Wales 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)?
All schools are located in the Borough of Cardiff, Wales’ Capital City. The schools in the trial are as follows:
- Ysgol Mynydd Bychan, Gabalfa
- St Joseph’s RC Primary, Gabalfa
- Stacey Primary, Roath
- Tredegarville CIW Primary, Adamsdown
- Cardiff Academy, Roath
- Mount Stuart Primary, Butetown
- St Peter’s RC Primary, Roath
- Cathays High School, Cathays
- St Teilo’s CIW High School, Llanedeyrn
2. What kind of school(s) has/have been chosen (nursery, primary, secondary etc.)?
All chosen schools are primary schools.
3. How far is/are the school(s) away from busy roads?
It was decided that those schools to be monitored would be those highlighted in last year’s (2017) Client Earth report which discussed potential detrimental air quality impacts at schools in relatively close proximity to major road networks. The report detailed 9 schools within 150m of roads with potentially harmful concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
4. What kind of buildings surround the school(s) (e.g. is it located in a street canyon)?
Unknown
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?
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?
As of the w/c 29th January 2018, SRS has monitored levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at two specific locations at each of the listed schools. The monitoring sites do not provide live data; instead they consist of passive diffusion tubes which are placed at each location, collected and replaced on a rolling monthly basis. The results derived from the diffusion tube sampling are then averaged over the year to enable a comparison of the results against the annual average (40 µg/m3) and 1-hour (200 µg/m3 not to be exceeded > 18 times per year) air quality objectives set for NO2.
2. Do you plan to use or have already used sensors to measure PM? If yes, which ones? How many?
No measurements with PM sensors are planned. Perhaps in the future
3. Do you plan or have you already compared results of your measurement equipment with or calibrated against official measurement stations?
It is not yet planned to compare results of the measurement equipment used against results of official measurement stations. This can be done when the final report is processed.
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.
Please see above
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).
Please see above
6. Which sampling period(s), i.e. months have you chosen?
Please see above
7. Do you also plan to count vehicles, vehicle types?
It is not planned 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.
2. Do you plan to cooperate with local administration responsible for air quality, traffic, urban planning etc.? If yes, which ones.
Yes, Wales plans to cooperate with local administration responsible for air quality, traffic, urban planning, here the Cardiff County Council Planning Authority.
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.
Not investigated to date.
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’?
Wales is currently engaging the Welsh Government to establish a plan to engage all primary schools in Wales with a simple behaviour guide and will attempt to follow this up with a questionnaire designed to capture behaviour change in the simplest, easiest reportable manner.
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?
Yes, this has been demonstrated in other school projects run by SEPA and some English Local Authorities and Scientists (Birmingham).
- What ways of citizen science can be employed to changing such behaviour?
Engaging schools and children and the general public into patterns of behaviour that induce behaviour change. Stating health issues in a clear unambiguous way, simple behaviour change (No idling of cars/Walking busses).
Simple messages with simple behaviour change examples. Messages that will impact parents and teachers to take action. There are also other health outcome associated with such behaviour change. It also raises awareness of the linked issues of emissions, air quality and climate change. The power of this message can be seen in the schools movement on climate change demonstrations developing in Europe at the present time.
- How effective are these ways of citizen science in changing mobility behaviour influencing air quality?
Unknown at the moment
What kind of question(s) have you formulated?
These are in development but will include the following.
Do you understand the health and climate change effects of poor AQ
What measure has the school taken to reduce these impacts
Does the school have in place curricular content on the environment and the hazards of poor AQ
What easy steps could be undertaken to ensure the following:
- Stop cars idling close to school
- Introduce a car sharing/ Park and walk parking scheme
- Increase the number of children walking (safely) to school
- Introducing defined drop zones for children
- Increase in tree planting schemes and tree/hedge barriers
- Increase monitoring at all schools as part of educational programme on AQ and Climate change