This paper presents a non-contact sensing system for nanosized suspended particulate matter (SPM) measurements using laser-induced incandescence (LII) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The elemental composition and density of the SPMs are determined using LIBS, and particulate size measurements are accomplished using LII. Typically, temporally resolved LII enables measurement of soot particulate sizes in a combustion process. In the case of the measured object consisting of a single element material, it is easy to determine the particulate sizes distribution derived from the ratio of emission attenuation signals after a laser pulse, because the cooling behaviour is characteristic of the particulate size in LII technique. However, in actuality, the SPMs consist of several different types of elements. The elemental analysis using LIBS also allows correcting the discrepancy between the LII simulation values and observation results.

Among the analytical techniques of particular importance for the determination of the content of elements in samples of atmospheric particulates deposited on membranes there is energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (ED-XRF). This method combines the advantages of being rapid, non-destructive, multi-elemental, adequately sensitive and quantitative. The use of polarized radiation allows minimizing the background signal and, consequently, improves the detection limits. The elements determinable through ED-XRF are characterized by atomic number greater than 10. Those on which the interest is focused are: Ag, Al, As, Au, Ba, Bi, Br, Ca, Cd, Cl, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ga, K, La, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Pd, Pt, Rb, S, Sb, Se, Si, Sn, Sr, Ti, Tl, V, W, Zn, Zr. In practice, in the current state not all of these elements are determinable with sufficient reliability: for Ag, Ba, Na, P and Sb it was not possible to obtain adequate analysis conditions and the related analytical results cannot be used. Instrumental parameters have been set, and the filter and film support was selected in order to minimize the interferences. The uncertainty of measurement of EDXRF analysis was estimated and also the evaluation of Limit of Detection and accuracy of the method was carried out.

The challenges of climate change, population growth, demographic change, urbanisation and resource depletion mean that the world’s great cities need to adapt to survive and thrive over the coming decades. Slashing greenhouse gas emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change while maintaining or increasing quality of life can be a costly and difficult process. Two factors that directly affect the life quality in the XXI century cities are the water and air quality that can be monitored using the combination of low cost sensing modules, M2M and IoT technologies. In this context the work presents a wireless sensor network architecture that combines low cost sensing nodes and a low cost multi parameters sensing probe for reliable monitoring of water quality parameters of surface waters (lakes, estuaries, rivers) in urban areas. An extended description of the water quality measuring channels and several elements concerning the wireless sensor network implementation are included in the paper.

Human activities are, more or less directly, responsible of the increasing pollution in running waters, making their pollution an important issue over the last decades and the ones to come. Many documents define a legal frame on the water pollutants (classifying them depending on their toxicity, environmental impacts or origin), thus underlying the importance of the surveillance of their presence in the environment. The difficulty for the surveillance of these products is the great diversity of pollutant families, leading to the necessity to use several analytical techniques. This paper shows the possibility of using Raman spectrometry for the detection/quantification of several pollutant families in an aqueous media (drugs, pesticides, or salts coming from the fertilizers).

Understanding climate and health effects of atmospheric aerosol is an important aspect of research. These effects are strongly related to the size-distribution of particles and of chemical components contained in aerosol. In this work aerosol was collected, in an urban background site in Lecce, using a 10-stages Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposit Impactor (MOUDI). Collected samples were analysed to evaluate the size-segregated composition of water soluble ions (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺, NH₄⁺, Na⁺, SO₄^2-, NO3^- and Cl^-), using High Performance Ion Chromatography (HPIC), and of water soluble organic (WSOC) and inorganic (WSIC) carbon, using a TOC analyzer. Collected data were used to estimate the losses in the impactor, to characterise the size distributions of the different species and to obtain information on the main aerosol sources acting on the studied area.