Dan OBrien Research Director Boston Area Research Initiative

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-496-9975 E-Mail: daniel_obrien@radcliffe.harvard.edu Web: www.bostonarearesearchinitiative.net

DOCUMENTATION FOR LOCAL SENSE LAB SENSOR DATA

Overview
The Local Sense Lab Sensor Data comes from environmental sensors located in the City of
Bostons Downtown Crossing neighborhood. More about the Local Sense Lab project can be
found at: http://localsense.org/about/. Four sensor nodes are located at Downtown
Crossing; two are devoted to collecting and measuring atmospheric conditions (environ1
and environ2) while the remaining two measure ambient conditions (city1 and city2)
Information about the four sensors is listed in Table 1 below.

Table 1:

Node (id_wasp) Latitude Longitude Sensors Included

environ1 42.355328 -71.060311 CO, CO2, NO2, O2
environ2 42.355169 -71.060828 CO, CO2, NO2, O2
city1 42.355195 -71.060131 GP_TC, GP_HUM, LUM, MCP
city2 42.355662 -71.060964 GP_TC, GP_HUM, LUM, MCP

The data were originally structured into two separate csv files: environment_sensor_data-
MT.csv and city_sensor_data-MT.csv. The environment_sensor_data-MT.csv detailed
measurements of atmospheric conditions while the city_sensor_data-MT.csv detailed
ambient conditions. Information on the sensor types and the units they measure are listed
in Table 2. Members of the Spring 2017 Big Data for Cities class aggregated the original
sensor data to the minute level and included new variables: aggregatedata-final.csv. All
three datasets are detailed in this document for further analyses.

Table 2:

Sensor Type (sensor) Description Units

GP_TC Temperature C
GP_HUM Humidity % Relative Humidity
LUM Luminosity Ohms
MCP Microphone dBA
CO Carbon Monoxide concentration voltage
CO2 Carbon Dioxide concentration voltage
NO2 Nitrogen Dioxide concentration voltage
O2 Oxygen concentration voltage
Dan OBrien Research Director Boston Area Research Initiative
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-496-9975 E-Mail: daniel_obrien@radcliffe.harvard.edu Web: www.bostonarearesearchinitiative.net

Contents
Overview .................................................................................................................................................... 1
Table 1: ................................................................................................................................................... 1
Table 2: ................................................................................................................................................... 1
1. ENVIRONMENT_SENSOR_DATA-MT.CSV ............................................................................ 2
1.1 Variables ......................................................................................................................................... 2
2. CITY_SENSOR_DATA-MT.CSV ................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Variables ......................................................................................................................................... 3
3. AGGREGATEDATA-FINAL.CSV ................................................................................................. 3
3.1 Variables ......................................................................................................................................... 3
NOTES: ........................................................................................................................................................ 6

1. ENVIRONMENT_SENSOR_DATA-MT.CSV
This dataset includes measurements of atmospheric conditions of four variables
gathered from two sensor nodes.

1.1 Variables
id a unique identifier for each sensor observation
id_wasp the ID of the sensor node (see Table 1 above)
sensor the sensor type and the unit/quantity being measured (see Table 2 above)
value the value measured by the sensor
timestamp a time of recording for a given case (using the local timezone for
Boston, EDT). Values are written in yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss format
un_flg dummy indicator flag for duplicate cases where 0 indicates non-duplicate
and 1 indicates a duplicate
hour the hour portion of the timestamp (included for improved handling of
timestamp); values range from 0:00 to 23:00
minute the minute portion of the timestamp (included for improved handling of
timestamp); values range from 0:00 to 0:59
lowessvals an update for the value field using Lowess smoothing technique with
f=0.1 and iter=10. f represents the smoothing span - the proportion of values that
affect a given value in the smoothing function - while iter represents the number of
robustifying iterations performed (see https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-
devel/library/stats/html/lowess.html for more information).
day_flg indicator for morning (cases with timestamp from 12:00AM to sunrise),
day (cases with timestamp from sunrise to sunset), and night (cases with timestamp
from sunset to 11:59PM)
Dan OBrien Research Director Boston Area Research Initiative
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-496-9975 E-Mail: daniel_obrien@radcliffe.harvard.edu Web: www.bostonarearesearchinitiative.net

2. CITY_SENSOR_DATA-MT.CSV
This dataset includes measurements of ambient conditions of 4 variables, gathered from
two sensor nodes

2.1 Variables
id a unique identifier for each sensor observation
id_wasp the ID of the sensor node (see Table 1 above)
sensor the sensor type and the unit/quantity being measured (see Table 2 above)
value the value measured by the sensor
timestamp a time of recording for a given case (using the local timezone for
Boston, EDT). Values are written in yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss format.
un_flg dummy indicator flag for duplicate cases where 0 indicates non-duplicate
and 1 indicates a duplicate
hour the hour portion of the timestamp (included for improved handling of
timestamp); values range from 0:00 to 23:00
minute the minute portion of the timestamp (included for improved handling of
timestamp); values range from 0:00 to 0:59
lowessvals an update for the value field using Lowess smoothing technique with
f=0.1 and iter=10. f represents the smoothing span - the proportion of values that
affect a given value in the smoothing function - while iter represents the number of
robustifying iterations performed (see https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-
devel/library/stats/html/lowess.html for more information).
dba_exceed indicates hazard level of microphone recording (sensor == MCP)
where 0 indicates that the volume is not considered hazardous (0 < dBA < 65), 1
indicates that the volume exceeds Boston City Ordinance (dBA >= 65), and 2
indicates that the volume exceeds OSHA health standards (dBA >= 85)
day_flg indicator for morning (cases with timestamp from 12:00AM to sunrise),
day (cases with timestamp from sunrise to sunset), and night (cases with timestamp
from sunset to 11:59PM)

3. AGGREGATEDATA-FINAL.CSV
This dataset is a combination of the previous two datasets and is aggregated to the
minute-level.

