Low Cost Sensor Networks: How Do We Know the Data Are Reliable?

The plausibility of data from networks of low-cost measurement devices is a growing and important contentious issue. Informal networks of low-cost devices have particularly come to prominence for air quality monitoring. The contentious point is the believability of data without regular on-site calibration, since this is a specialist task and the costs very quickly become much larger than the cost of installation in the first place. This Sensor Issues suggests that approaches to the problem that involve appropriate use of independent information have the potential to resolve the contention. Ideas are illustrated particularly with reference to low-cost sensor networks for air quality measurement.