Data Quality in IoT-Based Air Quality Monitoring Systems: a Systematic Mapping Study

Abstract

With the development of new technologies, particularly Internet of Things (IoT), there has been an increase in the deployment of low-cost air quality monitoring systems. Compared to traditional robust monitoring stations, these systems provide real-time information with higher spatio-temporal resolution. These systems use inexpensive and low-cost sensors, with lower accuracy as compared to robust systems. This fact has raised some concern regarding the quality of the data gathered by the IoT systems, which may compromise the performance of the environmental models. Considering the relevance of the data quality in this scenario, this paper presents a study of the data quality associated with IoT-based air quality monitoring systems. Following a systematic mapping method, and based on existing guidelines to assess data quality in these systems, we have identified the main Data Quality (DQ) dimensions and the corresponding DQ enhancement techniques. After analyzing more than 70 papers, we found that the most common DQ dimensions targeted by the different works are accuracy and precision, which are enhanced by the use of different calibration techniques. Based on our findings, we present a discussion on the challenges that must be addressed in order to improve data quality in IoT-based air quality monitoring systems. © 2023, The Author(s).