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Sustainability
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Sustainable Air Quality Management and Monitoring
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Sustainable Air Quality Management and Monitoring

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 3022

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Rasa Zalakeviciute

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Facultad de Ingenierias y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de Las Americas, Quito, Ecuador
Interests: air quality; climate change
Dr. Fidel Vallejo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Industrial Engineering, National University of Chimborazo, Riobamba 060108, Ecuador
Interests: hydrothermal carbonization; biomass valorization; waste-to-energy; air quality modeling; process optimization; CFD simulation; life cycle assessment (LCA); gasification; biofuel production; atmospheric pollution; circular economy; climate data analysis; machine learning in environmental prediction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since the Industrial Revolution, air pollution has been a significant anthropogenic challenge, driving climate change, degrading environmental quality, and causing millions of deaths annually. Today, 99% of global cities fail to meet WHO air quality standards, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable air quality management and enhanced monitoring. Developing countries face significant barriers in governance, funding, and technical capacity, which impede the development of long-term solutions. While some regions benefit from advanced monitoring networks and the wide application of low-cost sensors, the Global South continues to lag, although innovations such as remote sensing, low-cost sensors, and machine learning offer promise. This Special Issue invites original research, reviews, and case studies on sustainable air quality strategies, with a focus on low-cost sensor deployment, policy frameworks, and successful implementation techniques. We encourage submissions that showcase practical solutions and governance models, particularly in underserved regions, to bridge the monitoring gap and promote healthier, more sustainable environments.

Prof. Dr. Rasa Zalakeviciute
Prof. Dr. Fidel Vallejo Gallardo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • air pollution
  • air quality management
  • air pollution monitoring
  • environmental monitoring
  • low-cost sensors
  • sustainability policies
  • air pollution control

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 2572 KB  
Article
Evaluating and Optimizing Air Quality Forecasting for Critical Particulate Matter Episodes in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile
by Luis Alonso Díaz-Robles, Marcelo Oyaneder, Julio López, Ariel Meza, Serguei Alejandro-Martin, Rasa Zalakeviciute, Diana Yánez, Andrea Espinoza-Pérez, Lorena Espinoza-Pérez, Ernesto Pino-Cortés and Fidel Vallejo
Sustainability 2026, 18(8), 3652; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18083652 - 8 Apr 2026
Viewed by 578
Abstract
Severe wintertime particulate pollution (PM10 and PM2.5) affects the Santiago Metropolitan Region in Chile and is intensified by basin topography and frequent thermal inversions. Local authorities rely on the Critical Episodes Management (CEM) forecasting system, yet its predictive performance is [...] Read more.
Severe wintertime particulate pollution (PM10 and PM2.5) affects the Santiago Metropolitan Region in Chile and is intensified by basin topography and frequent thermal inversions. Local authorities rely on the Critical Episodes Management (CEM) forecasting system, yet its predictive performance is variable. This study assesses CEM to identify operational vulnerabilities and propose data-driven improvements for urban air-quality governance. About ~1.2 million hourly meteorological and air-quality records (2017–2022) were analyzed using Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) to characterize key nonlinear relationships, and we evaluated the operational skill of the Cassmassi-1 PM10 model and the WRF-Chem-based PM2.5 forecasting component used by the system. Cassmassi-1 missed more than 50% of critical episodes and showed a false-alarm rate above 60%, consistent with limitations associated with static or incomplete emission representations. By contrast, the WRF-Chem-based component achieved episode prediction accuracy above 70%. GAM results indicate that wind speeds below 2 m s−1, high diurnal temperature range, and relative humidity below 65% are strongly associated with extreme events. Considering the results, we recommend transitioning to nonlinear forecasting approaches that explicitly incorporate these meteorological thresholds and vertical stability indicators to improve alert reliability, strengthen urban resilience, and reduce population exposure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Air Quality Management and Monitoring)
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27 pages, 2474 KB  
Article
Sensing System for Cooking Event Detection Designed to Control Indoor Air Quality
by Monika Maciejewska, Jan Szecówka, Paulina Dziurska and Andrzej Szczurek
Sustainability 2026, 18(4), 1910; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18041910 - 12 Feb 2026
Viewed by 629
Abstract
Giving consideration to cooking activity is important for sustainable housing. In contexts of limited ventilation, imposed by energy saving concerns, cooking causes deterioration of indoor air quality (IAQ) and occupants’ discomfort. This study presents a cooking event detection system that may support IAQ [...] Read more.
Giving consideration to cooking activity is important for sustainable housing. In contexts of limited ventilation, imposed by energy saving concerns, cooking causes deterioration of indoor air quality (IAQ) and occupants’ discomfort. This study presents a cooking event detection system that may support IAQ control to minimize the impact of cooking. The system consists of a multi-sensor device and a deep-learning neural network (DNN). The device monitors temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), suspended particulate matter (PM), CO2, the responses of sensors to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and other gases (NO2, CO, CH2O) in the kitchen zone. The collected data are processed by the DNN. The detection system generates a response every 7 s, indicating either ’COOKING’ or ’NO COOKING’. Feature vector selection was based on classification performance and cost considerations. Cooking event misdetections generate unjustified IAQ control costs: economic ones (UEC), when the system detects a non-existent event, and environmental ones (UEN), when the system fails to detect an actual event. In this study, several well-performing detection systems were developed, with miss rates ranging from 5.1% to 20.5% and false detection rates ranging from 7.7% to 11.7%. The results show that gas sensor responses—particularly to VOCs—had greater utility for cooking event detection compared with T, RH, CO2, and PM. The cost analysis demonstrated that IAQ control supported by the developed cooking event detection systems could generate higher total unjustified environmental costs when the unit cost ratio UEN/UEC exceeded 1.25, or higher total unjustified economic costs when the unit cost ratio UEN/UEC was below 1.43. We believe this work will contribute to the development of novel automatic IAQ control systems supported by event detection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Air Quality Management and Monitoring)
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Review

