Village Green Project: Engaging Communities in Air Pollution Awareness

Demonstrating the capability of the latest real-time monitoring technology, the EPA's <a href="http://villagegreen.airnowtech.org/welcome" target="_blank">Village Green Project</a> helps residents and citizen scientists learn about air quality in their communities. The program has eight monitoring stations, designed as park benches, located across the U.S. These stations collect air quality (ozone and particulate pollution) and meteorological data (wind speed and direction, humidity, and temperature) and deliver the data in real-time to increase public awareness about air pollution.
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These minute-to-minute measurements are streamed from the pilot station to <a href="https://www.airnow.gov/" target="_blank">AirNow</a>, quality controlled, and displayed in real time on the Sonoma Technology-developed <a href="http://villagegreen.airnowtech.org/welcome" target="_blank">Village Green website</a>. Using the AirNow infrastructure, Sonoma Technology engineered this interactive, mobile-friendly website to display up-to-the-minute information in a format easily accessible to the public.
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Sonoma Technology also worked with EPA to develop messages for real-time, short-term air quality data and integrated the messages into the Village Green Project. The messages were designed to put short-term (e.g., 1-minute) air quality data into context for health impacts and provide recommendations for modifying public behavior and activity during high-pollution episodes.