In 2014, the Miistakis Institute hosted a Citizen Science Conference, exploring this diverse field with sessions on program design, evaluation, policy implications, technology and applications in parks and protected areas. This links to the website that chronicled that event.
Performance Evaluation of Portable Air Monitoring Platforms (PAMPs) for Community-Based Air Monitoring and Citizen Science
As Alberta residents pay more and more attention to the environment of the province, more citizens have an increasing interest in the citizen science of environmental monitoring. As a province with frequent forest fires and industrial releases, air quality has always been a hot topic of concern. Many citizens hope to have more extensive community-based air monitoring systems. Some citizens prefer to use affordable and reliable monitors to measure the air quality more locally.
Portable air monitoring platforms (PAMPs) open an exciting opportunity for people to use this technology for a wide range of applications beyond traditional regulatory monitoring, because they are smaller, easier to deploy, use less power and cost less than conventional air monitoring stations. As such, they are identified in the draft Alberta 5-Year Air Quality and Deposition monitoring plan as an alternative monitoring technology. Various PAMP systems, including compact and modularly designed monitoring systems, miniature sensor-based integrated systems, etc. have become commercially available as the market is expanding rapidly.
EMSD is leading a project comparing various PAMPs with conventional air monitoring stations to assess their accuracy, reliability, durability, etc. Advantages and features will be identified for tested system for applications in various projects, including expansion of air monitoring networks, community-based air monitoring, and citizen science initiatives, etc. It will also recommend methodologies, guidelines and tools for enhancing credibility of data and results from PAMPs. In the poster we will discuss the technology used in PAMPs, as well as methods we use to evaluate their performance.
Speaker Bio: Zheng Yang is an Air Monitoring Scientist in EMSD, AEP. He holds a B.Sc. in chemistry from Peking University in China and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from UBC. He has extensive experience in advanced optical instruments, laser optics, and physical chemistry. He was the only award winner for “Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad” in physical chemistry in Canada for 2010. Since he joined the GOA, he has been leading and working on multiple projects, including developing and applying advanced environmental monitoring technologies in air monitoring, monitoring network assessment, community odour monitoring and reporting, satellite remote sensing, etc.