AI-Based Predictive Models for Urban Air Quality Management

Abstract

Rapid urbanization, industrialization, increasing vehicle emissions, fossil fuel consumption, and construction activities have significantly deteriorated urban air quality, posing serious risks to public health, the environment, and the economy. Traditional air quality monitoring systems, which rely on fixed monitoring stations and statistical forecasting methods, often lack adequate spatial coverage and fail to capture the complex relationships among environmental factors. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers an effective alternative by integrating data from IoT sensors, satellite observations, meteorological stations, traffic systems, and historical pollution records to generate accurate real-time air quality predictions. This paper presents an AI-based predictive framework for urban air quality management that combines data preprocessing, feature engineering, machine learning, deep learning, and ensemble models. The framework analyzes key environmental parameters, including particulate matter (PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀), gaseous pollutants, weather conditions, traffic density, and industrial emissions. Advanced preprocessing techniques improve data quality, while algorithms such as Random Forest, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and Gradient Boosting enhance forecasting accuracy. The proposed model supports intelligent decision-making by enabling early pollution warnings, optimized traffic management, industrial emission control, and sustainable urban planning. Experimental results demonstrate that AI-based models outperform conventional statistical approaches in prediction accuracy and computational efficiency. Overall, the framework provides a scalable and reliable solution for smart city applications, contributing to healthier, more sustainable, and resilient urban environments.