Clean Air Action: Applications of Citizen Science to Identify and Address Air Pollution Emission Sources

This research paper examines how citizen science initiatives can be used to identify and address the sources of air pollution, drawing on a literature review of 33 case studies to develop a typology of initiatives and recommendations for future participatory science.

• While citizen science projects investigating air pollution and health are increasing, there is a persistent lack of public understanding regarding the specific sources of emissions, which can hinder effective air quality actions.
• A literature review of 33 case studies identifies six pathways for achieving outcomes through citizen science, demonstrating that these initiatives can increase public knowledge, discover new hyperlocal pollution sources, enhance source-specific enforcement, link health impacts to specific emissions, and encourage better compliance from polluting companies.
• Successful outcomes in citizen science initiatives are associated with building trust, joint leadership between scientists and civil society, and clear data utilization plans, while challenges include the complexity of pollution sources and community frustration regarding the difficulty of definitively linking data to specific sources.

APA

World Resources Institute (2021). Clean Air Action: Applications of Citizen Science to Identify and Address Air Pollution Emission Sources. https://www.wri.org/research/clean-air-action-citizen-science-pollution-emissions

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Clean Air Action: Applications of Citizen Science to Identify and Address Air Pollution Emission Sources. 2021. https://www.wri.org/research/clean-air-action-citizen-science-pollution-emissions.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Clean Air Action: Applications of Citizen Science to Identify and Address Air Pollution Emission Sources |date=7 October 2021 |url=https://www.wri.org/research/clean-air-action-citizen-science-pollution-emissions |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2021clean, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Clean Air Action: Applications of Citizen Science to Identify and Address Air Pollution Emission Sources}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2021}, month = oct, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/clean-air-action-citizen-science-pollution-emissions}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }