HARMONY
Research and Monitoring Activities Oriented by an Infrastructure of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the protection of the Environment
Funding: POR Calabria 2014-2020 FESR-FSE
Period: November 2021 - April 2023
Total project budget: € 59904,93
Total budget CNR IIA: 29795,19 Euros
Scientific Responsible: Francesco D'Amore

Abstract of the project

The ARMONIA project aims to create an information system on air quality data measured in situ through smart sensors and in line with the requirements of the legislation. An important aspect of the project will be the establishment of a coordination committee that will take into account the feedback that will derive from the programmed technical-scientific activities, providing for the step-by-step involvement of the end user and citizens. This type of approach will allow a better dissemination of environmental knowledge about air pollution and its impacts. The Project involves the prototyping of special sensors together with the integrated management of environmental data. The data will be made available to the population thanks to specific ICT infrastructure services. The latter will allow the data measured in the field to be archived in near-real time and to communicate in a simplified manner to citizens and all stakeholders the knowledge of the data collected. In summary ARMONIA aims to create an information system that is inexpensive, highly efficient from an energy point of view, capable of carrying out widespread and continuous monitoring and which at the same time allows easy use of the data.

The ARMONIA Project has the general objective of creating a technological information and communication system (ICT) on air quality data measured in situ through smart sensors and in line with the requirements of the current reference legislation or Legislative Decree 13 August 2010, n. 155, in implementation of Directive 2008/50 / EC, relating to ambient air quality and cleaner air in Europe. An important aspect of the project will be the establishment of a coordination committee that will take into account both a top-down approach, the feedback that will derive from the programmed technical-scientific activities, but also a bottom-up type, which involves step-by-step involvement. step of the end user and citizens.

This type of approach will allow the launch of an important co-design phase which will allow the entire population concerned to be given a voice and which, together with the technical-scientific objectives of the project, will allow for a better dissemination of environmental knowledge about atmospheric pollution. and its impacts.
The project, in its initial phase, involves the prototyping of special smart sensors together with the integrated management of environmental data for the development of a monitoring network for air quality. After studying the required needs in depth and considering all the predisposing factors of the territory, the analysis of the parameters to be monitored through the use of these sensors will allow to characterize the general state of air quality. It will also be possible to identify any periods, in particular climatic conditions, during which exposure to pollutants could become risky due to the exceeding of alert thresholds, beyond which dangerous conditions could be triggered. Synthetic air quality indicators will be defined which will be made accessible to the population thanks to specific applications of the ICT infrastructure. In fact, the latter will allow not only to archive the data measured in the field (information) in near-real time, but also to communicate knowledge in a simplified, direct and accessible way to citizens and to all stakeholders (stakeholders). -how) which will derive from the appropriate analysis of the data collected as foreseen by the project itself. The ICT infrastructure will represent the core of the whole project and the information technology with which it will be designed and defined will give further added value to the project itself.

The specific objective of ARMONIA will therefore be to create an innovative technological system which as a whole is inexpensive, highly efficient from an energy point of view, therefore capable of carrying out widespread and continuous monitoring, and which at the same time allows easy use of the data and the knowledge related to it. The construction and subsequent specific application in the municipality of Aprigliano would allow the development of a smart system for environmental monitoring whose use could also be suitable for other territories that will request it in the future, especially those characterized by large rural areas. . In this way it would be possible to have a greater coverage of air quality data on a wider territorial scale which would thus be integrated with the observations, still in small numbers, available today at the regional level. The dissemination of data on low power networks collected in this way, in addition to allowing to cover large areas, would also make it possible to overcome meteorological problems of signal obfuscation.

The versatility of this smart system that can be used for continuous and widespread monitoring would allow in the future to think about further specific applications of the same for other types of environmental monitoring. An application example could be represented by the identification and warning of forest fires which, unfortunately, are very frequent in the rural wooded areas of southern Italy, especially during the summer season, with serious repercussions on the territory.
The main objective will be the creation of a smart system for the detection and dissemination of air quality data measured through sensors with low-cost prototypes, in such a way as to provide the Administration and citizens with a tool to manage the risk of pollution. atmospheric coming from the different sources present in the territory under examination.

Specifically, the Implementation Objectives (OR) of the main Work Packages (WPs) into which the ARMONIA Project has been divided are:
OR1: Interim and final reports of the Project
OR2: Realization of n. 2 prototypes
OR3: Zoning of the territory and planning of the network for environmental monitoring
OR4: In situ monitoring
OR5: Creation of an ICT infrastructure
OR6: Data analysis and models
OR7: Proposal of good practices to stakeholders
OR8: Awareness-raising seminars, scientific publications, participation in conferences


CNR-IIA - www.iia.cnr.it
Replanet Srls - http://www.replanet.it/ (leader)

Francesco D'Amore
Mariantonia Bencardino
Delia Bruno
Valentino Mannarino

http://armonia.iia.cnr.it/