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Featured Projects & Blog Posts

Science in the City Returns – Tracking the Impact of Air Quality Measures

What impact have air pollution reduction measures introduced by The City of London Corporation over the past six years had? That’s exactly what we’re aiming to find out through Science in the City 2! With levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide remaining a concern in urban areas—especially those associated with fuel combustion from transport and heating—this project is more relevant than ever.

Assessing Impact and Strengthening Communities

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Project Overview

By using citizen science, the project empowered residents to become active participants in monitoring pollution and provided local authorities with valuable data to inform air quality policies. Science in the City was the largest community-led air quality monitoring project of its kind in the UK, and it laid the groundwork for future collaborative urban planning and community engagement efforts.

Our Role: Empowering Citizens through Research and Data Collection.

Mapping for Change led the project, providing training and support to residents, helping them use low-cost monitoring tools to collect data on air quality. We facilitated a participatory process, allowing residents to co-design the research questions, decide on the locations for data collection, and engage in the interpretation of results. This hands-on involvement in data collection and analysis strengthened community ownership of the project’s findings.By engaging stakeholders from local government, community organisations, and residents, the project served as a successful example of the quadruple helix approach to urban development, ensuring that all sectors had a voice in addressing air quality issues.

Key Outcomes

  • Community-Driven Data Collection: Over the course of a year, Barbican residents monitored air pollution levels, producing robust data that provided insights into how pollution varied across different locations and time periods.

  • Informing Policy: The data collected through this citizen science project was shared with local authorities, contributing to policy changes and interventions such as the introduction of Low Emission Zones in the Barbican area.

  • Public Engagement: By involving the local community, Science in the City raised awareness of air quality issues and equipped residents with the knowledge and tools to advocate for cleaner air in their neighbourhood.

For a deeper understanding of this project, watch the documentary "Barbican Air Quality Monitoring: A Beacon of Hope for Citizen Science"  [Watch Here], which tells the story of how citizen science transformed community involvement in environmental monitoring.

Notable Event: Dust Storm Mapping – April 2014

In April 2014, a dust cloud passed through London, causing a spike in air pollution levels. Using hand-held monitors, residents were able to capture this anomaly and contribute valuable data to the project, highlighting the power of citizen science in real-time environmental monitoring.

“When this project was advertised around the estate, I thought, ‘that’s something I can get involved with that doesn’t take up a lot of my time.’ It’s one of those things where, if you get lots of people doing a little bit, it adds up to something that’s big, and important.”
— Maggie Urry, Barbican Resident

Call-to-Action (CTA)

Interested in empowering your community to monitor air quality? Contact us to learn more about how you can participate in a citizen-led environmental monitoring project.