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18 pages, 679 KB  
Review
Effects of Vehicular Emissions on Urban Air Quality in Ecuador and Implications for Respiratory Health
by Jorge Buele and Diego Criollo-Casignia
Sustainability 2026, 18(3), 1262; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18031262 - 27 Jan 2026
Viewed by 1182
Abstract
Vehicular emissions are a major contributor to air pollution and respiratory morbidity in Ecuador’s urban centers. Despite increasing evidence of traffic-related health impacts, national research remains fragmented and unevenly distributed. This narrative review synthesizes 26 peer-reviewed studies published between 2000 and 2024 to [...] Read more.
Vehicular emissions are a major contributor to air pollution and respiratory morbidity in Ecuador’s urban centers. Despite increasing evidence of traffic-related health impacts, national research remains fragmented and unevenly distributed. This narrative review synthesizes 26 peer-reviewed studies published between 2000 and 2024 to characterize vehicular air pollution sources, pollutants, and respiratory health effects in Ecuador. The evidence shows a strong geographic concentration, with more than half of the studies conducted in Quito, followed by Guayaquil and Cuenca. National inventories indicate that the transport sector accounts for approximately 41.7% of Ecuador’s CO2 emissions. Across cities, PM2.5, PM10, NO2, CO, and SO2 were the most frequently assessed pollutants and were repeatedly reported to approach or exceed international guideline values, particularly during traffic peaks and under low-dispersion conditions. Health-related studies documented substantial impacts, including up to 19,966 respiratory hospitalizations in Quito, with short-term PM2.5 exposure associated with increased hospitalization risk in children. Among schoolchildren attending high-traffic schools, carboxyhemoglobin levels above 2.5% were linked to a threefold increase in the risk of acute respiratory infections. Occupationally exposed adults, such as drivers, traffic police officers, and outdoor workers with regular exposure to traffic-related air pollution, also showed a higher prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms. Environmental evidence further highlighted the accumulation of traffic-related heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, Cr) and pronounced spatial inequalities affecting low-income neighborhoods. Overall, the review identifies aging vehicle fleets and diesel-based transport as dominant contributors to observed pollution and health patterns, while underscoring methodological limitations such as the scarcity of longitudinal studies and uneven monitoring coverage. These findings provide integrated and policy-relevant evidence to support sustainable urban planning, cleaner transport strategies, and targeted respiratory health policies in Ecuador. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Air Quality Management and Monitoring)
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