that negatively impact health

Applied Metaheuristic Computing

For decades, Applied Metaheuristic Computing (AMC) has been a prevailing optimization technique for tackling perplexing engineering and business problems, such as scheduling, routing, ordering, bin packing, assignment, facility layout planning, among others. This is partly because the classic exact methods are constrained with prior assumptions, and partly due to the heuristics being problem-dependent and lacking generalization. AMC, on the contrary, guides the course of low-level heuristics to search beyond the local optimality, which impairs the capability of traditional computation methods. This topic series has collected quality papers proposing cutting-edge methodology and innovative applications which drive the advances of AMC

Remote Sensing Monitoring of Land Surface Temperature (LST)

This book is a collection of recent developments, methodologies, calibration and validation techniques, and applications of thermal remote sensing data and derived products from UAV-based, aerial, and satellite remote sensing. A set of 15 papers written by a total of 70 authors was selected for this book. The published papers cover a wide range of topics, which can be classified in five groups: algorithms, calibration and validation techniques, improvements in long-term consistency in satellite LST, downscaling of LST, and LST applications and land surface emissivity research

The importance of long-range and local emission sources for mitigating the potential health impact of airborne particulate matter in Thailand

The negative health impacts of particulate matter (PM) air pollution are associated with long-term exposure, most commonly quantified by the annual average PM10 or PM2.5 concentrations. The Thai government has set air quality standards to protect public health based on these. This study explores the relative importance of local to regional emission sources in determining annual average of PM concentrations across Thailand using both measurement and modelling approaches. Firstly, a chemical climatology approach is used to explore the contribution of biomass burning episodes to the annual average PM10 concentrations between 2011 and 2015. In Northern Thailand, biomass-burning events result in short-term peak PM10 concentrations that influence annual PM10 concentrations and lead to exceedance of standards. The highest hourly PM10 concentrations occurred predominantly in March contributing 15-20% to the annual mean. In contrast, in Southern Thailand results show that biomass burning events can result in elevated hourly PM10 concentrations with a very small effect on annual PM10 concentrations (<5%). Secondly, different types of location in Bangkok and central Thailand were analysed to understand how these contribute to PM concentrations. There was greater variation in annual average PM10 concentrations at Bangkok roadside sites (26 to 63 µg m-3) compared to between at general sites in Bangkok (24 to 48 µg m-3). At sites exceeding the Thai national standard of 50 µg m-3, large local emission sources are important in causing exceedance of the annual PM10 standard. Lastly, to understand how future emissions will influence PM2.5 concentrations and human health, the study develops an emission inventory of all relevant pollutants for 2010 and future scenarios to estimate how these emissions will change up to 2030. The findings show that the expected increases in annual PM2.5 concentrations can be avoided if current government plans are fully implemented, but additional actions are needed as well

The Critical Role of Public Charging Infrastructure

Editors: Peter Fox-Penner, PhD, Z. Justin Ren, PhD, David O. JermainA decade after the launch of the contemporary global electric vehicle (EV) market, most cities face a major challenge preparing for rising EV demand. Some cities, and the leaders who shape them, are meeting and even leading demand for EV infrastructure. This book aggregates deep, groundbreaking research in the areas of urban EV deployment for city managers, private developers, urban planners, and utilities who want to understand and lead change

CIRA annual report FY 2014/2015

Reporting period July 1, 2014-March 31, 2015