Community Science Resources

CARB is in the process of revising and updating the Assembly Bill (AB) 617 (Garcia, C., Chapter 136, Statutes of 2017) Program guidance document, known as The Program Blueprint. This website page will be redesigned and updated in 2023 as part of that process.

Community air monitoring plays an important role in supporting effective action to reduce emissions and exposure to criteria air pollutants and toxic air contaminants within impacted communities. AB 617 requires the CARB Governing Board, with input from air districts and communities, to identify communities to deploy community air monitoring. When a community is selected for air monitoring, air districts, working with the community, must deploy community air monitoring within 12 months. However, for the first set of communities selected for community air monitoring under the Program, monitoring must begin by July 1, 2019.

The first step to implementing air monitoring within a community is to prepare a community air monitoring plan that sets out action-focused objectives and details how air monitoring will be conducted to meet those objectives. CARB has defined 14 planning elements that air districts, communities, and others should include in community-specific air monitoring plans developed under the Program. The elements fall into three key areas: (1) determine the air pollution concern the community air monitoring will address; (2) describe how the community air monitoring will be conducted; and (3) identify how the data will support action to reduce air pollution within the community. This page contains information on each of the 14 elements to provide guidance for those developing community air monitoring plans under AB 617.

Community Air Monitoring Plan Elements

Category	Element	Description
What is the air pollution concern?	Form community partnerships	Establishes community steering committee and documents community involvement
	State purpose for air monitoring	Characterizes the air pollution concern within the community
	Identify scope of actions data will support	Describes the range of potential resulting actions that air monitoring data will support
	Define air monitoring objectives	Defines what will be measured, when and where it will be measured, and why (e.g. to document highest concentration)
	Establish roles and responsibilities	Identifies all parties responsible for air monitoring
How will air monitoring be conducted?	Define data quality objectives	Establishes level of data quality required to meet objective (e.g. precision, bias, sensitivity)
	Select monitoring methods and equipment	Identifies selected method and suitability of method to meet data quality objectives
	Determine monitoring areas	Indicates where monitoring will be conducted and the rationale for selecting those areas
	Develop quality control procedures	Specifies procedures that will be utilized to ensure data is scientifically defensible
	Describe data management	Describes how data will be collected, managed, and stored
	Provide work plan for conducting field measurements	Lays out the air monitoring timeline and field procedures for those conducting monitoring
How will the data be used to take action?	Specify process for evaluating effectiveness	Designates a procedure to check that original objectives are being met
	Analyze and interpret data	Outlines approach for analyzing data (e.g. comparing trends, source apportionment)
	Communicate results	Establishes how information will be shared with the community, the public, and CARB

CARB staff have committed to providing technical support and consultation to communities to help ensure that community air monitoring campaigns produce meaningful results. We will make technical resources such as best management practices, guidance, and sensor evaluation reports. CARB encourages public participation in the process of environmental protection by making its community air monitoring expertise and resources available to community scientists. (Draft Concept Paper, 2018)

Guiding Documents For Community Science Projects

Guidance	Description
A Citizen Science and Government Collaboration: Developing Tools to Facilitate Community Air Monitoring	This is an article describing a pilot project for monitoring programs in areas where air pollution is a concern.
Air Sensor Toolbox	This website provides information for citizen scientists and others on how to select and use low-cost, portable air sensor technology and understand results from monitoring activities.
CitizenScience Toolkit	A resource (designed primarily for federal agencies) for establishing citizen science projects. This includes step by step procedures, databases of existing projects, and other resources helpful to a community.
U.S. EPA	A US EPA resource for citizen science project

Funding Opportunities

Additional funding opportunities will be posted as they become available.

Community Air Monitoring Data

Air districts will report community air monitoring data to CARB and CARB will publish these data online. Following these 14 elements will allow CARB and the public to understand the nature of the data generated and how it can be used. This will ensure that monitoring has been designed at a level of scientific rigor sufficient to meet air monitoring goals and support actions for each community. CARB will review community air monitoring plans to verify that criteria for each of the 14 elements are met prior to making the data available on the statewide data portal.