Participatory air quality monitoring in urban environments: Reconciling technological challenges and participation

Abstract

There is a clear scope and added value for participatory air quality monitoring to complement the measurements from official air quality monitoring stations. However, the actually available monitoring tools do not yet allow widespread do-it-yourself approaches. Meanwhile targeted monitoring campaigns can already be implemented with existing devices. To do so there is need for creative ways of collaboration between scientists, citizens and authorities. In this chapter we present a framework for participatory air quality monitoring which starts from the need to clearly define which research questions have to be answered. Setting up a participatory monitoring campaign is further framed by the available sensors, the level of participation and efforts involved and the need for proper data processing and interpretation. The complexity of air quality research asks for a community science approach in which citizen scientists and regular scientists work closely together to answer specific research questions. Two examples highlight the potential and some of the challenges faced by participatory air quality monitoring approaches.