Community-Based Air Quality Monitoring Framework

2.2 Purpose of Monitoring

These resources will help air monitoring project participants determine why they are conducting air monitoring and what their intended outcome is. Once agreed upon by all parties, this purpose, or objective, will guide many aspects of a monitoring project.

Purpose: Establish the purpose of monitoring up front, articulate the intended outcomes, and decide whether monitoring is needed.

Resources:

• Defining Your Air Monitoring Objective by Asking the Right Questions: Includes specific, step-by-step questions to help define targeted air monitoring objectives and develop approaches to meet those objectives. Focuses on identifying answerable objectives that are responsive to community concerns and connected to desired outcomes. (Bay Air Center, worksheet, 3 pages)
• Why Does My Community Want to Take Air Quality Measurements? Provides support in framing an AQ problem and on how to engage with communities. It explores possible objectives, offers valuable case studies, and emphasizes SMART principles. (SCAQMD, guidance section, pages 51-55)

Common challenges that these resources help address:

At the outset, project partners may have different outcomes in mind and different understandings of the connections between air monitoring activities and resulting policy actions. It can be challenging for all parties involved with a project to clearly articulate their goals and expectations, yet this is necessary for establishing a mutually-agreeable basis for partnership. For example, government officials from air or public health agencies may not have authority to take certain policy actions or make the investment decisions needed to yield the greatest air quality improvements for overburdened communities. Sharing those limitations during the process of co-creating the purpose statement for a project can encourage creative project design and avoid misunderstandings and disappointments later.