Community Pollutant Monitoring
From WikiDemocracy
Community Science Air Monitoring Network
| San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District | SJV Air | 2026
San Joaquin Valley's community science network uses local air sensors and public mapping tools to help residents understand fine-scale air pollution patterns across neighborhoods that may not be fully represented by regional monitors.
Breathe London Community Programme
| Breathe London | Breathe London | 2026
Breathe London supports community groups with local air-quality sensors, training, and data access so residents can document pollution concerns and advocate for cleaner air in their neighborhoods.
Community Air Monitoring Fund
| Breathe London | Breathe London | 2026
The fund provides free air-quality sensors to community organizations, showing how low-cost and shared monitoring programs can expand local environmental data in places with limited access to official monitors.
Applying the Breathe London Community Programme Model
| K. Schulte et al. | Environmental Science & Policy | 2025
Study evaluates a community air-monitoring program that distributed free calibrated sensors to London community groups, emphasizing local knowledge, data access, and environmental justice.
Community Air Monitoring Project
| WE ACT for Environmental Justice | WE ACT | 2025
WE ACT's community air monitoring work in Northern Manhattan uses neighborhood sensors and resident engagement to document local pollution burdens and connect data with advocacy.
Air Quality Sensors for Communities
| South Coast Air Quality Management District | South Coast AQMD | 2025
South Coast AQMD's sensor library allows eligible residents and groups to borrow air sensors, helping communities collect local air-quality information without the cost of purchasing equipment.
Air Sensor Loan Programs
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025
EPA describes sensor loan programs that let residents, schools, and community organizations borrow air sensors for education, awareness, and local monitoring projects.
Evolving Trends in Application of Low-Cost Air Quality Sensor Networks
| E. Bagkis et al. | npj Climate and Atmospheric Science | 2025
Scoping review finds that low-cost sensor networks are increasingly used for mobile monitoring, data fusion, community engagement, and supplemental information where conventional air monitoring is sparse.
A Systematic Literature Review Assessing Inequities in Air Quality Monitoring
| T. West et al. | Preprints.org | 2025
Review examines how unequal air-monitor placement affects the ability to understand pollution exposure at local scales, especially in communities that lack nearby official monitors.
Machine Learning-Based Quality Control for Low-Cost Air Quality Sensors
| Y. H. Kim et al. | Atmosphere | 2025
Article reviews machine-learning approaches for calibrating low-cost sensor networks, detecting drift, and improving the usefulness of dense real-time monitoring systems.
Incorporating Community Knowledge Into Analysis of Air Pollution With a Network of Low-Cost Sensors
| R. Gardner-Frolick et al. | GeoHealth | July 17, 2025
Study shows that community knowledge can improve interpretation of low-cost sensor data by helping identify local pollution sources, exposure patterns, and neighborhood concerns.
Multi-Dimensional Engagement for Richer Hyperlocal Air Quality Data
| ACM Digital Library | ACM | October 1, 2025
Paper explores how resident engagement and local knowledge can make hyperlocal air-quality data more useful, especially when communities already have access to sensors such as PurpleAir.
Air Pollution Spreads Beyond Hotspots, Early Findings From Laredo Study Show
| David Gomez Jr. | Laredo Morning Times | 2025
A binational Laredo air-monitoring project uses low-cost sensors to show that fine particulate pollution can spread beyond expected hotspots, supporting broader local sensor coverage.
What's the Air Quality in the Hudson Valley? There's a Tool for That
| Times Union Staff | Times Union | June 27, 2025
Hudson Valley advocates use local air sensors and a public tool to fill monitoring gaps, giving residents more localized pollution information than sparse official stations provide.
New Dashboard Empowers North Carolinians to Track Air Pollution in Real Time
| Will Atwater | North Carolina Health News | June 13, 2025
CleanAIRE NC's dashboard uses PurpleAir monitors hosted by community AirKeepers to show real-time neighborhood pollution patterns and support local environmental health action.
ERG Helps CleanAIRE NC Launch New, Community-Driven Air Quality Dashboard
| Eastern Research Group | ERG | June 3, 2025
ERG describes a community-driven dashboard that turns local sensor measurements into maps and reports for residents tracking neighborhood air-quality concerns.
Something in the Air: How Communities Are Tracking Hyperlocal Air Pollution
| American Lung Association | American Lung Association | 2025
Report highlights community-led air-monitoring projects using sensors, dashboards, and advisory groups to document pollution in places not well covered by traditional monitoring networks.
Enviro-IoT: Calibrating Low-Cost Environmental Sensors in Urban Settings
| Thomas Johnson and Kieran Woodward | arXiv | February 11, 2025
Paper presents a low-cost urban monitoring system and calibration methods, showing how inexpensive sensor networks can improve real-time local air-quality information when carefully validated.
Low-Cost Sensors for Environmental Justice Air Monitoring
| Environmental Justice Sensors | EJSensors | 2025
Resource site explains how low-cost air sensors can help researchers and community members understand neighborhood, indoor, and personal air pollution exposures.
Air Monitoring and Community Engagement: Translation of Data to Inform Decision Making
| NIEHS | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | January 24, 2025
NIEHS describes projects that translate local air-monitoring data into community action, emphasizing partnership, data communication, and environmental justice decision-making.
EPA Removed EJScreen From Its Website
| Harvard Environmental & Energy Law Program | Harvard Law School | March 13, 2026
Harvard tracker explains changes to public access for EJScreen, underscoring how environmental justice mapping tools are important for communities tracking pollution burdens and demographic vulnerability.
EPA Removes EJScreen From Its Website
| Environmental Data and Governance Initiative | EDGI | February 12, 2025
EDGI argues that loss of public EJScreen access weakens residents' ability to examine environmental burdens, showing why community data preservation and alternative mapping efforts matter.
EJScreen Mirror
| Yale Environmental History | Yale University | 2025
Yale-hosted mirror preserves access to EJScreen materials and explains the tool's history, supporting continued public education and local environmental justice research.
EPA EJScreen
| Public Environmental Data Partners | Data + Screening Tools | 2025
Public reconstruction of EJScreen keeps environmental justice screening data available, allowing residents and researchers to continue using official indicators after federal access changed.
Environmental Justice Mapping Tools
| Climate Policy Dashboard | Climate Policy Dashboard | 2025
Policy tracker compares state environmental justice mapping tools and shows how governments use screening maps to identify overburdened communities and guide investments.
Connecticut Environmental Justice Screening Tool
| Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation | UConn | 2025
Connecticut's screening tool combines environmental, demographic, and community-relevant indicators to map environmental justice concerns at local and statewide scales.
Analysis of Environmental Screening and Mapping Tools
| L. B. Savelli et al. | Environmental Justice | 2025
Article analyzes environmental screening tools and explains how index-based maps can identify impacted areas while still requiring local interpretation and supplemental evidence.
Environmental Justice Mapping Tools in the United States
| H. Besse et al. | Science of the Total Environment | 2025
Review compares U.S. environmental justice mapping tools and the indicators they use, showing how screening systems can guide but not replace local environmental assessment.
Urban Heat Islands Mapping Campaign Program
| Heat.gov | NIHHIS / NOAA | 2025
Program page explains how volunteers collect neighborhood-scale temperature and humidity data with vehicle-mounted sensors to map urban heat islands and identify hotter communities.
