Workshop: Air pollution and citizen science

Description:

Air pollution (AP) may dictate the quality of the indoor as well as outdoor atmospheric environment. Developments in Information and Communication Technologies and in social media, have created a fertile environment for people interested to learn more about AP and thereby promote quality of life. It is important for citizens to be able to identify what is the link between AP and health, how to reduce their exposure, and how they can contribute to improve the quality of the breathed air. Collaborative systems for measuring and mapping air quality can help to the better understanding of the topic, while bringing it closer to a wider audience and policy makers, this being one of the main characteristics of Citizen Science (CS).  The availability of low cost air quality sensing devices has brought AP monitoring capabilities at the hands of the citizens, with an associated rise in the number of people conducting relevant measurements themselves. This has major implications for traditional air quality monitoring as performed by national governmental agencies, and highlights the need of an approach that can incorporate data from both official agencies and citizens’ measurements. Such approach, should document the limitations, uncertainty and validity of measurements performed by citizens.

Call for papers:

The workshop invites papers reporting research and project results that may originate from Universities, research institutes, NGOs, citizen groups, public authorities and generally all those that have been working on CS and AP. Specifically, topics include: 

  • Citizen science
  • Air pollution
  • Low-cost air quality sensors
  • Smart City Air Quality Monitoring

Papers submitted will be published in conference proceedings in accordance with the submission guidelines. After the conference, papers updated by at least 40%, reporting additional/new research results, methods and conclusions, will be considered for publication in the special issue of the Atmosphere MDPI journal titled : Urban air pollution and citizen science, after proper peer review. These Enviroinfo2020 oriented papers will enjoy a 10% discount, while a number of selected high quality papers will receive free quotas.

Organizers: 

Dr. Kostas Karatzas
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Dr. Núria Castell
Norwegian Institute for Air Research-NILU, Norway 

Contact emails for questions/clarifications: kkara@eng.auth.gr, Nuria.Castell@nilu.no 

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