Ramboll powers City of Richmond’s air quality improvement campaign

The $500,000 micro-sensor project will generate monitoring data on a neighborhood, or even a block-by-block basis. The scene of a World War II boom economy that later went bust, Richmond’s neighbors include industry, a refinery, a port and two major interstate highways. Using innovative statistical and physical modeling, the SHAIR team will help to determine whether and to what degree these sources may be affecting the local air quality and help the community to develop actionable plans for improvements.

According to Ramboll air quality expert and SHAIR developer Julia Luongo, “SHAIR increases the actionability of sensor data. Mountains of data from sensor networks can be difficult to understand and analyse. We start with what we know already about sources and emissions in the area and fuse that model with measurements to pull more meaning from all that data. We help communities determine what emission sources are responsible for poor air quality. Is it too many cars on the road, a nearby industrial site, or a wildfire?”

The City of Richmond is seeking answers to these questions. SHAIR will deliver them.

Ramboll and the SHAIR team are also supporting Groundwork Richmond’s mission of training the next generation of environmental stewards. To broaden the environmental career horizons of local transitional-aged youth, we are offering training in air quality and environmental sampling techniques and procedures.

The Groundwork effort is made possible by grant money mandated by California’s AB617, which earmarked $495 million to develop local monitoring and emissions reductions plans like Richmond’s.