We collaborate with engineers, scientists, and community groups to design and deploy technologies with the potential to amplify environmental justice perspectives. Then we use social science methods to assess how well those technologies worked for communities.
P R O J E C T
Meaning from Monitoring
Airwatchbayarea.org allows users to explore chemical concentrations measured at eight air monitoring stations near San Francisco Bay area refineries.
OBSERVATION
Real-time air monitoring at oil refinery fencelines gives up-to-the-minute information, but doesn't enable adjacent communities to spot trends
or systemic issues.
GOAL
Make monitoring data accessible to residents on an interactive website.
HYPOTHESIS
The new website enables community groups to incorporate data into their stories of living with a refinery, enhance their campaigns, and increase the number of residents using fenceline monitoring data.
Collaborators
Randy Sargent, CREATE Lab, Carnegie Mellon University
Dawn Nafus, User Experience Innovation Lab, Intel Labs
Crockett-Rodeo United to Defend the Environment (CRUDE) and Rodeo Citizens Association, especially Janet Callaghan, Nancy Rieser, and Janet Pygeorge
Benicia Good Neighbor Steering Committee, especially Constance Beutel and Kathy Kerridge
Denny Larson, Community Science Institute
Jesse Marquez, Los Angeles Community Environmental Enforcement Network
This project was made possible by a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (Award 1352143), and the hard work of Drexel students Derek Parrott (M.S., Science, Technology, and Society, 2016) and Amy Gottsegen (undergraduate, Computer Science).
P R O J E C T
Real-Time Health Monitoring
observation
Health concerns are paramount in communities adjacent to point source polluters. Fenceline monitoring programs measure air quality, but don’t collect data about residents’ health.
Goal
Equip fenceline community residents with off-the-shelf personal monitoring technology to generate real-time data relevant to their health, enabling them to explore possible correlations between air quality and health symptoms.
Questions
Does having personal health data change the way that residents make sense of air quality data?
What data processing tools and other resources do they find most helpful for making sense of data?
collaborators
Project Lead: Dawn Nafus, User Experience Innovation Lab, Intel Labs
Crockett-Rodeo United to Defend the Environment (CRUDE)
The project has received funding and other support from Intel Labs. Drexel student Matt Salvetti (B.A., Sociology, 2016) provided valuable support to Phase 1.