Smart street lighting networks are evolving into multifunctional urban sensing platforms. Beyond controlling light levels, the poles are being equipped with sensors to monitor hyper-local air quality (PM2.5, NO2), noise pollution, temperature, humidity, and rainfall. This creates a dense, real-time map of environmental conditions across a city, providing data far more granular than traditional weather stations. Municipalities can use this data to identify pollution hotspots, manage urban heat islands, optimize waste collection routes based on bin fill-level sensors, and improve emergency response. The ubiquity of the lighting grid provides the perfect physical infrastructure for this sensor network, turning a city’s lighting assets into a central nervous system for civic management and environmental monitoring, delivering value far beyond illumination.
