Sub Working Group Outline on 

Environmental Monitoring

Sub-Group Members

Arman Shehabi, 

Ranveer Chandra

Nick Emanuel

Mike Bergman

Benson Chan
DRAFT – Environmental Monitoring Group - U.S. Department of Commerce Internet of Things Advisory Board (IoTAB) – May 17th 2023 

General Opportunities 

for IoT Environmental 

Monitoring

Ometov et al., 2019. https://www.mdpi.com/596678

• Collection: centralized/consortium collection of environmental data from remote sensing

• Example: High resolution, real time air quality monitoring, Purple Air

• Distribution: significant expansion of environmental monitoring through consumer products

• Example: motion sensors in phones, Waze

• Post processing: integration of monitoring within projects/infrastructure for complex environmental metrics

• Example: Scope 3 CO2tracking through supply chains
DRAFT – Environmental Monitoring Group - U.S. Department of Commerce Internet of Things Advisory Board (IoTAB) – May 17th 2023 

Summary of Recommendations on Environmental Monitoring

R01 – Facilitate and support the research, development and deployment of low cost air 

quality monitoring sensing systems

IoT sensing allows for the effortless collection of data from multiple devices and technical innovation in IoT has 

emerged in research communities worldwide, which provide new opportunities for low-cost, high resolution, 

environmental monitoring of new and existing chemicals of concerns. However, wider implementation will require the 

approval and encouragement of the federal government.

R02 –Establish data repositories for privately collected data

The growth in IoT devices portends a rapid deployment of devices, and these devices have the potential to provide a 

strong public good, however without transparency privacy and data ownership issues may arise. Additionally, the use 

of different technologies and methodologies across different platforms may result in conflicting measurements, 

fostering misinterpretation and reducing public confidence in the monitoring process.

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DRAFT – Environmental Monitoring Group - U.S. Department of Commerce Internet of Things Advisory Board (IoTAB) – May 17th 2023 

RDD of low cost AQ monitoring sensing systems

Facilitate and support the research, 

development and deployment of 

low cost AQ monitoring sensing 

systems. 

Justification

• Regulatory grade sensors are expensive 

and only a few can be deployed. 

• Their purpose is specific to looking at broad air 

quality of criteria pollutants for area and 

compare against EPA levels to protect health. 

This limits the scaling of AQ monitors

• Gap in local scalable air quality monitoring 

to support a variety of use cases, including

• Increasing public awareness of AQ

• Informing environment and public policy; real 

time testing of policy impacts

• Environmental justice work

• Supplementing regulatory grade sensing with 

IoT commercial sensors

• Public health research

• Construction site emissions monitoring

• Rapid or emergency AQ monitoring

• Regulatory monitoring limited to few 

pollutants

• Only six criteria pollutants

• Emerging chemicals of concern (e.g., GHGs)

Implementation

• Measurements: facilitate research in low-cost 

sensing technologies for criterial pollutants, 

such optical particle scanning for particulate 

matter and M0x elements for gases, as well as 

detection of emerging chemicals of concern.

• Correlation: facilitate and support research and 

a program in correlating regulatory grade data 

with low cost AQ data

• Expansion: facilitate the expansion of wireless 

connectivity to support remote monitoring and 

sensing in areas not serviced by traditional 

connectivity (TV white space, satellite, etc.)

Barriers

• Regulatory monitoring spans 

multiple agencies, both at the 

federal and state/county level, 

often with different calibration 

protocols.

• Cost and resource constraints

• Legal barriers.

Agencies

• Department of Commerce (DOC)

• Federal Communications 

Commission (FCC)

• Environmental Protection 

Agency(EPA)

• Department of Energy (DOE)

• National Institute of Standards and 

Technology (NIST)

Federal considerations

• TBD

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Establish IoT environmental data repositories

Establish data repositories for 

privately collected data

Justification

• Provides transparency 

• Promotes community research 

to conduct analysis on the 

data far beyond the 

capabilities of a single federal 

agency 

• Helps address interoperability

• Enhance competitiveness

Implementation

• Consider DOE EIA sharing of 

data (e.g., power plants) as a 

possible implementation 

template

• Data sharing protocol should 

avoid differences in post 

processing

• Data sharing may need to be 

incentivized 

Barriers

• Data quality and harmonization 

challenges

• Privacy concerns

• Company resistance to share 

data for proprietary reasons

Agencies

• Department of Commerce (DOC)

• Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA)

• Department of Energy (DOE)

• National Institute of Standards and 

Technology (NIST)

Federal considerations

• TBD

DRAFT – Environmental Monitoring Group - U.S. Department of Commerce Internet of Things Advisory Board (IoTAB) – May 17th 2023 5