The Netherlands participates both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of this initiative.
I. Information about the chosen schools
1. Where is/are the school(s) located (name of city, urban/sub-urban/rural)?
The chosen primary school named Het Festival is located in Zwolle in a newly build suburban area called Stadshagen. See Het Festival
The school and surroundings can be viewed on a visual tour
2. What kind of school(s) has/have been chosen (nursery, primary, secondary etc.)?
Primary
3. How far is/are the school(s) away from busy roads?
The school is about 650 m away from a provincial road.
4. What kind of buildings surround the school(s) (e.g. is it located in a street canyon)?
The surroundings of the school are quite open, there is a parking lot next to the school, there are sport facilities, there are houses. Some of the open spaces around the school have been filled in after the pictures were taken.
5. Do you have information on the traffic volume and/or the kind of vehicles passing in front of the school and/or on the neighbouring streets? If yes, please provide this info.
No.
6. Please provide an electronic ‘snap shot’ map of the
- city or district where the school(s) is/are located, and of
- school’s/schools’ close surroundings.
7. Other information, which you would like to share about the schools?
No.
II. Information about the measurement approach
1. What kind of passive samplers do you plan to use, or which ones have you already used to measure NO2? How many?
In the Netherlands Palmes tubes to measure NO2 are widely used by RIVM (this year roughly 60 tubes) and by cities and NGOs and citizen organisations. An overview of yearly averages can be found here
A description (in Dutch) of the Palmes tubes used can be found here
A report about the NO2 tube measurements can be found here
More information (in Dutch) on a RIVM citizen science project with 18 NO2 Palmes tubes that started in 2019 can be found here
Another citizen science project with 230 NO2 Palmes tubes that started in 2019 in the surroundings of the city of Rotterdam can be found here
In the neighbourhood of the school, Stadshagen, a citizen science project with NO2 and PM10 sensors called Senshagen is already being rolled out. See here
Currently 16 sensor kits have been placed in Stadshagen, Zwolle. The participating school will also get a sensor kit.
More information about our experience with NO2 sensors can be found (in Dutch) here
More information about the calibration method (in Dutch) can be found here
2. Do you plan to use or have already used sensors to measure PM? If yes, which ones? How many?
The Netherlands has a lot of experience with PM measurements with sensors, see here but in this project they will focus on NO2.
3. Do you plan or have you already compared results of your measurement equipment with or calibrated against official measurement stations?
The Netherlands plans to calibrate the NO2 sensor data with the NO2 tube data.
4. Where do you plan to locate or have already located the measurement devices? If possible, please indicate this on the map(s) mentioned under I.), or provide coordinates.
The Netherlands plans to locate 10 times 2 tubes around the school at locations determined by the students. Also a sensor will be located at the roof of the school (most likely).
5. Please provide also info on the close surroundings of the measurement devices, e.g. in front of school (busy street, street canyon etc.), in the schoolyard, in the surroundings of the school(s).
The Netherlands plans to locate 10 times 2 tubes around the school at locations determined by the students. Also a sensor will be located at the roof of the school (most likely).
6. Which sampling period(s), i.e. months have you chosen?
The sampling month has not been decided but they aim for May (or June).
7. Do you also plan to count vehicles, vehicle types?
—
III. Communication with pupils, teachers, parents
Foster engagement: Communicating about the project
1. Please indicate if you have any communication material already available and, if yes, what kind of material they are, e.g. from previous initiatives that can be useful for other participants.
The Netherlands are still looking for communication material.
2. Do you plan to cooperate with local administration responsible for air quality, traffic, urban planning etc.? If yes, which ones.
The Netherlands are currently writing a plan together with the school and with people of the local administration. This is work in progress.
3. Are there any civil society initiatives or communities that are active in that domain in your countries? Which ones? They might have some useful communication material and contacts.
In the neighbourhood of the school, Stadshagen, a citizen science project with sensors called Senshagen is already being rolled out. Results will be made available here.
The Netherlands plans to make a connection with the European Clean Air Day on 20 June.
Citizen science and behaviour change: capturing long-term impacts
4. How do you plan to ‘measure’ change in behaviour, see for example the before-after questionnaire used by ‘Curious Noses’?
They would like to ‘measure’ change in behaviour, see for example the before-after questionnaire used by ‘Curious Noses’, and they would welcome help. Ideally, all EPAs would use a very similar questionnaire, if feasible.
5. Some concrete questions have been suggested in relation to the citizen science approach:
- Can citizen science be used as a means of changing mobility behaviours in and around schools that influence air quality?
- What ways of citizen science can be employed to changing such behaviour?
- How effective are these ways of citizen science in changing mobility behaviour influencing air quality?
What kind of question(s) have you formulated?
The question addressed by the project has not been formulated. This could be done ideally by the participating school or students themselves.