Citizen science initiatives that mobilise citizens to measure air pollution at the local level can produce useful information, according to a new report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on Thursday 12 March.
Citizen science includes, for example, the ‘CleanAirSchool’ initiative, launched in May 2019 to measure nitrogen dioxide concentrations using samplers (see EUROPE 12264/14).
The EEA report presents good examples of the use of simple and inexpensive devices to provide information that can be used, for example, to improve official models used to assess pollution levels and identify appropriate actions to improve air quality. It also raises public awareness of a scourge responsible for more than 400,000 premature deaths a year in the EU.
The EEA believes that in the near future the increasing number of such initiatives combined with new approaches to digitisation of data could represent a paradigm shift in the way air quality monitoring is conducted.
However, the report points out that different types of devices each have specific advantages and disadvantages of which users should be aware.
Low-cost sensors may, for example, be sensitive to weather conditions or may not have the ability to measure very high or very low pollutant concentrations.
To read the report: http://bit.ly/2IDpHTV (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)