Why Sizzling Cities Are Mapping Hot Spots Street by Street
| Nicola Jones | Knowable Magazine | March 5, 2025
Article explains how street-level heat mapping fills gaps left by satellites and weather stations, helping cities target trees, shade, cooling centers, and other protections.
Reno-Sparks Heat Mapping Project Releases Detailed Urban Heat Data
| Desert Research Institute | DRI | January 13, 2025
Reno-Sparks releases neighborhood-scale heat maps from a community data-collection campaign, giving planners and residents more precise information about local heat island patterns.
From Data to Action: How Urban Heat Mapping Campaigns Can Expose Vulnerabilities and Inform Local Heat Policy
| C. Fuhrmann et al. | Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society | 2024
Article explains how urban heat mapping campaigns can reveal local vulnerabilities and help communities turn data into policies such as shade, cooling, and heat-health planning.
Identification of Neighborhood Hotspots via the Cumulative Impact Assessment of Low-Cost Air Sensor Networks
| S. Jain et al. | GeoHealth | 2024
Vancouver study uses low-cost sensor networks to identify neighborhood air-quality hotspots, showing how dense local monitoring can reveal patterns hidden by citywide averages.
Mapping Urban Heat From Space Reveals Dangerous Inequities in LA Public Parks
| UC Irvine Program in Public Health | UC Irvine | April 7, 2026
UC Irvine researchers use satellite heat data to show that parks in underserved Los Angeles communities can reach dangerous surface temperatures, illustrating how finer-scale mapping can reveal heat risks missed by broader citywide averages.
A Temporal Deep Learning Framework for Calibration of Low-Cost Air Quality Sensors
| Arindam Sengupta et al. | arXiv | April 23, 2026
Researchers present a calibration framework for low-cost air sensors that addresses drift, weather effects, and device variability, supporting more reliable use of dense local sensor networks.
How Do Urban Heat Islands Affect Our Cities and Communities?
| Stockholm Environment Institute | SEI | February 11, 2026
Story map explains how heat hazard maps can be overlaid with residential and social data to identify neighborhoods where people face disproportionate urban heat exposure.
Urban Heat Riskscape and Green Injustice
| M. B. Silva et al. | Urban Forestry & Urban Greening | 2026
Scoping review connects urban heat exposure with unequal access to green space, showing why heat mapping should be paired with neighborhood-level information about shade, parks, and vulnerability.
Training Community-Academic Teams to Use Low-Cost Air Sensors
| M. Martin et al. | Preprints.org | May 2026
Study evaluates training for community-academic teams using PurpleAir sensors, showing that community monitoring projects need technical support, data interpretation skills, and equitable partnerships.
Who Knows What's in Our Air? A Case Study in Louisiana
| Environmental Data and Governance Initiative | EDGI | October 2, 2025
Case study compares official AirNow coverage with PurpleAir coverage in Louisiana, arguing that community sensor data can help expose monitoring gaps in places with pollution concerns.
Multi-Dimensional Engagement for Richer Hyperlocal Air Quality Data
| ACM Digital Library | ACM | October 1, 2025
Paper examines ways to engage residents around hyperlocal air-quality concerns, including how existing PurpleAir monitors and community participation can help build more useful local datasets.
Incorporating Community Knowledge Into Analysis of Air Pollution With a Network of Low-Cost Sensors
| R. Gardner-Frolick et al. | GeoHealth | 2025
Study shows how community knowledge can improve interpretation of low-cost sensor data, helping identify pollution sources and patterns that may not be obvious from sensor readings alone.
Four-Year Community-Wide PM2.5 Exposure Assessment Using Low-Cost Sensors
| N. Traviss et al. | Atmospheric Environment | 2025
Long-term community monitoring study uses low-cost sensors to measure PM2.5 exposure in a rural valley, demonstrating the value of sustained local monitoring outside major regulatory networks.
A Systematic Literature Review Assessing Inequities in Air Quality Monitoring
| T. West et al. | Preprints.org | 2025
Review examines how gaps in air-quality monitoring affect the ability to understand pollution exposure at local scales, especially in communities with limited access to official monitors.
Evolving Trends in Application of Low-Cost Air Quality Sensor Networks
| E. Bagkis et al. | npj Climate and Atmospheric Science | 2025
Scoping review examines how low-cost sensor networks are being used for mobile monitoring, data fusion, community engagement, and supplemental air-quality information.
Air Quality Monitoring
| WE ACT for Environmental Justice | WE ACT | May 17, 2025
Presentation describes WE ACT's Community Air Monitoring Project in Northern Manhattan, where low-cost PM2.5 sensors were placed at community homes to collect real-time neighborhood air data.
Something in the Air: How Communities Are Tracking Hyperlocal Air Pollution
| American Lung Association | American Lung Association | 2025
Report highlights community-centered air monitoring projects that use local sensors, dashboards, and advisory groups to document air pollution in under-resourced communities.
Environmental Justice Action Plan for Air Quality
| Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments | MWCOG | May 2, 2025
Regional action plan discusses environmental justice, monitoring gaps, community outreach, and the need to connect air-quality data with neighborhood-level decision-making.
Urban Heat Island Effect: Examining Spatial Patterns of Heat and Social Vulnerability
| K. Krenz et al. | Urban, Planning and Transport Research | 2025
Study examines how urban heat island effects interact with social disparities in Greater London, showing how spatial methods can identify neighborhoods needing targeted cooling interventions.
Air Pollution Spreads Beyond Hotspots, Early Findings From Laredo Study Show
| David Gomez Jr. | Laredo Morning Times | 2025
Laredo air-monitoring project uses low-cost sensors to show that particulate pollution may spread beyond obvious hotspots, supporting the need for neighborhood-scale monitoring.
EPA Removed EJScreen From Its Website
| Harvard Environmental & Energy Law Program | Harvard Law School | March 13, 2026
Tracker explains that EJScreen had provided public access to pollution-burden and demographic indicators, highlighting the importance of preserving environmental justice data tools for community use.
EPA Removes EJScreen From Its Website
| Environmental Data and Governance Initiative | EDGI | February 12, 2025
EDGI describes the removal of EJScreen and related pages from EPA's website, emphasizing how public data access matters for communities tracking environmental burdens.
EPA EJScreen
| Data + Screening Tools | Public Environmental Data Partners | 2025
Public reconstruction of EJScreen provides continued access to environmental justice screening information after EPA access changed, showing how outside groups can preserve official datasets for community use.
EJScreen Mirror
| Yale Environmental History | Yale University | 2025
Yale-hosted mirror explains EJScreen's history and preserves access to the environmental justice mapping tool, supporting public education and continued use of screening data.
Connecticut Environmental Justice Screening Tool
| Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation | UConn | 2025
Connecticut's EJ screening tool combines community and data-driven approaches to map environmental burdens and demographic indicators at local and statewide scales.
Environmental Justice Mapping Tools
| Climate Policy Dashboard | Climate Policy Dashboard | 2025
Policy tracker compares state environmental justice mapping tools, showing how governments use screening maps to identify overburdened communities and guide policy decisions.
Air Monitoring and Community Engagement: Translation of Data to Inform Decision Making
| NIEHS | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | January 24, 2025
NIEHS highlights partnerships between researchers and community organizations using air-monitoring data to address environmental justice and air-pollution disparities.
