While at the Burning River Fest a while back I had noticed a booth where the discussion was centered around airborne contaminants. I queried whether the county had real time tracking of particulate matter from specific locations as I am typically interested in real time results from the surrounding region. Part of it is due to my desire to quantify site specificity as a design precedence as well as my necessity to know what is going on everywhere.
Currently the county does not have real time mapping or data stream, at least according to the booth I inquired at (which may have been the Environmental Health Watch booth, I wrote it down but misplaced my notes).
I had read about an "installation" during last years CONFLUX festival whereas a person pushing a cart that monitored CO2 emissions walked a main path adjacent to a road way and demonstrated the amount of pollution being emitted, and consequently inhaled, by festival visitors. I found it an interesting way to connect directly, via real time measurements and results, to the general public in an educational manner that tied together how our everyday choices and interactions with our environment affect our health.
Whereas particulate matter in Cuyahoga County is directly connected to respiratory illnesses (or in case of our current time of year, allergies), I would think that wind data and pollution data would be interesting to study. Granted it may seem difficult to have such data constantly at our fingertips, but currently groups are working with that very goal in mind.
The Black Cloud Citizen Scientist League has developed "Pufftron" sensors to measure air quality, temperature and noise is specific Los Angeles and Bary Area areas.
Currently there are 5 sites under the scrutiny of the "Pufftron" data loggers which have data streams visible online. This real time data streaming allows anyone to instantly view and hopefully understand external events and their affect upon quality of life, a major concern of a good design professional. Recent growth in environmental awareness and passive design strategies should inherently justify the value of studies such as this which would hopefully result in techniques and technologies that either limit environmental pollutants or design strategies for dwellings and structures to combat, collect/deflect or avoid such contaminants if deemed desirable.
resources:
Scorecard: Pollution Report Card - Cuyahoga County
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