Development and Implementation of a Platform for Public Information on Air Quality, Sensor Measurements, and Citizen Science

Abstract

The use of low-cost sensors for air quality measurements is expanding rapidly, with an associated rise in the number of citizens measuring air quality themselves. This has major implications for traditional air quality monitoring as performed by Environmental Protection Agencies. Here we reflect on the experiences of the Dutch Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) with the use of low-cost sensors, particularly NO2 and PM10/PM2.5-sensors, and related citizen science, over the last few years. Specifically, we discuss the Dutch Innovation Program for Environmental Monitoring, which comprises the development of a knowledge portal and sensor data portal, new calibration approaches for sensors, and modelling and assimilation techniques for incorporating these uncertain sensor data into air pollution models. Finally, we highlight some of the challenges that come with the use of low-cost sensors for air quality monitoring, and give some specific use-case examples. Our results show that low-cost sensors can be a valuable addition to traditional air quality monitoring, but so far, their use in official monitoring has been limited. More research is needed to establish robust calibration methods while ongoing work is also aimed at a better understanding of the public’s needs for air quality information to optimize the use of low-cost sensors.

Citizen Science and Environmental Protection Agencies: Engaging Citizens to Address Key Environmental Challenges

“…The previous sections show a snapshot of the rich landscape of citizen science initiatives involving environmental agencies in Europe. However, and despite the opportunities ahead, there are still challenges to be addressed before the potential of citizen science can be fully realized, especially in monitoring (Volten et al, 2018;Wesseling et al, 2019), their policy impact (Nascimento et al, 2018), but also in its integration at the institutional level.…”

“…Although these initiatives also have their own data platforms, the added benefit of the Samen Meten platform lies in the possibility to combine all available sensor data and to compare with nearby official data. Furthermore, and as the currently most used PM sensor, the Nova Fitness SDS011 sensor 15 , is sensitive to relative humidity (RH), the data portal also provides a RH correction to the data (Wesseling et al, 2019). These additional functionalities attract a higher number of participants and boost the number of citizen science projects represented in the fast growing Samen Meten program.…”

“…Initial results show that this represents a valuable addition to traditional air-quality monitoring, providing much more spatial granularity than the official networks. In the case of particulate matter, for example, the sensor data is now used in air quality models that attain a higher spatial resolution thanks to the many hundreds of sensors uploading to the data portal (Wesseling et al, 2019). Given its positive results, Samen Meten is now being expanded to other environmental areas such as noise and water quality, where the development of relatively low cost (sensor) measurement methods is also advancing at a fast pace.…”

“…EPAs are starting to consider citizen science as instrumental to achieve their core mandate, that is, environmental protection (Hindin et al, 2016, NACEPT, 2016, Owen and Parker, 2018. Many have launched platforms, catalogs and portals to have a better overview of the different initiatives (for example, Scotland's environment Citizen Science Portal 16 ) and in some cases are adopting a more strategic approach toward citizen sciencesuch as the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) (Nascimento et al, 2018), RIVM (Volten et al, 2018, Wesseling et al, 2019 or, outside Europe, the US Environmental Protection Agency (NACEPT, 2016). In this section we focus on two cases in Europe: the Finnish Environment Institute and the UK Environment Agencies.…”

Large-scale citizen science provides high-resolution nitrogen dioxide values and health impact while enhancing community knowledge and collective action

“…For air pollution, citizen science is generally using low-cost sensors. Indeed, connectedness low-cost sensor technologies [54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61] are helping to improve air quality monitoring, transparency, awareness and action between citizens and authorities [62][63][64]. Cities [55,65] and public agencies [29] are also beginning to share their environmental exposure data and in some cases to introduce participatory frameworks [66].…”