OPAL – London, capital of air pollution

An association to involve European citizens in monitoring air quality across Europe has been launched at the EU Green Week on air pollution in Brussels.

The Green Week Conference 2013 focused on air quality and on June 6 the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) was launched to encourage people to collect data about pollution levels all over Europe.

Members of the association – which will be based in London and lead by Dr Linda Davies of Imperial College London – will be representatives from 15 member states and the main target is to engage about 5 million people across the EU over the next 4 years.

Dr Davies said: “Last year we looked at what was happening with citizen science at the european level and there were some small projects going on but there was no body bringing practitioners together.

“With so much interest in this emergent field we talked to the European Environment Agency about bringing together representatives from interested countries and the idea for the association came out”.

Dr Davies is the director of OPAL (Open Air Laboratories), a citizen science project started in 2007 which involved thousands of people collecting data about the environment from around England. OPAL’s surveys provided at the Green Week showed how citizens’ contribution has played a key role in helping researchers understand what kind of consequences pollution has had so far on climate and nature.

“Because of the results we achieved in England with citizen science it was agreed that our country would be the ideal body to take the lead and set up the association,” said Dr Davies. “We want this to be a long term project and funding from many different routes like sponsorships and donations and we hope all the member states will come on board.”

Pat Wolseley, lichen expert at the Natural History Museum Science Group in London, said: “At the Green Week we showed how these surveys in England were useful to collect data and gather information about environment and pollution. If we unite people across europe and involve them in research it could turn out to be an impressive and extremely useful set of data.”

Would you become a “citizen scientist”?

Feature image: Wikicommons

In the past, studies on nature helped us to understand what kind of consequences climate change had on our planet in a prehistoric era.

Today science can help us to understand what has been happening in the air we breath by observing small forms of life commonly found in parks and our gardens.

In 2009 the OPAL (Open Air Laboratories) team at Imperial College London made a survey about the quality of air all over England and looking at species of lichens growing close to roads in central London, volunteers have helped experts understand how the quality of the air has changed over the last decades.

Pat Wolseley, lichen expert at the National History Museum was part of the project, she said:

“Especially close to busy roads we noticed that some sensitive lichens that used to be very common in the past disappeared and some of them who are ‘nitrogen lovers’ instead, are coming at a huge rate. We found as well that some of the species that had disappeared for a long time because of pollution are now coming back, so that could be a sign that in some areas the air quality is improving.”

Lichens are not the only forms of life that can tell us something about the air. Professor Nigel Bell from Imperial College explains that from common insects it is possible to understand what kind of effects air quality can have on flora and fauna in polluted areas.

“What we notice from insects that live in urban areas is that they love eating plants which are affected by pollutants. These concentrate in the plants and in the insects that live in urban areas. NO2 especially seems to have an effect on the insects making them grow bigger, and this is not a good sign.”

Tim Webb, from the RSPB, says that consequences of pollution for some species could start showing in a few years:

“We noticed that many species are moving out from busy roads and that we are losing wildlife in central London. The cuckoo could disappear in 5 or 10 years in London as well as many other species of birds and bees. This will have a final effect on the eco-system overall.”

On June 4 a new association was launched at the Green Week about air quality in Brussels, which will involve the cooperation of volunteers and scientists from all over Europe collecting data about the environment to study the changes in our climate. “Citizen science is really important for research,” said Ms Wolseley, “if everyone can do something little, we can make a change.”

Main picture: Cristina Odero

Pictures: Wikicommon; Wikicommon

Tag: OPAL

Citizen science: a new European association to fight air pollution

A study on nature: what flora and fauna have to say about the air

“We noticed that many species are moving out from busy roads and that we are losing wildlife in central London. The cuckoo could disappear in 5 or 10 years in London as well as many other species of birds and bees. This will have a final effect on the eco-system overall.”