Following on from Ben Barratt's work on personal exposure using small black carbon sensors in January, several community groups and air quality action organisations have been in touch to suggest collaborative projects using the sensors to map out pollution at a very local level.

One such person was Jennifer Gabrys, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths University and Principal Investigator on the European Research Council Project, Citizen Sensing and Environmental Practice.

In July this year Jennifer suggested an 'Air quality walk', passing the council run monitoring stations at New Cross and Mercury Way. The project engaged local residents by combining the walk with use of the personal monitors to map out participants' pollution exposure during the walk.

Jennifer has blogged the walk in detail at www.citizensense.net. It's a fascinating read and signals a new and exciting way of empowering community groups by combining council run monitoring site data with personal exposure data to investigate air quality at a local level.

Item date 21/10/2013