Best Practices

 

The Air Quality Collaborative–Bay Area (AQCBA) created this Best Practices Guide to enable community organizations or groups interested in creating a community air quality monitoring network to to increase access to local air quality information and capacity to utilize that data. A community air quality monitoring network is typically defined as “local efforts to measure and understand what is in the air a community breathes in.” Community air quality networks, as opposed to government-managed networks, are usually community-led, utilize low-cost air quality monitors, and empower communities with the data needed to advocate for cleaner air. This guide provides information on setting up a community air quality monitoring network in three different environments: a school district, urban areas, and residential areas.

 

Universal Considerations

 

UNIVERSAL CONSIDERATION 1: FUNDING

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Community air quality monitoring networks can serve a key role in understanding localized air quality for under-monitored communities. Perhaps the most important consideration in setting up an air quality monitoring network is the funding source. Different funding sources will have different limitations and requirements. Use these questions to guide your funding research:

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1. What is your organization’s or group’s financial and reporting capacity? 

• There are various public and private funds available to community organizations for air quality monitoring. A good place to start is your regional Air District’s community air quality funds.  

• Different grants or funds will require varying levels of reporting, typically monthly, quarterly, biannually, or annually. Plan staff accordingly.

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2. Are you seeking private or public funding?  

• Public funding, through state, regional, and federal sources, is available to support community air quality monitoring at different levels, but may come with more requirements for reporting.

• Private funding may have fewer requirements for reporting, but are more difficult to obtain, as they are often awarded to those with longstanding relationships with the funder.

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UNIVERSAL CONSIDERATION 2: MONITORS

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Selecting the best air quality monitoring equipment for your needs is an important consideration in community air quality monitoring. There are a few low-cost sensors that differ in price, level of required maintenance, battery life, ease of installation, and general upkeep. These questions will help guide your selection:

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1. What is your community’s main air quality concern? 

• Examples include: passenger car traffic, heavy-duty vehicle traffic, airports, power plants, refineries, agriculture, construction, sand, dirt, wildfires, ports, etc.

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2. What types of contamination will you monitor for? (Examples include: PM2.5, Black Carbon, NO2, etc.)

• Determine contaminants based on the community’s main concerns. For example, heavy-duty trucks emit black carbon. For more guidance on air contaminants and their sources, this US EPA slide deck provides information on air quality fundamentals, air contaminants, and their associated sources of emission.

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3. What type of air monitoring is currently in place in your area?

• Comprehensive government-managed air monitoring or community air quality monitoring may already exist in your community. Contact your local Air District and research other environmental community organizations for more information. Collaborating with other community organizations is always preferable, as you will be able to cover more ground, reach more people, and potentially pool more funds.

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4. What is your group’s capacity for installation, maintenance, including battery replacement, and general maintenance?

• Battery—Some outdoor air quality sensors are solar-powered, while others require AC power. If the sensor has a solar panel, make sure the sensor is placed in a high sun exposure location, as battery life can diminish if the monitor is installed where there is minimal sun exposure. For plug-in monitors, location must be near a power source. For monitors powered by batteries, location must be readily accessible so that monitor battery level can be checked and batteries can be replaced as needed.

• Backend communication—Some sensors require cellular communication, while others require wifi connectivity. Cellular communication is optimal because it does not depend on the strength of the WiFi source and will continue monitoring in the case that WiFi and/or local power goes out. 

• Deployment—Installation requirements vary by monitor type, but typically, to safeguard equipment, monitors are placed in out-of-reach places, such as high up on poles and rooftops. 

  • Typical installation equipment includes a laptop, a phone equipped with a compass, camera, and photo editing tool, as well as tools for attaching the monitor, including an extendable ladder, metal ring clamps in a variety of sizes, and in some cases where screws or fasteners cannot be used, cinder blocks to hold down larger devices. Please follow your specific sensors’ pre-deployment and installation instructions, as they vary.  

  • Acquire access permits and agreements before deploying the monitors 

If you’d like to deploy sensors on poles or in parks, obtaining an access agreement or permit from the appropriate agencies is essential for deploying your sensors. 

• Maintenance—Some sensors require weekly maintenance, while others can be more hands-off (monthly, annual, or never require physical maintenance). This has largely to do with the cadence or frequency of data collection and battery life. 