The NAAMC Community Air Monitoring Showcase Block 2
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | August 12, 2024
EPA showcase materials present community air-monitoring projects that use sensor networks, local partnerships, and data visualization to address neighborhood pollution concerns.
EPA Publishes Reports to Help Standardize Use of Low-Cost Air Sensors
| NIEHS | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | July 21, 2024
NIEHS summarizes EPA reports that recommend testing and performance approaches for low-cost sensors used in non-regulatory monitoring and participatory science.
Identification of Neighborhood Hotspots via the Cumulative Impact Assessment of Low-Cost Air Sensor Networks
| S. Jain et al. | GeoHealth | 2024
Vancouver study uses low-cost sensor networks to identify hyperlocal air-quality patterns and compare neighborhood conditions with broader citywide concentrations.
Supporting Knowledge Justice Through Community Science Air Monitoring
| V. Serrano-Salomón et al. | Journal of Environmental Management | 2024
Study equips residents in North Denver environmental justice communities with low-cost air monitors, showing how community science can support knowledge justice and local environmental data ownership.
From Data to Action: How Urban Heat Mapping Campaigns Can Expose Vulnerabilities and Inform Local Heat Policy
| C. Fuhrmann et al. | Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society | 2024
Article explains how urban heat mapping campaigns can help communities move from local temperature data to heat policy, cooling strategies, and resilience investments.
Urban Heat Island in Chelsea
| ArcGIS StoryMaps | ArcGIS StoryMaps | April 16, 2025
Story map documents urban heat island conditions in Chelsea, using maps and local environmental context to show how heat burdens vary within a community.
Air Quality During Wildfire Smoke and Low-Cost Sensors in Schools
| NIEHS | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | August 12, 2024
NIEHS describes work using low-cost sensors to help schools and child care settings make more localized decisions during wildfire-smoke events.
Data Fusion Applications in the Air Quality Modeling Group
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | June 14, 2023
EPA presentation explains how integrating PurpleAir sensor data can improve spatial coverage and local air-quality estimates compared with relying only on traditional monitor interpolation.
Community-Driven Research and Capacity Building to Address Air Pollution in Curtis Bay
| M. A. Aubourg et al. | Environmental Justice | 2023
Article describes community-driven research in Curtis Bay, Baltimore, using hyperlocal air-quality characterization to build relationships between residents and regulatory agencies.
California-Baja California 2021-2023 Border 2025 Action Plan
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2023
Border action plan includes community air monitoring as a cross-cutting strategy, emphasizing resident engagement and local data collection in border environmental justice work.
Community Air Grants Cycle 4 Project Summaries
| California Air Resources Board | CARB | October 20, 2023
California project summaries describe community air-monitoring grants, including efforts to expand PurpleAir networks, engage residents, and improve local pollution data around refineries and other sources.
Air Quality Monitors Begin Collecting Data in US, Mexico
| Kelly Lenox | NIEHS Environmental Factor | April 2023
NIEHS-supported portable monitors collect local air-quality data in U.S. and Mexico communities, demonstrating how smaller devices can expand measurement capacity in underserved locations.
Urban Heat Islands 101
| Hannah Druckenmiller | Resources for the Future | March 14, 2023
Explainer describes how urban heat islands affect different communities unequally and why local heat data matters for targeted interventions such as trees, shade, and reflective surfaces.
Children's Health and Wildfire Smoke Exposure Workshop Recommendations
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Partners | AirNow | January 24, 2022
Workshop recommendations explain how corrected PurpleAir sensor data can be used on the Fire and Smoke Map and why short-term sensor readings need careful interpretation for health decisions.
EPA Administrator Regan Announces Initial Actions to Protect Communities Following Puerto Rico Journey to Justice Tour
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | November 4, 2022
EPA announces plans to deploy PurpleAir sensors in Puerto Rico fenceline communities as a screening project to help locate a new air-monitoring station.
Inequity in Air Quality: Exploring Solutions
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2022
Presentation discusses hyperlocal air-monitoring networks, community partnerships, and targeted inspections as tools for addressing environmental justice concerns in Maryland communities.
AirNow Fire and Smoke Map
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Partner Agencies | AirNow | 2020s
Fire and Smoke Map combines official monitor data with sensor information to provide more localized PM2.5 information during wildfire smoke events, helping residents see changing conditions near them.
Community-Empowered Air Quality Monitoring System
| Yen-Chia Hsu et al. | arXiv | April 10, 2018
Paper describes a community monitoring system that combines sensor readings, smell reports, images, and wind data so residents can document and communicate local pollution concerns.
Community Science Air Monitoring
| New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection | NJDEP | May 6, 2026
New Jersey DEP provides community science air-monitoring resources, including PurpleAir data-processing tools, helping residents and local groups work with low-cost sensor data more effectively.
Training Community-Academic Teams to Use Low-Cost Air Sensors
| M. Martin et al. | Preprints.org | May 2026
Study evaluates training for community-academic teams using low-cost air sensors, showing that local monitoring efforts require data skills, technical support, and sustained collaboration to be useful.
Participatory Science at EPA
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA StoryMaps | June 12, 2025
EPA story map describes participatory science projects, including portable AirMapper monitors used by schools and community groups to better understand local air quality near traffic and industrial sources.
NOAA's Climate Program Office Awards Over $1 Million to Improve Climate Information Services for Extreme Heat Resilience
| NOAA Climate Program Office | NOAA | 2025
NOAA funds projects that build on community-led urban heat mapping campaigns, helping translate local heat data into climate services and practical resilience planning.
Air Pollution Spreads Beyond Hotspots, Early Findings From Laredo Study Show
| David Gomez Jr. | Laredo Morning Times | 2025
Laredo researchers use low-cost sensors to study fine particulate pollution near the U.S.-Mexico border, finding that pollution patterns can spread beyond obvious hotspots and require neighborhood-scale monitoring.
Something in the Air
| American Lung Association | American Lung Association | 2025
Report discusses community-centered hyperlocal air monitoring, including mobile and stationary monitoring, advisory processes, and data-to-action tools for under-resourced communities.
Environmental Justice Mapping Tools
| Climate Policy Dashboard | Climate Policy Dashboard | 2025
Policy dashboard tracks state environmental justice mapping tools and highlights the growing role of national, state, and local datasets in identifying overburdened communities.
Analysis of Environmental Screening and Mapping Tools
| L. B. Savelli et al. | Environmental Justice | 2025
Article analyzes environmental screening and mapping tools, noting that index-based tools can help identify impacted areas but still have limitations that require careful local interpretation.
Virginia Heat Watch: Collaboration to Assess Climate Vulnerability Through Community Science
| T. R. Lookingbill et al. | Sustainable Cities and Society | 2025
Virginia Heat Watch uses community-based heat mapping to connect neighborhood heat exposure with environmental justice, redlining history, food access, tree canopy, and socioeconomic disparities.
White US Neighborhoods Have More EPA Air Quality Monitors, Study Finds
| Dharna Noor | The Guardian | December 14, 2024
Article reports research finding that EPA air-quality monitors are unevenly distributed, underscoring why ground-level monitoring gaps can leave communities of color with less localized pollution information.
Supporting Knowledge Justice Through Community Science Air Monitoring
| V. Serrano-Salomón et al. | Journal of Environmental Management | 2024
Study examines community science air monitoring in environmental justice communities, focusing on knowledge justice, community empowerment, and the ways residents produce locally meaningful environmental data.
