Air Pollution Research
by Dana Habeeb
Through the use of a localized environmental sensor deployment, I have investigated how air quality monitors can empower neighborhood residents.
Working in collaboration with researchers in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, I deployed two local-scale air quality sensors in a small neighborhood in Atlanta, GA to examine how neighborhood-scale air pollution varies both spatially and temporally. I am investigating whether access to data educates community residents, changes community behaviors, and empowers the community to organize and take action to improve the local air quality.
This work led to my involvement in a $12 million NSF funded Sustainable Research Network (SRN) grant that is a collaboration between Georgia Tech, University of Minnesota, and Columbia University. My involvement in the SRN allowed me to further my investigation of urban agriculture as green infrastructure as well as my local air quality work. I collaborated with civil engineers from Georgia Tech and University of Minnesota to ascertain how different environmental conditions impact an individual’s health and wellbeing. We deployed novel low cost air quality monitors designed and built by scientists from Duke University into urban neighborhoods to capture local environmental data over time.