AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
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Community-owned Air Quality Monitoring in East Boston, MA: An Integrated Approach to Air Health
SCOTT HERSEY, Eben Cross, David Hagan, Jared Briskman, Lacie Fradet, Lauren Gulland, Isabel Harrison, Jonathan Jacobs, Linnea Laux, Samuel Myers, Louise Nielsen, Taylor Sheneman, Katerina Soltan, Jonah Spear, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Abstract Number: 321 Working Group: Air Quality Sensors: Low-cost != Low Complexity
Abstract A unique academic-industry-nonprofit partnership was formed in 2018 for the purpose of creating a culture of air health in East Boston, Massachusetts - immediately adjacent to Boston’s Logan Airport. Using a human-centered and interdisciplinary approach, collaborators from Olin College of Engineering, Aerodyne Research, Inc., and Airport Impact Relief, Inc. (AIRInc) engaged in three project components to achieve community-identified objectives. First, the team established a network of 8 ARISense nodes measuring CO, NOx, O3, CO2, and size-resolved particle concentrations larger than 300 nm, with locations chosen to capture impacts from ascending and descending aircraft, ground-based airport operations, and on-road emissions. A van with reference instrumentation provides continuous, collocated validation and improvement of calibration approaches. A custom software ecosystem was built to apply machine learning calibration algorithms and ongoing calibration evaluation before sending data to a database that is integrated with a frontend with separate UX for citizens and researchers. With this software, residents are able to evaluate hyper-local air quality at 1 minute resolution in order to visualize otherwise invisible pollutants and make decisions about outdoor activity to reduce exposure. Next, the team established an awareness to agency campaign focused on coupling raised awareness about degraded air quality around the airport with scientifically sound information about health impacts and sources of pollutants in the area, as well as low-barrier-to-entry opportunities to take personal action to reduce exposure. Finally, having demonstrated the efficacy of in-home HEPA filters at reducing exposure in the East Boston context, collaborators ran a pilot subsidy program aimed at improving access to filters. Here, we describe the components of this community-centric approach and present data from the network of ARISense nodes along with an exploration of uncertainties and limitations via comparison with the collocated reference station.