Protecting Data Usability in Community Air Quality Monitoring
| M. Manjarrez | Richmond Public Interest Law Review | 2024
Legal article discusses how community air-quality monitoring data can be made more usable for public-health advocacy, policy, and environmental justice enforcement.
MPCA Community Air-Monitoring Quick Guide
| Minnesota Pollution Control Agency | MPCA / University of Minnesota | May 23, 2024
Quick guide explains how communities can design air-monitoring projects, connect with technical support, and think through training, data quality, and environmental justice goals.
Charlotte Researchers to Lead Community Science Heat Mapping Campaign
| UNC Charlotte CHESS | UNC Charlotte | April 16, 2024
Charlotte researchers and community partners join NOAA's Urban Heat Island mapping campaign to collect local heat data and identify neighborhood-scale heat risks.
From Data to Action: How Urban Heat Mapping Campaigns Can Expose Vulnerabilities and Inform Local Heat Policy
| C. Fuhrmann et al. | Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society | 2024
Article reviews how urban heat mapping campaigns can reveal heat vulnerabilities and help communities convert data into local heat policy, cooling strategies, and resilience investments.
2024 Program Topics: Air Sensors International Conference
| Air Sensors International Conference | UC Davis Air Quality Research Center | 2024
Conference program highlights community air-monitoring systems, sensor technology, regulatory-monitoring gaps, and how data from low-cost sensors can be used to support action.
NOAA Seeks Applications for 2024 Urban Heat Island Initiative
| NOAA | NOAA | December 19, 2023
NOAA invites communities to apply for urban heat island mapping campaigns, where volunteers collect street-level temperature and humidity data to reveal local heat patterns.
Capital Region Air Justice Lab
| The Sanctuary for Independent Media | Media Sanctuary | 2023
Air Justice Lab uses PurpleAir monitors and community education to support environmental justice work in New York's Capital Region, helping residents document and understand local air pollution.
2023 Heat Watch Campaign
| Christa McAuliffe Center | Framingham State University | July 13, 2023
Heat Watch campaign page describes a community-science effort to map urban heat across Massachusetts communities, using local volunteers and sensor-equipped routes.
Evening Air Temperature for U.S. Cities for Use in Urban Heat Island Mapping
| Heat Health Information Network | HeatHealth.info | 2023
Resource describes evening air-temperature data for U.S. cities, supporting urban heat island mapping and neighborhood-scale analysis of heat exposure.
GREEN Community Air Monitoring Network
| MPNAGREEN | MPNAGREEN | 2023
Community air-monitoring network page describes local environmental justice mapping, PurpleAir monitoring, and California planning tools used to understand pollution and health burdens.
Screening for Environmental Justice: A Framework for Comparing National, State, and Local Data Tools
| C. Balakrishnan et al. | Urban Institute | November 2022
Report compares environmental justice screening tools and emphasizes the importance of matching national screening data with state, local, and community-defined information.
Environmental Justice Mapping
| ArcGIS StoryMaps | ArcGIS StoryMaps | January 10, 2022
Story map explains environmental justice mapping, including CalEnviroScreen, EJScreen, local datasets, and the role of community participation in interpreting environmental burdens.
Exploring the Distributional Environmental Justice Implications of an Air Quality Monitoring Network
| C. Mullen et al. | Environmental Research | 2022
Study examines the distribution of PurpleAir sensors in Los Angeles County, showing that low-cost sensor networks can reveal data gaps but may also be unevenly distributed across communities.
CleanAirNowKC: Building Community Power by Improving Data Accessibility
| Rifat Ara Proma et al. | arXiv | July 24, 2021
Project describes a Kansas City environmental justice group's PurpleAir sensor network and interactive data map, designed to make local air-quality information more accessible for residents.
EJSCREEN: What's in Your Toolbox?
| Alexandra Fries | University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science | March 4, 2021
Blog explains EJScreen as a useful starting point for identifying environmental inequality, while emphasizing that mapping tools should initiate dialogue, local review, and action.
The Bay Area Just Turned Orange. All Eyes Are on PurpleAir
| Gregory Barber | Wired | September 10, 2020
Article explains how residents turned to PurpleAir during wildfire smoke because its dense network and real-time readings offered local visibility beyond slower official air-quality systems.
Community-Empowered Air Quality Monitoring System
| Yen-Chia Hsu et al. | arXiv | April 10, 2018
Paper describes a community air-quality system that combines sensor data, smoke images, smell reports, and wind data to help residents document pollution and engage regulators.
Air Sensor Toolbox: What Is EPA Doing?
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | November 28, 2016
EPA describes research and support for lower-cost, real-time air sensors that can help communities, tribes, and citizen scientists better understand local air quality.
EJSCREEN: EPA's Environmental Justice Screening Tool
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA / Northern Arizona University ITEP | May 28, 2015
EPA presentation explains EJScreen caveats, including that some indicators may be outdated, some environmental issues are not covered, and other local data and concerns may be important.
Increasing Community Awareness of Air Quality and Making Air Sensor Technologies More Accessible
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | March 30, 2026
EPA describes the Los Angeles Public Library Air Sensor Loan Program, which made air sensors and educational resources more accessible so residents could learn about neighborhood air quality without buying their own equipment.
Participatory Science Air Projects
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | February 3, 2026
EPA lists participatory science air projects that use low-cost monitors to help communities collect actionable air-quality information, including work in Pittsburgh focused on helping residents reduce exposure.
Southern Nevada Urban Heat Mapping Project V2
| Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada | RTC Southern Nevada | January 15, 2026
Southern Nevada continues community heat mapping to collect local temperature and humidity data, helping identify hotter neighborhoods and guide extreme-heat resilience investments.
Who Knows What's in Our Air? A Case Study in Louisiana
| Environmental Data and Governance Initiative | EDGI | October 2, 2025
Case study examines gaps between official air monitoring and PurpleAir coverage in Louisiana, showing why community sensor networks can matter when residents face pollution but lack nearby regulatory monitors.
AirBeam Mini vs. PurpleAir: The Clear Choice for Clean Air Monitoring
| HabitatMap | HabitatMap Blog | July 2, 2025
Article compares AirBeam Mini and PurpleAir for local monitoring, emphasizing how portable and fixed sensors can support classrooms, personal exposure tracking, and environmental justice organizing.
What's the Air Quality in the Hudson Valley? There's a Tool for That
| Times Union Staff | Times Union | June 27, 2025
Hudson Valley project uses local sensors and a new digital tool to address air-quality monitoring deserts, giving residents more localized pollution information than sparse official stations can provide.
New Dashboard Empowers North Carolinians to Track Air Pollution in Real Time
| Will Atwater | North Carolina Health News | June 13, 2025
CleanAIRE NC trains residents as AirKeepers and uses low-cost PurpleAir monitors with a dashboard to help communities see and communicate local pollution patterns in real time.
ERG Helps CleanAIRE NC Launch New, Community-Driven Air Quality Dashboard
| Eastern Research Group | ERG | June 3, 2025
ERG describes development of a dashboard for CleanAIRE NC's AirKeepers, giving community scientists mapping tools, data summaries, and reports for understanding neighborhood air-quality concerns.
