Partnership Project: Predicting What We Breathe
Predicting What We Breathe (PWWB) and Predictive Environmental Analytics and Community Engagement for Equity and Environmental Justice (PEACE for EEJ) are NASA-funded partnership projects between the City of Los Angeles, California State University Los Angeles and OpenAQ.
PWWB has built a highly accurate open-source machine learning model (>94% accuracy for a 24-hour period) for L.A. County that provides hourly air quality predictions for six major pollutants at an extremely high spatial resolution of 250 m2. Using these predictions, local officials can now issue more timely and effective on-the-ground interventions and better understand the impact of their efforts to reduce air pollution. The PWWB model is an open-source tool available to jurisdictions worldwide to enhance pollution mitigation.
Researchers at the California State University in Los Angeles use machine learning to do air quality forecasting with high level of accuracy. Stock photo from lacity.org
PEACE for EEJ is expanding the PWWB predictive model to incorporate socioeconomic, demographic and health data that will help the city support neighborhoods and communities that face higher exposures to air pollution and experience greater health impacts. The project is engaging with environmental justice organizations and organizations that represent minorities, immigrants, poor and elderly to understand their concerns and current use of data, and to co-create project tools, including a mobile app and a web application dashboard.
OpenAQ assists the team with data aggregation and normalization as well as workshop development and execution.