PI: Dr. Rosta Farzan, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Informatics and Networked Systems
The American Lung Association stated that air quality, in particular that which contains large amount of particulate matter in urban settings, is a serious health problem for residents. In addition, for many parts of the US, government owned and maintained air monitoring equipment and data does not have the spatial resolution to provide communities, especially those in low income heavily polluted areas, with air quality data. This Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) planning process brings together a science team with local community and civic organizations to co-design a science/research-based, implementable, scalable, and sustainable solution that addresses air quality, an important local community resilience problem in one of Pittsburgh’s, low income, urban neighborhoods.
The project involves installation of low-cost air quality measurement and monitoring infrastructure to support a network of community scientists with online accessible tools to collect community air quality data, share individual and collective narratives about local environmental issues, and support the community in helping them know how to critically analyze data to build a science and data-driven advocacy campaign for improved community air quality.