Why Sizzling Cities Are Mapping Hot Spots Street by Street
| Nicola Jones | Knowable Magazine | March 5, 2025
Article explains how citizen-science heat mapping records temperature and humidity block by block, filling gaps left by satellites and weather stations and helping cities plan cooling interventions.
Heat Mapping Program Opens 2025 Applications, Offering Communities $10K to Identify Heat Risk
| Smart Cities Dive Staff | Smart Cities Dive | November 4, 2024
Report covers NOAA's 2025 community-led heat monitoring application cycle, which offers funding and technical support for local campaigns that identify heat-vulnerable neighborhoods.
Applications Now Open Nationwide for Community-Led Heat Monitoring Campaigns
| NOAA | NOAA | November 1, 2024
NOAA opens nationwide applications for community-led heat monitoring, supporting local campaigns that collect neighborhood-scale temperature data to guide heat resilience and equity planning.
NEDTalk: Extreme Heat - Mapping Heat Islands in Cities
| NOAA NESDIS | NOAA | October 11, 2024
NOAA event focuses on urban heat island mapping campaigns and how communities use local temperature data to identify hot spots and improve public-health planning.
The NAAMC Community Air Monitoring Showcase Block 2
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | August 12, 2024
EPA showcase materials highlight community air-monitoring projects, including PurpleAir sensor networks used to improve spatial understanding of local pollution and environmental justice concerns.
Environmental Justice and Air Quality Assessment
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | May 7, 2024
EPA assessment combines EJScreen-style environmental justice review with local air-quality analysis, demonstrating how screening tools can be supplemented with more place-specific investigation.
Federal Agencies, Communities to Map Heat Inequities in 14 US Cities
| NOAA | NOAA | April 16, 2024
NOAA and partners announce community-science heat mapping in 14 U.S. cities, using local data collection to identify neighborhood heat inequities that broader weather data may miss.
Air Monitoring and Air Quality Sensors Grants Under the Inflation Reduction Act
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2024
EPA grant program supports deployment and operation of air-quality sensors in low-income and disadvantaged communities, helping local groups collect data beyond traditional regulatory monitoring networks.
Resources for Community Air Monitoring, Quality Assurance, and Funding
| Environmental Protection Network | EPN | October 26, 2023
Resource page gathers guidance for community air-monitoring projects, including planning, quality assurance, funding, and ways to make sensor data more useful for local advocacy.
Community Science
| CleanAIRE NC | CleanAIRE NC | 2023
CleanAIRE NC describes its community science program, where volunteer AirKeepers use PurpleAir and other monitors to track particulate matter, VOCs, carbon dioxide, temperature, and humidity.
San Joaquin Valley Community Air Monitoring Network
| California Climate Investments | California Climate Investments | June 12, 2023
San Joaquin Valley project operates consumer-grade PurpleAir and higher-performance particulate monitors, combining community-based monitoring with a regional database for eight counties.
NOAA, Communities to Map Heat Inequities in 14 States and One International City
NOAA expands heat-mapping campaigns to 18 communities, using volunteer data collection to reveal local heat differences and support neighborhood-level adaptation.
NEJAC Air Quality and Community Monitoring Workgroup Letter of Recommendations
| National Environmental Justice Advisory Council | EPA | January 2023
NEJAC recommends that community air monitoring be paired with regulatory action, community capacity, and pollution reduction, warning that monitoring alone will not solve environmental justice problems.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces $1,365,297 for Three Community Air Pollution Monitoring Projects in North Carolina
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | November 3, 2022
EPA funds North Carolina projects where community AirKeepers host PurpleAir sensors and collect data on particulate matter near pollution sources such as landfills, poultry operations, and wood pellet facilities.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces $499,715 for Community Air Pollution Monitoring in Charleston
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | November 3, 2022
Charleston project establishes a community air-monitoring network in eight environmental justice communities using fixed-site near-reference monitors, PurpleAir screening monitors, and community education.
Enhanced Air Quality Monitoring for Communities
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2022
EPA program supports community and local efforts to monitor air quality and build partnerships among communities, tribes, and governments, helping expand data in places with local pollution concerns.
West Oakland's Experience in Building Community Power to Confront Environmental Injustice Through California's AB 617
| L. MacIver et al. | Environmental Justice | 2022
Article documents how West Oakland community groups used long-term organizing, local knowledge, and air-quality planning to confront pollution from freight, ports, highways, and industrial sources.
Administrator Regan's Response to the NEJAC 100 Day Letter
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | November 2021
EPA response discusses environmental justice priorities and references using low-cost PurpleAir sensor data on the AirNow Fire and Smoke Map, showing how community and non-regulatory sensors can support public information.
Citizen Science Programs at Environmental Agencies: Case Studies
| Environmental Law Institute | EPA | October 2020
Case studies describe community air-monitoring programs, including efforts where residents receive equipment and training to investigate neighborhood air concerns and participate in environmental decision-making.
Examples of Citizen Science Projects Supported by EPA
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | September 24, 2020
EPA lists citizen science projects and points to the Air Sensor Toolbox as a resource for community-led monitoring using low-cost portable air sensor technology.
Air Sensor Toolbox: What Is EPA Doing?
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | November 28, 2016
EPA describes support for lower-cost, real-time air monitoring technologies that can provide new local data and help communities, tribes, citizen scientists, and agencies better characterize air quality.
How Can You Use EPA's EJSCREEN Tool?
| Environmental and Energy Study Institute | EESI | May 19, 2016
Briefing explains EJScreen as a screening tool for identifying potential environmental justice concerns while emphasizing that screening results should lead to deeper review rather than serve as final conclusions.
Do PurpleAir Monitors Democratize Data for the Environmental Justice Movement?
| C. Rick | Gettysburg College Student Scholarship | 2026
Research examines whether PurpleAir monitors truly democratize pollution data for environmental justice communities, focusing on access, training, community partnerships, and the limits of sensor-based monitoring.
Southern Nevada Urban Heat Mapping Project V2
| Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada | RTC Southern Nevada | January 15, 2026
Southern Nevada expands community-science heat mapping to study neighborhood-scale heat exposure, using high-resolution temperature and humidity data to guide local strategies for extreme-heat resilience.
Who Knows What's in Our Air? A Case Study in Louisiana
| Environmental Data and Governance Initiative | EDGI | October 2, 2025
Case study argues that restrictions on community air monitoring can weaken residents' ability to document local pollution, especially when low-cost tools such as PurpleAir are excluded from official recognition.
Citizen Science Dataset on Residents' Urban Heat Perception in Outdoor Public Spaces of Climate-Vulnerable Neighborhoods
| Ferran Larroya et al. | arXiv | October 29, 2025
Citizen-science project in climate-vulnerable Barcelona neighborhoods combines portable low-cost sensor measurements with residents' thermal-comfort reports to connect objective heat data with lived experience.
Air Pollution Spreads Beyond 'Hotspots,' Early Findings From RGISC, UMass Amherst Study Show
| David Gomez Jr. | Laredo Morning Times | 2025
Early findings from a binational Laredo air-monitoring project use 19 low-cost sensors to show that fine particulate pollution spreads more widely than expected, challenging assumptions based only on known hotspots.
Why You Need an Outdoor Air Quality Monitor
Article explains why sparse official air monitors may miss neighborhood-level pollution events and how outdoor monitors such as PurpleAir and AirGradient can help residents understand local exposure.
