Abstract
Objectives
To examine the impact of the Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) fire and COVID-19 on airborne particulate matter (PM) concentrations and the PM disproportionally affecting communities in Houston using low-cost sensors.
Methods
We compared measurements from a network of low-cost sensors with a separate network of monitors from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Houston metropolitan area from Mar 18, 2019, to Dec 31, 2020. Further, we examined the associations between neighborhood-level sociodemographic status and air pollution patterns by linking the low-cost sensor data to EPA environmental justice screening and mapping systems.
Findings
We found increased PM levels during ITC fire and pre-COVID-19, and lower PM levels after the COVID-19 lockdown, comparable to observations from the regulatory monitors, with higher variations and a greater number of locations with high PM levels detected. In addition, the environmental justice analysis showed positive associations between higher PM levels and the percentage of minority, low-income population, and demographic index.
Implication
Our study indicates that low-cost sensors provide pollutant measures with higher spatial variations and a better ability to identify hot spots and high peak concentrations. These advantages provide critical information for disaster response and environmental justice studies.
Synopsis
We used measurements from a low-cost sensor network for air pollution monitoring and environmental justice analysis to examine the impact of anthropogenic and natural disasters.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Particulate matter, disaster, environmental justice, Low-cost sensor, Industrial fire accident, Air quality monitoring, 【초록키워드】 lockdown, protection, Variation, Regulatory, Community, EPA, information, Critical, association, Concentration, Analysis, Houston, observation, measure, finding, positive, terminal, Sociodemographic, MONITOR, company, monitors, objective, concentrations, greater, identify, examined, addition, indicate, comparable, affecting, anthropogenic, ITC, 【제목키워드】 Chemical, insight,