About
The CUT Environmental Monitoring Platform is an integrated intelligence system developed by Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) that provides real-time access to air quality, water quality, and meteorological data. The platform aggregates data from multiple sources, including in-situ monitoring stations, external services, and satellite observations, ensuring comprehensive environmental coverage. Users can explore and analyze data through interactive dashboards, customizable data tables, live geospatial maps, and statistical visualizations. The system enables targeted data extraction based on user-defined parameters, supporting environmental monitoring, trend analysis, and evidence-based decision-making. Overall, the platform delivers a centralized, user-friendly environment for accessing, visualizing, and analyzing environmental data in real time.
CUT Air Quality
CUT Air Quality is a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) which consists of environmental and meteorological nodes each connected to various sensors. Our network consists of five static nodes (Env-stations) and one mobile (Fixed-wing UAV) which are equipped with the following sensors:
- Temperature/Humidity/Pressure
- CO
- CO2
- SO2
- NO2
- O3
- PM 1/2.5/10
To enhance air quality monitoring, CUT has also installed some weather stations which are equipped with the following sensors:
- Temperature/Humidity/Pressure
- Wind Speed
- Wind Direction
- Rain
- Ultraviolet Radiation
- Solar Radiation
- Dew Point
Env-stations feature autonomous operation with rechargeable batteries that are continuously charged from external solar panels (approximate battery autonomy is five days in dark conditions). Moreover, there is a wireless communication interface using Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz) as well as a broadband connection provided in collaboration with Cyta (Cyprus Telecommunications Authority). The sensors of each Env-stations are programmed to measure every 5 minutes and save the readings on an SD card in a text file format. Every 1 hour each file is uploaded to an FTP server. From there, our server periodically executes scheduled data collection scripts to collect and store the data into our database. In the case of low battery level (50% or below) the nodes are programmed to automatically take readings every hour instead of every 5 minutes to eliminate power consumption. Additionally, the device no longer uploads files in order to save more power. Once the battery level is restored to normal the device operates as supposed to. The state-of-the-art approach of our WSN includes sensor calibration to ensure measurement accuracy at a high standard.
CUT Water Quality
CUT Environmental Monitoring Platform has also integrated two types of nodes that take measurements and monitor the water quality. The first type consists of a couple of smart buoys which are equipped with water quality monitoring sensors. The second type consists of a couple of oil detectors measuring the existance of oils in the water.
Buoys measure the following:
- Turbidity
- Chlorophyll
- Surface Salinity
- Surface Temperature
- CDOM/FDOM
- Refined Fuels
Oil detectors measure the following:
- Background Light Intensity
- Signal Strength
DLI Air Quality
Also, our platform provides air quality data from the Department of Labour Inspection provided through an API endpoint. Our platform collects the current air quality measurements hourly and stores them in our database. This service provides measurements from the following sensors:
- CO
- CO2
- SO2
- NO2
- O3
- PM 2.5/10
- C6H6
Meteorology
Thanks to Cyprus Meteorology Department, which also provides meteorological data through again an API endpoint, we are able to collect current meteorological data every hour so that we can store them in our database in order to provide them through our platform. This service provides measurements from the following sensors:
- Temperature
- Max Temperature
- Min Temperature
- Wind Speed
- Wind Direction
- Snow Depth
- Rec. Light Work Load
- Rec. Medium Work Load
- Rec.Heavy Work Load
- Humidity
- Rain
- 24HR Rain Total