A Portable and Cost-Effective System for Real-Time Air Quality Monitoring and Environmental Impact Assessment
| S. M. Minhazur Rahman et al. | arXiv | June 17, 2025
Paper presents a low-cost portable air-quality monitoring system for PM2.5, PM10, carbon monoxide, temperature, and humidity, showing how affordable devices can support public awareness and local decision-making.
Virginia Heat Watch: Collaboration to Assess Climate Vulnerability Through Community Science
| T. R. Lookingbill et al. | Sustainable Cities and Society | 2025
Community-science heat mapping across 10 Virginia localities found large neighborhood temperature differences and hotter areas associated with redlining history, lower tree cover, and communities of color.
Reno-Sparks Heat Mapping Project Releases Detailed Urban Heat Data
| Desert Research Institute | DRI | January 13, 2025
Reno-Sparks releases detailed neighborhood heat maps from a summer 2024 community data-collection campaign, giving residents and planners finer-scale information about urban heat island patterns.
Mapping for Justice: How EJScreen Advances Science Education and Community Advocacy
| M. L. Miles | CMJ Publishers | 2024
Article discusses EJScreen as an educational and advocacy tool while emphasizing that communities should supplement it with local datasets, lived experience, and participatory data collection.
NEDTalk: Extreme Heat - Mapping Heat Islands in Cities
| NOAA NESDIS | NOAA | October 11, 2024
NOAA event highlights community science urban heat island mapping campaigns that work with local residents and organizations to identify the hottest parts of communities and support targeted solutions.
The PurpleAir Monitoring Project
| District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment | DOEE | 2024
Washington, D.C. project describes giving residents PurpleAir sensors to measure localized PM2.5, improving neighborhood awareness of air quality and allowing residents to contribute to environmental improvements.
Environmental Justice and Air Quality Assessment
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | May 7, 2024
EPA assessment uses EJScreen and local air-quality evaluation to examine environmental justice concerns in Westside neighborhoods, illustrating how screening tools can be paired with more place-specific analysis.
UNC Charlotte Researchers to Lead Community Science Heat Mapping Campaign
| UNC Charlotte | Inside UNC Charlotte | April 16, 2024
Charlotte researchers and community partners join NOAA's 2024 Urban Heat Island campaign to map neighborhood heat variation and identify communities most at risk during extreme heat waves.
NOAA Seeks Applications for 2024 Urban Heat Island Initiative
| NOAA | NOAA | December 19, 2023
NOAA invites communities to apply for the 2024 urban heat island mapping program, where volunteers collect street-level heat data to reveal conditions that regional weather stations cannot show.
Case Study: How the RISE Communities Program Is Fighting for Environmental Justice
| PurpleAir | PurpleAir Blog | November 29, 2023
PurpleAir case-study listing describes the RISE Communities Program, which supports environmental justice communities using community-engaged research and air-quality monitoring.
Air Sensor Loan Programs
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2023
EPA describes air-sensor loan programs that help community groups, educators, agencies, and tribes conduct small-scale localized monitoring projects without buying expensive equipment.
Low-Cost Air Quality Sensors and Environmental Justice
| Ellen M. Considine | Boston Congress of Public Health Review | 2023
Article explains that low-cost sensors can help fill gaps in official monitoring but warns that sensor networks may be concentrated in wealthier and whiter neighborhoods unless deployment is equitable.
How Community-Based Air Quality Monitoring Can Inform Equitable Climate Policy
| Georgetown Climate Center | Georgetown Climate Center | June 1, 2023
Issue brief explains how community-based air monitoring can complement EJScreen and official datasets by documenting neighborhood pollution burdens and informing more equitable climate policy.
GSL Creates New Visualizations of Urban Heat Islands
| NOAA Global Systems Laboratory | NOAA | 2023
NOAA scientists create visualizations from community heat-mapping data, showing how temperature and humidity vary block by block and how local landscape features shape urban heat exposure.
Urban Heat Islands Mapping Campaign Program
| Heat.gov | NIHHIS / NOAA | 2023
Program page explains how volunteers attach sensors to vehicles, drive mapped routes, and collect neighborhood-scale temperature and humidity data for urban heat island maps.
Using Low-Cost Sensor Networks: Considerations to Help Communities Measure Air Pollution
| A. Shatas et al. | Environmental Justice | 2022
Article provides practical guidance for community low-cost sensor networks, including goals, siting, data quality, communication, and how sensor data can complement official air-monitoring systems.
An Analysis of Degradation in Low-Cost Particulate Matter Sensors
| Priyanka deSouza et al. | arXiv | October 26, 2022
Study evaluates how PurpleAir particulate-matter sensors change over time, showing why community monitoring projects need maintenance, calibration, and replacement plans to keep data useful.
CleanAirNowKC: Building Community Power by Improving Data Accessibility
| Rifat Ara Proma et al. | arXiv | July 24, 2021
Project describes a Kansas City environmental justice group's PurpleAir sensor network and interactive map, designed to help residents track pollution and advocate for community-driven policy.
Estimating Hourly PM2.5 Concentrations at the Neighborhood Scale Using PurpleAir Data
| Y. Lu et al. | Environmental Research | 2021
Los Angeles County study integrates PurpleAir data into a fine-scale hourly PM2.5 model, showing how low-cost sensors can supplement regulatory monitors for neighborhood exposure estimates.
A User's Guide to Environmental Justice: Theory, Policy, and Practice
Guide discusses environmental justice mapping, community air monitoring, data justice, and the need for participatory approaches that address information gaps and community power.
Low-Cost Outdoor Air Quality Monitoring and Sensor Calibration: A Survey and Critical Analysis
| Francesco Concas et al. | arXiv | December 13, 2019
Survey reviews low-cost outdoor air-quality sensors and calibration methods, explaining why affordable monitors can expand spatial coverage but require careful validation for reliable use.
Youth Engaged Participatory Air Monitoring: A Day in the Life
| J. E. Johnston et al. | EPA HERO / Environmental Justice | 2019
Participatory project engages youth in Los Angeles air monitoring, combining sensors and community knowledge to document everyday exposure concerns in environmental justice neighborhoods.
Developing Tools to Facilitate Community Air Monitoring
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2017
EPA technical resources describe tools and research for community air monitoring, including small sensor systems that help residents and local organizations investigate pollution concerns.
How Can You Use EPA's EJSCREEN Tool?
| Environmental and Energy Study Institute | EESI | May 19, 2016
Briefing explains EJScreen as a tool for identifying potential environmental justice concerns, while cautioning that it is not a final decision-making tool and should prompt further review.
BMC Starts Testing Low-Cost Hyperlocal Air Quality Sensors for Mumbai
| Times of India Staff | The Times of India | 2026
Mumbai begins testing low-cost hyperlocal air-quality sensors to build a denser pollution-monitoring network, showing how cities can supplement official stations with neighborhood-scale measurements.
Community Air Monitoring: How Neighbors Are Mapping Their Own Air Quality
| PurpleAir | PurpleAir Blog | April 27, 2026
Overview explains how residents, schools, researchers, and neighborhood groups use distributed air sensors to create local pollution maps that can reveal conditions missed by broader monitoring networks.
RGISC Uses Lidar to Map Laredo's Tree Canopy Gaps, Fight Urban Heat
| Cesar G. Rodriguez | Laredo Morning Times | 2025
Laredo researchers use lidar and local heat data to identify tree-canopy gaps and neighborhoods most exposed to urban heat, connecting community mapping with climate-resilience planning.