 

Based on these answers and the budget, research an alternative that works best for your group. Here are some commonly used air quality monitors: 

• Clarity Movement (Node-S sensor, Black Carbon sensor)

• Purple Air Sensors (PM2.5 sensor)

• IQ Air 

• Many more!

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Urban Environment Air Quality Monitoring

 

1. Who do you need to connect with? What connections can you leverage in this project? (Examples: community partners, government agencies, tenants, academics for data analysis, etc.)

• Connect with other community partners who can share valuable information on the neighborhood. They may connect you with tenants, school organizations, community hubs, etc. Build a community leadership group of stipend members interested in informing and leading community air quality work. 

• Connect with organizations that may be interested in air quality information, such as buildings near freeways, community hubs, or health centers. They may allow you to install an air quality sensor on their rooftop or connect you with more resources. 

• Connect with your local Air District, Air Resources Board, and City Government to gather information on how your air quality monitoring project may help or align with any government projects. Get permission to place a sensor at a government reference site to ensure quality control of your network. Learn about other air quality monitoring networks near you. Ask them for a letter of support for your grant application.

• Connect with academics and medical professionals in the space. Partnering or contracting with STEM students, professors, or researchers at colleges and universities may help design a comprehensive air quality monitoring research question and analyze the air quality data you collect. If they are interested and the budget allows, contract with them as partners in the work.

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2. How will you center inclusivity in this project? How will you build community capacity to access air quality data? (Examples: needs assessments, community input and interview, trainings, collaboration, etc.)

• Conduct needs assessments in your community. To properly gather the air quality needs and concerns in your community, host a community needs assessment workshop/canvassing or surveying effort to have open dialogue with leaders on what they would like to see addressed in your network. This may vary based on the type of urban environment and who you are engaging with, adapt accordingly to create an inclusive assessment. Consider childcare, transportation, interpretation, printed materials, and translation to facilitate this. 

• Co-create the survey with stipend community partners and leaders to gather feedback on how to best collect this data, who to survey, and how this data will ultimately be utilized. Beware of over-surveying community members, gathering data and not incorporating it into the project, not addressing community needs, and distributing non-inclusive information. Gather a list of locations that community members identify as locations with poor air quality. Bring these to your team (academics, community partners, government agencies, etc.) to assess feasibility for a potential air quality sensor deployment. 

• Conduct air quality data and device trainings for community members and stipend community leaders. To provide more background on air quality for all community members involved in the work, consider hosting multiple workshops, talks, or canvassing efforts to distribute accessible, in-language air quality information on what air quality is, how to protect yourself from poor air quality, sources of pollution in your area, etc. 

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3. How will you deploy the monitors? Where and how many?

• For optimal spatial coverage of air quality monitoring, consider identifying sources of emission in the local area (ex: freeways, airports, etc) and priority community-identified hubs (schools, parks, etc) to place a sensor near. The exact placing and number of these sensors will also vary on your research question. For instance, if your goal is to know what the impact of the freeway emissions are on the neighboring community, make sure to place sensors as close to the freeway as possible.

• Conduct a “siting” or visit to identified locations to access feasibility and network with property owners to gather necessary permissions as needed. 

• In an urban environment, allowing 2-3 street blocks of separation is ideal to gather data that is not redundant and is more encompassing of the neighborhood. Consider researching the “travel distance” of the pollutants you are monitoring as well to determine the space between sensors.  

• If possible, consider placing a sensor at a “control” site or a “cleaner” site comparable to the rest of the monitors. This sensor can provide data that is a good point of comparison for the other sensors deployed closer to emission sources.

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4. How will you make your data publicly available? What data analytics are needed for your project? 

• For a community air quality monitoring network, its important to create an accessible website portal to share the real-time information with the general public. Many air quality monitoring sensors come with back-end dashboard capabilities and their own built in public facing maps. (Example: Clarity’s Open Map or Purple Air’s Map.)

• For folks who cannot access the internet, consider creating accessible, in-language summaries for distribution. This could be a monthly 1-pager with a description of the pollutants, a map where the sensors are located, and a summary of pollutant concentrations in your area. If you include charts or maps, make sure to have them be as easy to read as possible. Very technical data maps and charts will make your reports harder to distribute without significant context or training. 

