Collaborative Research: IRES Track 1/IRES Sites: CUNY India Pollution Study (CIPS)

This award is funded in whole under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

The CUNY India Pollution Study (CIPS) will engage thirty-three (33) U.S. undergraduate students from Bronx Community College (BCC), City College of New York (CCNY), and other City University of New York (CUNY) colleges, over a period of three years in collaborative research focused on two neighborhoods in Mumbai, India; one of which is Dharavi, the largest slum in India and the other is Santacruz, an upper middle-class neighborhood. The project will be performed in collaboration with two Indian institutions, the India Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD).

CUNY students will travel to Mumbai and work with Indian students from these two institutions to collect and analyze micro-scale (neighborhood and block-level) data about air pollution levels using both fixed and mobile sensing equipment. In doing so, they will explore urban patterns and sources of pollution, and fill a gap in data collection that could provide critical findings to inform further research and public policy in India and in urban centers worldwide.

CUNY students will work virtually with U.S. and Indian faculty and students to plan routes, calibrate instruments, and become oriented to Indian language, culture, and geography. CUNY students will then travel to India for four weeks of research over the winter (January) intercession, which will include monitoring pollution in Mumbai and a weekend visit to New Delhi to compare pollution findings.

Delhi traditionally has high levels of pollution during this period. Upon their return, students will analyze and then present their findings to students, faculty, and staff at CUNY and beyond. The database they create will be used for research and instruction at both CUNY and at IITB and IITD.

The overall project goal is to develop underrepresented students’ STEM competencies and research skills through high-quality, collaborative international research experiences to support their retention, college graduation, and persistence in STEM studies. There have been many air pollution studies in Indian cities, but this one will be unique based on the combination of fixed and mobile measurements taken at the micro-scale level.

Indian cities are far more polluted than American cities, so students will experience a more data-intensive environment with greater societal impact. Second, the focus on matching demographic data to pollution measures will allow for an assessment of pollution exposure of marginalized populations. Third, weather in the tropics tends to change seasonally rather than daily, greatly simplifying the analysis for student-level science.

Until now, pollution and climate data have not been captured at the micro-scale (neighborhood and block) level in urban areas in India. This proposed research will introduce to Mumbai and New Delhi the approach of measuring air pollution on a micro-scale, combining mobile sensors and similar fixed sensors with supporting data from fixed weather stations.

Near simultaneous vertical profiles of pollution and climate parameters will also be possible with the use of drones available at BCC that will be transported to India. This will allow researchers to see air pollution gradients and urban heat island structure of the selected neighborhoods, literally block by block. The proposed research will provide better assessment of the process of interpolation of data between fixed sensors in urban environments.

The use of LoRAWAN sensors and the Vernier backpack weather stations mobile platform makes it possible to identify point sources of pollutions in the city and to determine the concentration gradient as a function of distance from the source, which can be paired with vertical gradients obtained by the drone flights with the sensors LoRaWAN sensors mounted. This will aid the development and fine-tuning of air quality models already in use to model the city’s air quality.

As a coastal city, Mumbai will allow us to observe land and sea breeze influence on air quality on a micro-scale to aid in forecasting pollution alerts. Matching demographic data to pollution observed on fixed routes will allow an assessment of pollution exposure of marginalized populations, particularly in Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia. The project design will allow for the correlation of air pollution data retrieved by satellites to air pollution data collected on a street-by-street and block-by-block levels using mobile sensor platforms.

Ground-truthing on such a microscale has not been previously performed in India and may provide a model to extend the application of satellite observations to urban settings.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.