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Improving Tribal and Citizen Science with Low-Cost Air Sensor Collocation Shelters
Citation:
Brown, R., D. Garver, K. Barkjohn, A. Clements, S. Apodaca, AND M. Berry. Improving Tribal and Citizen Science with Low-Cost Air Sensor Collocation Shelters. National Ambient Air Monitoring Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, August 22 - 25, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
This project aims to deploy air sensor collocation shelters across the U.S. to enable tribes, community groups, and others to gather higher quality data from air sensors. This will help with tribal and environmental justice projects where no monitors are currently located since air sensors can be collocated to build corrections and improve data quality and then deployed independently. This abstract is for a presentation that will be presented to attendees of the National Ambient Air Monitoring Conference Aug 22-25, 2022 in Pittsburgh, PA.
Description:
The collocation of air quality sensors with regulatory monitors at existing air monitoring sites is a cost-effective method for understanding the performance of lower-cost air sensors. Collocations enable direct comparison between sensor data and quality-assured reference data. In some cases, collocations can allow for location-specific correction factors to be developed to improve sensor accuracy. This presentation discusses a project during which 18 collocation shelters, providing weather shielding and security for sensors, were built and recently deployed at state/local/tribal air monitoring locations across the U.S. to provide the infrastructure for monitor and sensor collocation opportunities. This work is a collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and multiple state, local, and tribal air monitoring agencies. Participating agencies are working to make these shelters accessible to the public and to encourage communities to collocate sensors with regulatory monitors and incorporate sensor data quality assurance and correction into their sensor projects. These efforts will lead to increased community engagement, leveraged expertise of the regulatory air monitoring staff, lowered barriers for collocation, and more quality-assured sensor data. As part of the project, EPA’s Office of Research and Development commissioned and will publish a design document which will allow shelters to be built and installed at regulatory air monitoring sites across the U.S. The presentation will also focus on specific challenges related to site access, security, and infrastructure that state, local, and tribal air monitoring agencies addressed in implementing this project. Although this abstract was reviewed by EPA and approved for publication, it may not necessarily reflect official Agency policy.