AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
A Distributed Network of Low-Cost Black Carbon Sensors to Evaluate Community Exposure to Diesel Exhaust
CHELSEA V. PREBLE, Julien Caubel, Troy Cados, Thomas W. Kirchstetter, University of California, Berkeley
Abstract Number: 420 Working Group: Urban Aerosols
Abstract West Oakland is a mixed residential/industrial community in the San Francisco Bay Area that is adjacent to the Port of Oakland and the Union Pacific/BNSF rail yards and is bounded by three major freeways. As such, the community is disproportionately burdened by diesel particulate matter (PM) emissions associated with freight movement. Black carbon (BC) comprises the majority of diesel PM mass emissions and is currently monitored at a single, centrally located site in West Oakland. This study seeks to better understand the community’s outdoor exposure to diesel exhaust by employing a network of 100 custom, low-cost BC sensors to make spatially resolved ambient BC measurements over 100 days.
In partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund and West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, we collaborated with community members and local businesses to place BC sensors throughout West Oakland. Locations were chosen to create a well distributed network that included sites along commercial corridors, near port/rail operations, and within both residential neighborhoods and industrial areas. The spatial and temporal variability in outdoor BC concentrations across West Oakland will be evaluated with this network. We will identify local hotspots where BC concentration is elevated relative to the community-average exposure and the centrally located concentration. For instance, there are likely to be higher outdoor concentrations near major roadways where heavy-duty diesel trucks operate, including the mandated drayage truck corridors through the community and those areas downwind of the major freeways. Identified hotspots will be categorized according to observed local combustion activity, such as trucks, ship/rail, and industrial operations. We will compare the relative impact of these local sources to the community-average exposure concentration to examine how the single regulatory air monitor represents community exposure to diesel exhaust compared to the high-resolution network of sensors.