Desenvolvimento de equipamento de baixo custo para condução de pesquisa de campo dinâmica em conforto ambiental em espaços abertos

Abstract

Monitoring systems based on microcontrollers emerge as an alternative to conventional environmental comfort monitoring devices, overcoming the limitations imposed by the relative high cost of commercially available professional equipment. To understand environmental comfort conditions at the pedestrian level more broadly, integrating measurements of microclimatic variations in thermal ambiance, illuminance levels, noise and air quality, a customized low-backpack prototype was developed for driving ar dynamic field research. The prototype, called PLEMS, consists of a set of sensors that allows users to georeferenced assessment of the environmental conditions of the urban environment in a multi-point manner. This work presents the prototype development stages with a subjective analysis of thermal comfort heated by questionnaires at five points with different construction configurations on a university campus. Dynamic monitoring campaigns were carried out in the autumn and winter seasons of 2023, as well as in the summer of 2024. In total, 113 volunteers participated in the research, in which the instrumentation responded satisfactorily to variations in environmental conditions resulting from the different microclimates experienced in each of the points of the circuit to which the backpack was exposed, thus enabling a dynamic assessment of the environmental parameters and the thermal perception of the interviewed volunteers. The results of the campaigns showed environmental differences between the points, particularly considering the short distances traveled between them. Although previous studies indicated in the literature have successfully developed relatively low-cost monitoring devices, the lack of information on the construction of prototypes, the need for sensors or the lack of knowledge about microelectronics prevented other researchers from reproducing and using this equipment. Proposed. The present research showed that it is possible to build an accurate and easy-to-use mobile environmental comfort monitoring station.