Planning: CIVIC-PG Track A: Pilot - Community Resilience through Engaging, Actionable, Timely, High-Resolution Air Quality Information (CREATE-AQI)

More than forty percent of all people in the United States — over 137 million people — live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution due to particulate matter or ozone. Communities with poor air quality are predominately found in the Western US in underserved areas. The Western US periodically experiences the worst air quality in the nation as a result of winter-time inversions, wildfires, and dust storms.

It can be difficult for individuals in these locations to limit pollution exposure based on air-quality forecasts. This is, in part, because many areas do not have air quality forecasts; and available forecasts are limited to ozone and particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter. The forecasts also do not account for differences in terrain and air pollution sources that can lead to inaccuracies.

This research enables resilience of pilot western communities by providing actionable, timely, high-resolution, air quality information on the neighborhood-scale with actionable air quality information and tools for decision makers to act on this information. This research integrates engineering innovations and community engagement by focusing on links between neighborhood-scale, automated, air quality forecasts and cost-effective, air quality measurements.

It creates tools and guidance for decision makers to actively reduce short and long-term exposure to air quality hazards (i.e. ozone and particulate matter between 2.5 and 10 microns). Using cost-effective environmental sensors and smart data analysis techniques, this work empowers citizens, scientists, and policy makers to make data-driven decisions about air quality and its hazards.

This is particularly relevant for under-served communities that bear a disproportionate share of air pollution environmental burdens. Broader impacts of the work not only include actionable information for improving local air quality which will benefit the health of the communities where it is employed, but also provides a rich framework for student education and sustainable job opportunities that have the potential for attracting students to fields in science, engineering, and mathematics. It also supports infrastructure and communities in Utah, which is an EPSCoR state.

This research builds on existing innovations in sensing and forecasting infrastructure as well as strong civic partnerships between university researchers, the Utah Division of Air Quality, and the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. This pilot has interwoven technical, civic partnership, and team-building goals. Project deliverables include high-resolution (hourly, 4-km, horizontal resolution) and automated numerical forecasts of air pollution hazards related to ozone and air borne particulate matter in the 2.5 and 10 micron size range.

The latter particles are primarily associated with winter thermal inversions, wildfires, and dust events, all of which cause serious health issues like asthma. This work will impact both urban and rural communities. The research also includes a technology development and deployment piece of novel, cost-effective, air quality sensors that are able to measure community-scale differences in the up to 10 micron-sized dust particle ranges.

The data can be integrated into existing community monitoring networks. The work also provides a framework, co-developed with civic partners, that can be used by decision makers to help translate high-resolution, air quality information into action that results in the reduction of air pollution exposure to those living in western communities. If successful, the approach and technology has the potential for scaling to other locations around the nation.

This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program—Track A. Living in a changing climate: pre-disaster action around adaptation, resilience, and mitigation—and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy.

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.