Environmental Justice Mapping Tools in the United States
| H. Besse et al. | Science of the Total Environment | 2025
Review compares U.S. environmental justice mapping tools, including the kinds of environmental, health, demographic, and socioeconomic indicators used to identify overburdened communities.
Enviro-IoT: Calibrating Low-Cost Environmental Sensors in Urban Settings
| Thomas Johnson and Kieran Woodward | arXiv | February 11, 2025
Paper describes calibration of low-cost urban environmental sensors, emphasizing that inexpensive monitoring can improve local air-quality coverage when sensor accuracy is carefully evaluated.
Extreme Heat Risks in the Las Vegas Valley
| C. Engel et al. | NOAA Repository | 2025
Report examines extreme heat risks in Southern Nevada and highlights the need for local heat data to guide public-health planning, cooling investments, and neighborhood-level resilience strategies.
Integrating Geoscience and Health Data Focusing on Wildfires
| NIEHS | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | 2025
Report discusses how wildfire-smoke exposure can be better understood by combining health data with geoscience data, including dense air-sensor networks such as PurpleAir.
Keeping Fans Safe in a Warming World: A Growing Challenge for Outdoor Events
| NOAA Climate.gov | NOAA Climate.gov | June 25, 2025
Article explains rising heat risks at outdoor events and the value of local heat information for protecting people in specific places rather than relying only on broad regional forecasts.
Applications Now Open Nationwide for Community-Led Heat Monitoring Campaigns
| NOAA Climate Program Office | NOAA | November 1, 2024
NOAA invites communities to join heat-mapping campaigns where volunteers collect street-level temperature data, helping reveal neighborhood heat differences that official weather stations may not capture.
PEPH Newsletter: Low-Cost Air Sensors in Schools
| NIEHS | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | August 12, 2024
Newsletter describes school-based use of PurpleAir sensors during smoke events, showing how low-cost monitors can help local staff make more informed decisions about children's exposure.
Assessing Bias in Personal Exposure Estimates When Using Low-Cost Outdoor Monitors
| A. Opejin et al. | PubMed | 2024
Study compares personal exposure estimates from portable monitors and PurpleAir network data, showing why hyperlocal sensor data can help but also requires careful interpretation.
Challenges and Opportunities of Low-Cost Sensors in Urban Air Quality Monitoring
| W. Jaafar et al. | Building and Environment | 2024
Toronto study uses low-cost sensors to capture fine-scale PM2.5 variation near construction and heavy traffic, illustrating how local networks can detect pollution patterns missed by sparse monitors.
Is Inclusive More Elusive? An Impact Assessment Analysis of Environmental Justice Screening
| N. M. Bompoti et al. | Environmental Impact Assessment Review | 2024
Article analyzes how EJScreen indicators are used in environmental review and raises questions about how screening tools identify or fail to identify communities needing deeper local assessment.
Air Quality Sensors Grants Under the Inflation Reduction Act
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | February 15, 2024
EPA guidance describes funding for deploying air-quality sensors in low-income and disadvantaged communities, supporting local monitoring that supplements national and regulatory datasets.
EPA Invests $1 Million in New York State Communities Through UAlbany-Led Community Air Monitoring Projects
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | February 26, 2024
EPA describes community air-monitoring projects using low-cost sensors, mobile labs, and local partnerships to measure pollution in underserved neighborhoods across New York.
EPA Highlights Air Pollution Monitoring Project in Buffalo, New York
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | April 16, 2024
EPA highlights a Buffalo air-pollution monitoring project funded through federal grants, part of a broader effort to expand local monitoring in communities overburdened by pollution.
Federal Agencies, Communities to Map Heat Inequities in 14 US Cities
| NOAA | NOAA | April 16, 2024
NOAA announces community-science mapping of urban heat inequities in U.S. cities, using local measurements to identify hotter neighborhoods and guide cooling strategies.
NIEHS PEPH Air Monitoring Networks Workshop: Session II
| NIEHS | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | 2024
Workshop materials discuss community air-monitoring networks, trust-building, sensor placement, and the limits of relying on PurpleAir alone for complex pollution concerns.
NOAA, Communities to Map Heat Inequities in 14 States and One International City
NOAA announces heat-mapping campaigns in 18 communities, where volunteers collect local temperature data to reveal heat inequities and guide neighborhood-level interventions.
NOAA, Communities Map Heat Inequities in 14 States, One International City
| NOAA Climate.gov | NOAA Climate.gov | April 10, 2023
Climate.gov article explains NOAA's community-science heat mapping program and how local data can support tree planting, cooling centers, and heat action planning.
Lessons From Heat Mapping in Two Tropical Cities
| NOAA Research | NOAA | May 24, 2023
NOAA describes heat-mapping campaigns in tropical cities and explains how community-collected temperature data can make invisible heat risks visible to planners and residents.
How Community-Based Air Quality Monitoring Can Inform Equitable Climate Policy
| Georgetown Climate Center | Georgetown Climate Center | June 1, 2023
Issue brief explains how community-based air-quality monitoring can support equitable climate and energy policy by documenting neighborhood-scale pollution burdens.
Using Low-Cost Sensor Networks: Considerations to Help Communities Measure Air Pollution
| A. Shatas et al. | Environmental Justice | 2022
Article outlines practical considerations for community groups using low-cost sensors, including collaboration, trust, data quality, and the role of sensors as complements to regulatory monitors.
Exploring the Distributional Environmental Justice Implications of an Air Quality Monitoring Network
| C. Mullen et al. | Environmental Research | 2022
Study examines the distribution of PurpleAir sensors in Los Angeles County and finds that non-governmental sensor networks can have their own equity gaps depending on where monitors are installed.
NOAA Seeks Applicants for 2022 Urban Heat Island Initiative
| NOAA Climate.gov | NOAA Climate.gov | November 23, 2021
NOAA seeks communities for urban heat island mapping, describing how local citizen-science organizations and volunteers collect on-the-ground heat data across city neighborhoods.
Boulder Selected to Help With NOAA Heat Mapping Campaign
| John Frank | Axios Denver | April 27, 2022
Boulder joins NOAA's heat-mapping campaign to study neighborhood heat differences and inform equitable climate-resilience planning, especially in historically under-resourced areas.
Low-Cost Outdoor Air Quality Monitoring and Sensor Calibration: A Survey and Critical Analysis
| Francesco Concas et al. | arXiv | December 13, 2019
Survey reviews low-cost air-quality sensors and calibration challenges, explaining why inexpensive monitors can improve spatial coverage but need quality control before being used for decisions.
Youth Engaged Participatory Air Monitoring: A Day in the Life
| J. E. Johnston et al. | EPA HERO / Environmental Justice | 2019
Article describes a youth participatory air-monitoring program in Los Angeles that combines personal sensors, community science, and storytelling to document local air-quality concerns.
Developing Tools to Facilitate Community Air Monitoring
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2017
EPA resource page summarizes work on community air-monitoring tools, including collaborations using small sensor pods to help residents investigate localized pollution concerns.
Overview of Demographic Indicators in EJSCREEN
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | December 15, 2016
EPA explains that EJScreen demographic indicators are broad screening variables, reinforcing that residents and agencies may need local knowledge and additional data for more detailed assessments.
