Chicago launches urban sensing project

The first phase of an urban sensing Array of Things project has begun in Chicago with the installation of the first of an eventual 500 nodes on city streets. The sensors will collect data on air quality, climate, traffic and other urban features, kicking off a partnership between the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory and the City of Chicago to better understand, serve and improve cities.
September 1, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

The first phase of an urban sensing Array of Things project has begun in Chicago with the installation of the first of an eventual 500 nodes on city streets. The sensors will collect data on air quality, climate, traffic and other urban features, kicking off a partnership between the University of Chicago, 5041 Argonne National Laboratory and the City of Chicago to better understand, serve and improve cities.

Array of Things is designed as a ‘fitness tracker’ for the city, collecting new streams of data on Chicago’s environment, infrastructure, and activity. This hyper-local, open data can help researchers, city officials, and software developers study and address critical city challenges, such as preventing urban flooding, improving traffic safety and air quality, and assessing the nature and impact of climate change.

In the first phase of the project, 50 nodes will be installed in August and September on traffic light poles in The Loop, Pilsen, Logan Square and along Lake Michigan. These nodes will contain sensors for measuring air and surface temperature, barometric pressure, light, vibration, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone, and ambient sound intensity. Two cameras will collect data on vehicle and foot traffic, standing water, sky colour and cloud cover.

Initial node locations and data applications were determined based on interactions with community organisations and research groups. Some nodes will contain sensors for tracking air quality and its relationship with asthma and other diseases, while others will study pedestrian and vehicle flow and traffic safety or measure features related to urban weather and climate change.

Data collected by Array of Things nodes will be open, free and available to the public, researchers, and developers. After a brief period of testing and calibration, the project will publish data through the City of Chicago Data Portal, open data platform Plenar.io, and via application programming interfaces (APIs). As specified by the Array of Things privacy and governance policies, no personally identifiable information will be stored or released by sensor nodes.

Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision Classification & Data Collection Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Green Light WIM
    July 30, 2012
    Beginning in the 1990s, Oregon was one of the first US states to use weigh-in-motion scales and transponder-based systems to enable trucks to avoid having to stop at weigh stations. Its Green Light preclearance system soon became a model for similar deployments throughout the country. Today, Green Light annually weighs and screens 1.6 million trucks as they approach 21 Oregon weigh stations and it preclears 1.5 million of them.
    Read More
  • ITS European Congress 2023: The Game Changer
    May 2, 2023
    Event runs from 22-24 May in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon
    Read More
  • Emissions ‘rising too high despite the reduction targets’
    December 4, 2015
    An analysis by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland of the emission targets from 159 countries indicates that, although nearly all the world’s countries have announced targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, more ambitious emission reductions are needed in order to limit global warming to two degrees. In addition, developing countries have recently joined the effort to slow down climate change by setting targets for reducing emissions. However, despite those targets, VTT says emissi
    Read More
  • InfoConnect delivers accurate travel information on all levels
    August 1, 2012
    Deryk Whyte provides an overview of how the New Zealand Transport Agency's InfoConnect concept was developed. Historically, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) (formerly Transit New Zealand) has faced challenges in communicating effectively with road users, its customers, about highway-related events or incidents in a timely, accurate manner. Prior to 2007, Transit relied on a third-party organisation to collect and disseminate national road condition information. This often resulted in incomplete infor
    Read More

Highlighted Content