Melbourne's street light poles could soon become air monitoring stations, capable of acting as smoke detection devices in high fire risk areas.
A joint Environment Protection Agency Victoria (EPA) and CitiPower trial has seen air quality sensors placed on top of street lamps on the Queen Street Bridge, providing a glimpse into the future of air monitoring.
Sensors used in the trial measure concentrations of fine particles in the air called PM2.5 – a pollutant in smoke, fine dust and vehicle exhaust emissions.
As part of the trial, sensors were placed in custom-built housing and attached to two light poles at each end of the Queen Street Bridge.
The air quality data is transmitted via secure radio communication, which is relatively immune to telecommunication outages that can interrupt data flow in traditional monitoring networks.
Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio says that at around $200 each and slightly larger than a matchbox, the sensors are representative of a range of new low-cost, compact technologies coming into the market.
“Sensors of this kind may one day offer an effective way to help EPA monitor air quality in more places throughout Victoria, especially where people live and work," she says.
CitiPower General Manager of Electricity Networks Steven Neave said the partnership was also exploring air quality sensors as smoke detection devices.
The EPA's Manager of Applied Sciences, Anthony Boxshall, told The Age:
"Just imagine there is a lightning strike that creates a fire two kilometres down a country road that has a light pole, and maybe no one notices it for an hour or so because it's not near a house."
"If you had air quality senors 50 metres away on a pole it would pick it up.
"The more information you have about where and how a fire started the better you can predict where a fire will go."
If the sensors prove to provide useful, reliable data at a low operational-cost, the EPA will look at incorporating them into its existing air monitoring network.