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Community Mobile Air Monitoring Project

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Join us for two upcoming community meetings on the latest results!
 

  • Community Meeting: Results of Hyperlocal Monitoring in Wards 1-5 on February 20, 2025. Register to join >>
  • Community Meeting: Results of Hyperlocal Monitoring in Wards 6-8 on February 27, 2025. Register to join >>

DOEE partnered with air quality and climate tech leader Aclima to launch a historical air quality monitoring program in the District of Columbia.  This program relies on Aclima’s vehicles, mobile air quality monitors, and mobile-mapping technology. Aclima’s mobile fleets collect measurements of fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, methane, carbon dioxide, black carbon, and volatile organic compounds, among other pollutants, on a block by block basis. Using the data collected, Aclima drafts maps of the pollution at different times and days in order to create a more complete understanding of typical pollutant concentrations in the targeted neighborhoods.


This project provides block-by-block information on air pollution in the targeted communities, giving us a snapshot of which areas in these neighborhoods have higher levels of pollution and at what times of the day these pollution levels are higher.

The goals of this project are to gain valuable, data-driven insight into air quality in these communities and to increase residents’ awareness of pollutants in their neighborhoods and help them to reduce emissions. This insight will help decision-makers create policies that are better targeted to improve air quality in the District and determine which part of these neighborhoods warrants further analysis as the hyperlocal monitoring program expands in future years.


The project was officially launched in Spring 2023, with a demonstration of Aclima’s cars and technology and remarks by Brenda Mallory, the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Dr. Amber Hewitt, Chief Equity Officer for the Government of the District of Columbia, Hannah Ashenafi, Associate Director of DOEE’s Air Quality Division, and Davida Herzl, co-founder and CEO of Aclima.


2023 Activities
 

In 2023, during a two-week period, Aclima mapped three priority communities: Ivy City/Brentwood, Buzzard Point, and Mayfair. We selected these communities because they have been disproportionately impacted by a long history of racial injustice, which have also led to increased exposure to air pollution and its negative health effects.


2023 Program Events

Results of the 2023 Project

In 2024, we expanded the project to include neighborhoods across the District. Starting in August 2024, Aclima conducted six weeks of hyperlocal mobile air quality measurement approximately 24 hours a day across neighborhoods in the District:

  • Columbia Heights/Park View
  • Howard/LeDroit Park
  • Eckington/Edgewood/Bloomingdale
  • Ivy City/Brentwood (included in 2023 study)
  • Trinidad/Carver
  • South Capitol Hill/Barney Circle
  • Buzzard Point (included in 2023 study)
  • River Terrace (included in 2023 study)
  • Greater Anacostia/Naylor Gardens/Good Hope
  • Bellevue/Congress Heights
  • Georgetown/Palisades 

The majority of the neighborhoods included in the monitoring project were chosen due to their history of disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards. Georgetown was chosen to provide comparison data to areas of the city that have been historically disadvantaged. DOEE held listening sessions in preparation for data collection and included community input in final maps.


2024 Program Events
 

  • DOEE Community Workshop with ANCs on January 29, 2025
  • Community Meeting: Results of Hyperlocal Monitoring in Wards 1-5 on February 20, 2025. Register to join >>
  • Community Meeting: Results of Hyperlocal Monitoring in Wards 6-8 on February 27, 2025. Register to join >>
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