A Markov chain-based IoT system for monitoring and analysis of urban air quality

Severe deterioration of urban air quality in Asian cities is the cause of a large number of deaths every year. A Markov chain-based IoT system is developed in this study to monitor, analyze, and predict urban air quality. The proposed sensing setup is integrated with an automobile and is used for collecting air quality information. An Android application is used to transfer and store the sensed data in the data cloud. The data stored is used to generate the transition matrix of the AQI states and calculate return periods for each AQI state. The estimated time interval after which an AQI event recurs or is repeated is known as return period. The actual return periods for each AQI state at the test locations in Delhi-NCR are compared with those predicted using discrete time Markov chain (DTMC) models. Average absolute forecast error using our model was found to be 3.38% and 4.06%, respectively, at the selected locations.