Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation: The Design and Deployment of a Chicago Air Quality Sensing Network

Environmental justice leaders have long sought tools to monitor hyperlocal air pollution exposures. In this talk, Dr. Daepp will describe the collaborative effort of city, industry, academic, and community groups in Chicago to deploy a network of 115 low-cost air quality sensors. Her team developed a network design with two key priorities: (1) citywide coverage and (2) equitable allocation with communityselected sites in environmental justice neighborhoods. They evaluate accuracy through co-locations with EPA regulatory monitors, developing a calibration algorithm for fine particulate matter readings. The system enables the tracking of real-time events – including a July 4th spike and smoke from summer wildfires – as well as the detection of hotspots.