• For more technical summaries, consider working with a Data Analyst (such as a college volunteer or contract with researchers) to download the raw air quality data (typically CSV spreadsheets) to process into high level data analytics (ex: Brightline’s Air Quality Tableau). Having a Tableau or similar dashboard can be helpful with sharing data with government agencies for review, or for quick air quality summaries. 

 

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School District Air Quality Monitoring

 

1. Who do you need to connect with? What connections can you leverage in this project? (Examples: community partners, government agencies, tenants, academics for data analysis, etc.)

• If possible, establish a partnership with the school district before starting the project, as approval—especially in larger districts—can take a long time.

• Once you have built a relationship with a key decision-maker in the district, communicate with School District Facilities and Principals to understand their goals for the network. They may prioritize certain schools, and it will be important to consider these priorities as the project moves forward.

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2. How will you keep inclusivity center to this project? How will you build community capacity to access air quality data? (Examples: needs assessments, community input and interview, trainings, collaboration, etc.)

• The first step in engaging your community with the data is to assess what the desired learning outcomes are for the community you’re working with, or what we call a needs assessment. The needs assessment workshop can be conducted in different formats depending on the community it serves. For teachers, given their busy schedules and existing professional development structure, a workshop via Zoom. To better align with their workflow, presenting the workshop as a more summarized orientation for their upcoming air quality training rather than a traditional workshop.

• Prioritizing early feedback on effective engagement strategies, we focused on introducing the Air Quality Collaborative and emphasizing how their training would contribute to a broader community effort. We highlighted the importance of their input in shaping the training content, particularly in identifying the air quality topics they wanted to teach their students.

• After the orientation, it’s important to get written feedback that you can refer to when designing your training. Refer to the teacher’s needs assessment survey.

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3. How will you deploy the monitors?

• Determine locations of interest and those who are able to grant access to the locations.

  • This may be different based on community input from Facilities or Principals.

  • Can do this in collaboration with Facilities to determine batches of schools to reach out to (who to prioritize now, what schools may be undergoing construction soon).

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4. How will you make your data publicly available? What data analytics are needed for your project?

• For a school district, the decision to make data publicly available will largely depend on your agreement with district staff. It’s essential to be well-prepared with detailed information about data security and the potential implications of public access. District staff will likely have concerns or questions about sharing the data, so addressing these proactively can help facilitate the discussion.

 

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Residential Air Quality Monitoring

1. Who do you need to connect with? What connections can you leverage in this project? (Examples: community partners, government agencies, tenants, academics for data analysis, etc.)

• Utilize existing relationships you may already have within your network in order to connect with individual residents. 

• Are you a service-based organization, or do you do community organizing? Utilize the meetings or gatherings you already have with your constituents in order to recruit folks to host an air monitor in their home or suggest a community hub.

• Explain the incentive of hosting an air monitor, both from a health standpoint, as well as a community involvement standpoint.

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2. How will you keep inclusivity center of this project? How will you build community capacity to access air quality data? (Examples: needs assessments, community input and interview, trainings, collaboration, etc.)

• Hosting a needs assessment workshop and corresponding training is an effective method for engaging your community in the air quality data and relevant information. 

• The needs assessment may take place in person or over zoom, depending on what you most typically do with your community. Whether on zoom or in person, the needs assessment workshop aims to provide your community members with an understanding of your project goals and how their involvement will assist, as well as establish their desired learning outcomes so that you can create a tailored air quality training that will meet their needs. The needs assessment should include the following: 

  • An overview of your project goals

  • A problem statement that explains the air quality problem you are working to address in your community

  • A survey distributed to community members that is responsive to literacy barriers—a sample needs assessment survey can be found here.

  • A closing with next steps and when community members should expect to be invited to the air quality training 

• Take note that some of your constituents may not be able to host an air monitor in their home, but may still be interested in learning more about air quality in their community.

 

3. How will you deploy the monitors?

• Siting is the first step to deployment and involves assessing where you will place the monitor.

• Before deploying the monitors, ensure that they are charged and that you have ring clamps in a variety of sizes to accommodate a range of installation situations.

 

4. How will you make your data publicly available? What data analytics are needed for your project?

• The Clarity Openmap offers users the ability to view the real-time data simply by accessing the open source link. Most air monitor vendors have back-end and open map capabilities as add-on services when purchasing the sensors.