Grantee Research Project Results
2018 Progress Report: Engage, Educate, and Empower California Communities on the Use and Applications of Low-cost Air Monitoring Sensors
EPA Grant Number: R836184Title: Engage, Educate, and Empower California Communities on the Use and Applications of Low-cost Air Monitoring Sensors
Investigators: Polidori, Andrea , Fine, Philip M. , Hafner, Hilary , Low, Jason , Zhu, Yifang
Current Investigators: Polidori, Andrea , Zhu, Yifang , Fine, Philip M. , Tisopulos, Laki , Dye, Timothy S , Hafner, Hilary
Institution: South Coast Air Quality Management District , University of California - Los Angeles , Sonoma Technology, Inc.
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Project Period: May 1, 2016 through April 30, 2019 (Extended to April 30, 2022)
Project Period Covered by this Report: May 1, 2018 through April 30,2019
Project Amount: $749,820
RFA: Air Pollution Monitoring for Communities (2014) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Environmental Justice , Air Quality and Air Toxics , Air , Particulate Matter
Objective:
The overall objective of the proposed research is to provide California communities with the knowledge necessary to appropriately select, use, and maintain “low-cost” sensors and to correctly interpret sensor data. This will be accomplished by pursuing the following four specific aims: (1) develop new methodologies to educate and engage communities on the use and applications of “low-cost” sensors ; (2) conduct testing to characterize the performance of commercially available “low-cost” sensors and to identify candidates for field deployment; (3) deploy the selected sensors in California communities, and interpret the collected data; and (4) communicate the lessons learned to the public through a series of outreach activities.
Progress Summary:
Aim 1. South Coast AQMD worked with STI (co-Principal Investigator) to revise the draft guidebook for the educational toolkit with a focus on content that encompasses the three major stages of community air monitoring: planning, deployment, and community action. Existing materials have been revised based on feedback from community member project participants, and new material has been developed as needed. South Coast AQMD worked with UCLA (co-Principal Investigator), Special Service for Groups (Asian Pacific Forward Movement), Comite Civico del Valle Inc., and other project partner organizations and agencies to conduct workshops that provided the opportunity to gather feedback from participants regarding the installation and use of their low-cost sensors. Thus far, 10 of these workshops have been conducted, out of the 14 total STAR Grant communities. In addition to the workshops, a number of surveys were deployed in order to better understand the participants’ experience with the low-cost sensors. Lastly, South Coast AQMD entered into a partnership with a software company focused on building solutions for data analysis/visualization to develop an R-based, open-source, package intended to make it easier to access and explore low-cost sensor data.
Aim 3. In the past reporting period, sensors have been deployed to three more communities, bringing the total number of participating communities to 14. Two of these new communities are in Northern California in the Bay Area, and one is in the South Coast Air Basin. A total of about 400 low-cost PM sensors have been distributed on a 1-to-1 (host-sensor) basis to community members in those communities and more than 65% of those sensors have already been installed and report fine and coarse particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) concentration levels. A preliminary analysis of the data from each of these sensor networks has been conducted and was shared with the respective community during the aforementioned workshops.
Sensors are accompanied by copies of the sensor installation guide in English and Spanish, developed by South Coast AQMD and continually revised based on participant feedback. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) has held in-person meetings and supported the distribution and deployment of sensors in the two communities recruited in Northern California. South Coast AQMD led workshops with and distributed sensor to the final newly recruited community – in Temescal Valley.
Future Activities:
Aim 1. Continued revisions of the guidebook will occur in during the next reporting cycle. STI will work with South Coast AQMD to create a final draft version, which will then be shared with UCLA and other community organizations in order to inform final revisions relating to usability and ensuring the guidebook is appropriate for its intended audience. The complete analysis of all survey data and feedback will also inform these guidebook revisions. Other elements of the Toolkit will also be undergoing development and/or revision. For example, the AirSensor R-package will be completed and released to the public. This package will also be used to support the development of “shiny apps” for data visualization. Shiny is another open-source R package that can be used to build standalone applications that can be hosted on a website. By leveraging the AirSensor and Shiny R-packages, each STAR Grant community to access, view, and interact with their data. Additionally, one internal application will allow South Coast AQMD to view easily assess sensor performance and conduct analysis internally. Aim 3. We will complete the deployments in all participating communities as well as a final validation, analysis, and interpretation of the data for each community. A number of final reports will be available from partner organizations showcasing the analysis and interpretation of data from their respective STAR Grant networks. Aim 4. During the upcoming reporting period, the “post-deployment” workshops will be held in each community to share the results from the project (including lessons learned), distribute incentives, and gather final feedback. These meetings will also provide an opportunity to discuss new resources that are or will soon be available including the AirSensor package, the web-based data visualization applications (i.e., the AirSensor and Shiny package products), and the Toolkit as a whole. South Coast AQMD plans to share overviews of the STAR Grant and lessons learned at several upcoming scientific conferences. South Coast AQMD also plans to complete and submit several journal articles sharing both lessons learned and analysis of STAR Grant sensor network data with the research community.
Journal Articles on this Report : 4 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 32 publications | 9 publications in selected types | All 9 journal articles |
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Hagler GSW, Williams R, Papapostolou V and Polidori A. Air quality sensors and data adjustment algorithms: when is it no longer a measurement? Environmental Science & Technology 2018;52(10):5530-5531. |
R836184 (2017) R836184 (2018) |
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Papapostolou V, Zhang H, Feenstra BJ, Polidori A. Development of an environmental chamber for evaluating the performance of low-cost air quality sensors under controlled conditions. Atmospheric Environment 2017;171:82-90. |
R836184 (2017) R836184 (2018) |
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Williams R, Duvall R, Kilaru V, Hagler G, Hassinger L, Benedict K, Rice J, Kaufman A, Judge R, Pierce G, Allen G, Bergin M, Cohen RC, Fransioli P, Gerboles M, Habre R, Hannigan M, Jack D, Louie O, Martin N, Penza M, Polidori A, Subramanian R, Ray K, Schauer J, Seto E, Thurnston G, Turner J, Wexler AS, Ning Z. Deliberating performance targets workshop:potential paths for emerging PM2.5 and O3 air sensor progress. Atmospheric Environment 2019;2:100031, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeaoa.2019.100031 |
R836184 (2018) R836184 (2019) |
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Feenstra B, Papapostolou V, Hasheminassab S, Zhang H, Der Boghossian B, Cocker D, Polidori A. Performance evaluation of twelve low-cost PM2.5 sensors in an urban ambient air environment. Atmospheric Environment 2019;216: 116946 |
R836184 (2018) R836184 (2019) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
community science, community engagement, community education, community empowerment, sensor testing, sensor selection, sensor deployment, particulate matter, PM2.5, PM10, ozone, data interpretation, public outreach.Relevant Websites:
Air Quality Sensor Performance Evaluation Center (AQ-SPEC)
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- Final Report
- 2020 Progress Report
- 2019 Progress Report
- 2017 Progress Report
- 2016 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
9 journal articles for this project