Towards an Open Global Air Quality Monitoring Platform to Assess Children's Exposure to Air Pollutants in the Light of COVID-19 Lockdowns

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of an open global air quality monitoring platform aimed at assessing children's exposure to pollutants, especially considering the fluctuations caused by COVID-19 lockdowns, to inform public health strategies.

Contribution

It introduces an initial model for global air quality assessment tailored to children's exposure, incorporating stakeholder feedback and emphasizing open data collaboration.

Findings

Identified the need for a global, flexible air quality model for children.

Gathered expert feedback to refine the monitoring platform.

Highlighted the importance of open data in public health monitoring.

Abstract

This ongoing work attempts to understand and address the requirements of UNICEF, a leading organization working in children's welfare, where they aim to tackle the problem of air quality for children at a global level. We are motivated by the lack of a proper model to account for heavily fluctuating air quality levels across the world in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to uncertainty among public health professionals on the exact levels of children's exposure to air pollutants. We create an initial model as per the agency's requirement to generate insights through a combination of virtual meetups and online presentations. Our research team comprised of UNICEF's researchers and a group of volunteer data scientists. The presentations were delivered to a number of scientists and domain experts from UNICEF and community champions working with open data. We highlight their feedback and possible avenues to develop this research further.