Limitations and Caveats in Using EJSCREEN
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | June 9, 2015
EPA states that EJSCREEN is not a detailed risk analysis and contains data uncertainties, supporting the need to supplement screening results with local evidence, monitoring, and community experience.
This LA Neighborhood Is Choked by Smog. The Solution: A Network of Sensors on Offices, Homes and Bags
| Maanvi Singh | The Guardian | June 9, 2026
Community groups in Pacoima, Los Angeles use low-cost air sensors on homes, rooftops, and backpacks to capture hyperlocal pollution data that official monitors can miss, showing how residents can document environmental burdens in real time.
Ambient and Personal Air Monitoring Using Low-Cost Monitors in Vulnerable Neighborhoods
| K. Kubis et al. | Science of the Total Environment | 2026
Study shows that low-cost air monitors can identify localized air-pollution hotspots in vulnerable neighborhoods, supporting community-based monitoring where sparse regulatory networks may not reflect residents' actual exposures.
Practical Guidance for Using PurpleAir Particle Monitors for Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality Applications
| M. Wang et al. | Environmental Science & Technology | 2025
Researchers provide practical guidance for using PurpleAir low-cost particle monitors, including siting, interpretation, and data-quality issues that matter when communities use sensor data to fill local air-quality gaps.
Applications Now Open Nationwide for Community-Led Heat Monitoring Campaigns
| NOAA Climate Program Office | NOAA | November 1, 2024
NOAA announces applications for community-led heat monitoring campaigns that build on years of urban heat island mapping, helping cities collect neighborhood-scale heat data for resilience planning.
How to Tell If Your Outdoor Air Is Safe
| Angela Haupt | TIME | September 2024
Explainer compares official AirNow information, PurpleAir's crowdsourced sensor network, and commercial air-quality apps, showing why residents may need both official and hyperlocal data to understand exposure.
PEPH Newsletter: Air Monitoring, PurpleAir Sensors, and Environmental Justice Grants
| NIEHS | National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | August 12, 2024
Newsletter describes use of PurpleAir sensors in schools because they are low cost and easy to install, connecting local air monitoring with environmental and climate justice capacity-building.
Federal Agencies, Communities to Map Heat Inequities in 14 US Cities
| NOAA | NOAA | April 16, 2024
NOAA and partner agencies describe community-science heat mapping in 14 cities, using local temperature measurements to identify urban heat inequities that broad regional weather data can overlook.
Calibration of PurpleAir Low-Cost Particulate Matter Sensors
| M. E. Mathieu-Campbell et al. | Atmospheric Measurement Techniques | 2024
Study develops and evaluates correction models for PurpleAir sensors in warm and humid climates, highlighting the need to calibrate low-cost sensors before using them for community air-quality decisions.
Air Quality Sensors and Distributional Environmental Justice
| C. J. Mullen et al. | Environmental Sociology | 2024
Research examines how non-regulatory air-quality monitoring networks are distributed across communities, raising equity questions about who benefits from low-cost sensor data.
Data-Driven Placement of PM2.5 Air Quality Sensors in Communities
| M. M. Kelp et al. | GeoHealth | 2023
Study tests methods for placing PM2.5 sensors so they better capture pollution patterns in historically low-income and nonwhite neighborhoods, supporting more equitable sensor network design.
Investigating Use of Low-Cost Sensors to Increase Accuracy and Equity of Real-Time Air Quality Information
| Ellen M. Considine et al. | Environmental Science & Technology | 2023
Researchers examine how low-cost sensors can improve or sometimes worsen real-time air-quality information depending on placement, sensor error, and local pollution variability.
Resource Guide for Air Sensors and Related Educational Activities
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | Updated August 25, 2025
EPA guide collects resources for air sensor use, including PurpleAir, AirBeam, siting guidance, collocation guidance, and educational materials for community air-monitoring projects.
PurpleAir Quality Assurance Project Plan Template
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 | EPA | November 2023
EPA template helps community groups plan PurpleAir monitoring projects with clearer quality-assurance steps, useful when resident-generated data may be used for advocacy or decision-making.
NOAA Heat Mapping Campaign: Salt Lake City
| Natural History Museum of Utah | NHMU | 2023
Local campaign page describes how volunteers used vehicle-mounted sensors to map hot and cool places across Salt Lake City, producing neighborhood-scale heat data for local planning.
Low-Cost Air Quality Sensors and Environmental Justice
| Ellen M. Considine | Boston Congress of Public Health Review | 2023
Article explains how low-cost sensors can help fill gaps in official monitoring while warning that sensors themselves may be inequitably distributed across wealthier and whiter neighborhoods.
Leveraging Citizen Science and Low-Cost Sensors to Characterize Fine Particulate Matter Exposure Across Disadvantaged Communities
| Tingting Lu et al. | Environmental Research | 2022
Community-based study uses PurpleAir sensors outside 22 households in disadvantaged Southern California communities to measure PM2.5 and reveal exposure differences tied to social and environmental conditions.
Socioeconomic Disparities of Low-Cost Air Quality Sensors in California
| Yifan Sun et al. | Environmental Research | 2022
Study finds that PurpleAir sensors in California were not evenly distributed across communities, showing that community sensor networks can fill data gaps but may also reproduce inequities if deployment is uneven.
When Not Implemented Communally, Citizen Science Efforts May Exacerbate Environmental Inequalities
| Sara E. Grineski et al. | Environmental Research | 2022
Article argues that market-based citizen science sensor networks can deepen data inequities unless community participation and equitable deployment are built into project design.
NOAA and Communities to Map Heat Inequities in 14 US Cities and Counties
| NOAA | NOAA | April 26, 2022
NOAA announces community-led urban heat island mapping campaigns in U.S. cities and counties, showing how local measurements can reveal heat inequities that broader climate datasets miss.
Community and Citizen Science: Making Your Data Count
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | December 15, 2021
EPA presentation explains how community and citizen science projects can collect environmental data, including low-cost air-sensor monitoring, while emphasizing planning, documentation, and data quality.
EPA's EJSCREEN Tool Helps Decisionmakers Consider Needs of Communities Impacted by Hurricane Laura
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | September 10, 2021
EPA describes EJSCREEN as a first-step screening tool for identifying communities that may need additional consideration, analysis, or outreach during disaster response and recovery.
EJSCREEN Fact Sheet
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2020s
EPA fact sheet explains EJSCREEN's role as a screening-level environmental justice tool and notes that its results have significant limitations and are not designed to provide a full risk assessment.
What Is EJSCREEN?
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | October 28, 2019
EPA explains EJSCREEN as a nationally consistent environmental justice mapping and screening tool that combines demographic and environmental indicators from publicly available datasets.
Frequent Questions About EJSCREEN
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | October 31, 2019
EPA FAQ explains that EJSCREEN highlights places that may have higher environmental burdens and vulnerable populations, but it is meant for screening rather than a complete local assessment.
EPA Releases EJSCREEN, An Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | June 10, 2015
EPA announces EJSCREEN as a mapping tool using demographic and environmental data to identify places with potentially elevated environmental burdens and vulnerable populations.
EJSCREEN: EPA's Environmental Justice Screening Tool
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | July 20, 2015
EPA presentation states that EJSCREEN highlights places for further review and that baseline screening should be supplemented with local information and experience.
