# From Deterministic to Generative Deep Learning for Urban Air Quality Reconstruction from Sparse Observations

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.25687 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.25687/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 48 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Jul 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00364/) (2022)
- [Convolutional LSTM Network: A Machine Learning Approach for Precipitation Nowcasting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.04214/) (2015)
- [Diffusion Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Methods and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.00796/) (2022)
- [DPM-Solver++: Fast Solver for Guided Sampling of Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.01095/) (2022)
- [Generative Modelling With Inverse Heat Dissipation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.13397/) (2022)
- [PriSTI: A Conditional Diffusion Framework for Spatiotemporal Imputation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.09746/) (2023)
- [Global field reconstruction from sparse sensors with Voronoi tessellation-assisted deep learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.00554/) (2021)
- [Latent diffusion models for generative precipitation nowcasting with accurate uncertainty quantification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.12891/) (2023)
- [Spatially-Aware Diffusion Models with Cross-Attention for Global Field Reconstruction with Sparse Observations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00230/) (2024)
- [Spatio-Temporal Field Neural Networks for Air Quality Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.02354/) (2024)
- [AIREX: Neural Network-based Approach for Air Quality Inference in Unmonitored Cities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07120/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Full-field reconstruction of air pollution is essential for evaluating pollution exposure and supporting public health decision-making. However, the complex interactions among pollutants, hard-to-predict weather patterns, and limited monitoring station coverage make this a complex task. We apply deep learning techniques to provide fast and accurate reconstructions from sparse observations of four key pollutants: NO2, O3, PM2.5 and PM10. Models are trained on full-field simulation data and evaluated on real-world observations collected from 9 to 28 monitoring stations in the city of Paris. We introduce a diffusion-based generative framework for multi-pollutant reconstruction and benchmark its performance against deterministic deep learning models. Despite noisy observations and strong spatial variability, the models achieve high structural similarity on simulated validation data and produce realistic spatial patterns on real-world observations, as indicated by power-spectrum analysis. We introduce data augmentation methods that enable transfer to real-world observations without retraining, allowing the models to generalise beyond the training period. These findings highlight the potential of ML models for reliable real-world deployment in air pollution reconstruction tasks.