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Volume 9
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10.3390/smartcities9010014
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This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Article

Smart Sensing in Italian Historic City Centers: The Liminal Environmental Monitoring System (LEMS)

by
Valentina Diolaiti
1,
Leonardo Sollazzo
1,*,
Giulio Mangherini
1,*,
Nazim Aslam
1,
Diego Bernardoni
2,
Marta Calzolari
3,
Pietromaria Davoli
3,
Valentina Modugno
3 and
Donato Vincenzi
1,2
1
Department of Physics and Earth Science, University of Ferrara, Via Saragat 1, 44122 Ferrara, Italy
2
Consorzio Futuro in Ricerca, Via Saragat 1, 44122 Ferrara, Italy
3
Department of Architecture, University of Ferrara, Via della Ghiara 36, 44121 Ferrara, Italy
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Smart Cities 2026, 9(1), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities9010014
Submission received: 1 December 2025 / Revised: 10 January 2026 / Accepted: 14 January 2026 / Published: 20 January 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative IoT Solutions for Sustainable Smart Cities)
Versions Notes

Abstract

Historic city centers host dense ensembles of heritage buildings where conservation goals must coexist with sustainable and smart urban development, yet the semi-outdoor “liminal” spaces of these complexes, such as cloisters, loggias and courtyards, are rarely included in microclimate monitoring networks. This study develops and tests the Liminal Environmental Monitoring System (LEMS), a flexible environmental data acquisition architecture designed for long-term monitoring in such spaces. The LEMS is based on a custom, low-cost data acquisition board able to handle multiple analogue and digital sensors, combined with a daisy-chain communication layout using the MODBUS RS485 protocol and a commercial datalogger as master, in order to meet the technical and visual constraints of historic buildings. Board calibration and sensor characterisation are reported, and the system is deployed in the cloister of Palazzo Costabili, a renaissance complex in the historic city center of Ferrara (Italy). This case study illustrates how the LEMS captures spatial and temporal variation in air temperature, relative humidity and solar irradiance and how an annual solar-shading indicator derived from 3D ray-tracing simulations supports the interpretation of irradiance measurements. The results indicate that the LEMS is a viable tool for heritage-compatible microclimate monitoring and can be adapted to other historic courtyards and loggias.
Keywords: smart cities; environmental monitoring; IoT; data acquisition; smart heritage smart cities; environmental monitoring; IoT; data acquisition; smart heritage

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MDPI and ACS Style

Diolaiti, V.; Sollazzo, L.; Mangherini, G.; Aslam, N.; Bernardoni, D.; Calzolari, M.; Davoli, P.; Modugno, V.; Vincenzi, D. Smart Sensing in Italian Historic City Centers: The Liminal Environmental Monitoring System (LEMS). Smart Cities 2026, 9, 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities9010014

AMA Style

Diolaiti V, Sollazzo L, Mangherini G, Aslam N, Bernardoni D, Calzolari M, Davoli P, Modugno V, Vincenzi D. Smart Sensing in Italian Historic City Centers: The Liminal Environmental Monitoring System (LEMS). Smart Cities. 2026; 9(1):14. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities9010014

Chicago/Turabian Style

Diolaiti, Valentina, Leonardo Sollazzo, Giulio Mangherini, Nazim Aslam, Diego Bernardoni, Marta Calzolari, Pietromaria Davoli, Valentina Modugno, and Donato Vincenzi. 2026. "Smart Sensing in Italian Historic City Centers: The Liminal Environmental Monitoring System (LEMS)" Smart Cities 9, no. 1: 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities9010014

APA Style

Diolaiti, V., Sollazzo, L., Mangherini, G., Aslam, N., Bernardoni, D., Calzolari, M., Davoli, P., Modugno, V., & Vincenzi, D. (2026). Smart Sensing in Italian Historic City Centers: The Liminal Environmental Monitoring System (LEMS). Smart Cities, 9(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities9010014

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