3.1 Variables
hour - the hour portion of the timestamp (included for improved handling of
timestamp); values range from 0:00 to 23:00
minute - the minute portion of the timestamp (included for improved handling of
timestamp); values range from 0:00 to 0:59
day - the date portion of the timestamp in format: yyyy:mm:dd. Values range from
2016-08-10 to 2016-08-19.
Dan OBrien Research Director Boston Area Research Initiative
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-496-9975 E-Mail: daniel_obrien@radcliffe.harvard.edu Web: www.bostonarearesearchinitiative.net

City1HUM_value - measured values of humidity from city1 sensor aggregated by

minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
City2HUM_value - measured values of humidity from city2 sensor aggregated by
minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
City1TC_value - measured values of temperature from city1 sensor aggregated by
minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
City2TC_value - measured values of temperature from city2 sensor aggregated by
minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
City1LUM_value - measured values of luminosity from city1 sensor aggregated by
minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
City2LUM_value - measured values of luminosity from city2 sensor aggregated by
minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
City1MCP_value - measured values of microphone readings from city1 sensor
aggregated by minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
City2MCP_value - measured values of microphone readings from city2 sensor
aggregated by minute
Envi1CO_value - measured values of CO from environ1 sensor aggregated by minute
(see Table 2 for corresponding units)
Envi2CO_value - measured values of CO from environ2 sensor aggregated by minute
(see Table 2 for corresponding units)
Envi1CO2_value - measured values of CO2 from environ1 sensor aggregated by
minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
Envi2CO2_value - measured values of CO2 from environ2 sensor aggregated by
minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
Envi1NO2_value - measured values of NO2 from environ1 sensor aggregated by
minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
Envi2NO2_value - measured values of NO2 from environ2 sensor aggregated by
minute (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
Envi1O2_value - measured values of O2 from environ1 sensor aggregated by minute
(see Table 2 for corresponding units)
Envi2O2_value - measured values of O2 from environ2 sensor aggregated by minute
(see Table 2 for corresponding units)
City1TF_value - measured values of temperature from city1 sensor aggregated by
minute in degree Fahrenheit (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
City1TF_value - measured values of temperature from city2 sensor aggregated by
minute in degree Fahrenheit (see Table 2 for corresponding units)
City1heatindex* - heat index values (F) based on temperature and humidity
readings from the city1 sensor, aggregated by minute (see Table 2 for
corresponding units)
City2heatindex* - heat index values (F) based on temperature and humidity
readings from the city2 sensor, aggregated by minute (see Table 2 for
corresponding units)
Dan OBrien Research Director Boston Area Research Initiative
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-496-9975 E-Mail: daniel_obrien@radcliffe.harvard.edu Web: www.bostonarearesearchinitiative.net

City1heatindexcat* - indicates hazard level of heat index values for City1, based on
National Weather Service thresholds. Values include:
0_no danger = heat index values < 80
1_caution = heat index values from 80 91
2_extreme caution = heat index values from 92 104
3_danger = heat index values from 105 - 126
4_extreme danger = heat index values > 126
City2heatindexcat* - indicates hazard level of heat index values for City 2, based on
National Weather Service thresholds. Values include:
0_no danger: heat index values < 80
1_caution: heat index values from 80 - 91
2_extreme caution: heat index values from 92 - 104
3_danger: heat index values from 105 - 126
4_extreme danger: heat index values > 126
City1dba_exceed - indicates hazard level of microphone recording for City1 (sensor
== MCP). Values include:
0: volume not considered hazardous (0 < dBA < 65)
1: volume exceeds Boston City Ordinance (dBA >= 65)
2: volume exceeds OSHA health standards (dBA >= 85)
City2dba_exceed - indicates hazard level of microphone recording for City2 (sensor
== MCP). Values include:
0: volume not considered hazardous (0 < dBA < 65)
1: volume exceeds Boston City Ordinance (dBA >= 65)
2: volume exceeds OSHA health standards (dBA >= 85)
Envi1NO2scale - indicates NO2 level grouped by deciles from city1 sensor. Values
range from 0 to 10.
Envi2NO2scale - indicates NO2 level grouped by deciles from city2 sensor. Values
range from 0 to 10.
Envi1COscale - indicates CO level grouped by deciles from city1 sensor. Values range
from 0 to 10.
Envi2COscale - indicates CO level grouped by deciles from city2 sensor. Values range
from 0 to 10.
City1_comfort - derived variable indicating comfort level based on heat index
categories (see City1heatindexcat*) and sound level categories (see City1dba_exceed)
for the city1 sensor readings. Values range from 0 to 6.
City2_comfort - derived variable indicating comfort level based on heat index
categories (see City2heatindexcat) and sound level categories (see City2dba_exceed)
for the city1 sensor readings. Values range from 0 to 6.
Dan OBrien Research Director Boston Area Research Initiative
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-496-9975 E-Mail: daniel_obrien@radcliffe.harvard.edu Web: www.bostonarearesearchinitiative.net

NOTES:
* Heat index formula based on definition from the National Weather Service: The heat
index, also known as the apparent temperature, is what the temperature feels like to the
human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature. This has
important considerations for the human bodys comfort.