Issue link: https://hi.iaq.net/i/148198
PURPOSE This Draft Roadmap is intended to summarize major findings from literature reviews, workshops, and discussions with experts about the Next Generation of Air Monitoring (NGAM), particularly sensor technology. It identifies key issues in need of EPA leadership and an ambitious set of priority objectives for EPA and other partners to address. The findings specified in this report make clear that monitoring technology is changing rapidly in the US and internationally. EPA plans to be actively involved on the front end to work with States and its regional programs to: help interpret what data from new technologies mean; set reasonable expectations for use of different technologies; engage communities interested in using new technologies; respond to inquiries from concerned citizens; and prepare for managing very large sets of data. EPA is helping guide sensor developers to produce technology that most effectively measures air pollutants. This Draft Roadmap was developed to share EP!'s early thinking about how best to support the successful development and use of new monitoring technologies. It is also meant to serve as a framework for engaging other agencies and organizations interested in similar goals, coordination and collaboration. INTRODUCTION Recent technological advances are quickly changing the landscape of air quality monitoring. The trend is that monitors are becoming smaller in size (many of them using sensors), are requiring less support infrastructure than equipment currently used in air monitoring stations, and are capable of operating autonomously. Many of these technologies are lower in cost (both in terms of up front purchase and operating cost of the instrument). This evolution in air monitoring has the potential to supplement regulatory air pollution monitoring networks, provide information on operating processes to facility managers and inspectors, promote community engagement, and support air pollution research studies. As federal and state budgets for air pollution monitoring continue to be constrained, fewer resources are available to meet current and future air pollution monitoring needs. This climate is ripe for innovation, and the results of literature reviews and a series of workshops reveal a growing field of players from academicians to Do It-Yourselfers (DIYers) engaging in this rapidly growing field of environmental monitoring/sensing. While not a technology developer in the traditional sense, EPA is keenly interested in this area and would like to facilitate development of lower cost, powerful air quality monitors including these sensors. At the same time, EPA and the States are working to prepare for these technological changes given many uncertainties about the quality of the data and how it will be used. The goal is for EPA to assist developers in quantifying the potential and limitations of their monitors, while also helping to set expectations for the types of uses best suited to different kinds of technologies. Currently, most new monitors/sensors do not produce data that is on par with the data generated from Federal Reference Methods or their equivalents. However, the new technologies will improve with time and become more reliable. For now, users of monitoring data are beginning to consider what the future holds: how more, but less precise, air quality measurements can supplement the measurement data from established monitoring stations. 1 DRAFT 3/8/2013