Presented by: Tim Dye, TD Environmental Services

Description: India’s National Clean Air Plan has recently called for the expansion of air quality monitoring using both reference instruments and air sensors, marking a change in the country’s monitoring trajectory. As a pilot project, the U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Building Healthy Cities (BHC) project has deployed a network of 20 low-cost air quality sensors in slum and non-slum areas in Indore, India. A city with a population of 2 million, Indore has only one continuous PM2.5 reference station. This mixed-method, longitudinal study is led by BHC and was co-created with the City of Indore and Indore School of Social Work to fill in air quality monitoring gaps across the city and mobilize communities on the issue of air quality. The sensor air quality data is shared to the city’s Integrated Command and Control Center, allowing the public and decision-makers to also access the data. A unique element of this study is the Clean Air Guides – local community members that were trained to install and operate the air sensors, collect qualitative data on sources of air pollution in their neighborhoods, and lead community advocacy efforts to improve air quality. These Clean Air Guides learned about the effects of air quality on health and began interacting with residents in their communities to explain air quality concepts, identify neighborhood-specific sources of air pollution, and help advocate for addressing local air quality. This presentation will briefly review the technical logistics of setting up the network and will focus on the successes and challenges of the Clean Air Guides model. We will discuss how we are working to continuously engage the Guides, share examples of how the Guides used local air quality data to advocate for change, and show journey maps created by the Guides to document changes over time.

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