A cross-sectoral approach to tackling Air Pollution in Galway City

by Brendan Smith, EPE Manager, Insight at University of Galway

The Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics at the University of Galway is part of a cross-sectoral climate action partnership project led by Galway City Council known as The Air We Share (TAWS) which combines data science, art, community education and citizen action. It is using a suite of monitors to record air pollution across the decarbonising zone in the Westside of Galway city with the live and historical data being made available to the local community and the wider public under the guiding principle to ‘Make the Invisible Visible’.

As well as impacting on the Climate Crisis, air pollution is a critical human health risk especially in urban areas. This initiative brings together local residents, artists, scientists,  public institutions and cultural organisations to help give citizens an undertanding and a role in addressing its causes and its solutions. It stimulates collaborative discussion leading to individual, institutional and societal behavioural change, including the shaping of Galway City Council’s climate policies.

Selected artists have been commissioned to develop innovative and collaborative arts projects that interpret and respond to scientific concepts and data on air quality, the atmosphere, and climate.

Insight’s involvement includes taking a lead role in organising community and school workshops that helps participants understand the science behind the atmosphere and climate, and then teaching them to put together small low cost sensor units that collect data related to air quality.

It is led by Galway City Council and includes Galway Arts Centre, Galway Culture Company, Westside Resource Centre, Creative Ireland, the University of Galway’s Centre for Creative Technologies, the Centre for Climate and Air Pollution Studies, and the Insight Research Centre for Data Analytics.

Insight’s TAWS team comprises Eoin Jordan, Andy Donald, Alex Acquier and Brendan Smith.

TAWS is a recipient of the Creative Climate Action Fund, an initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme, funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in collaboration with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.

Further details at https://galwayculturecompany.ie/projects/the-air-we-share/

Pictured: Participants at the Galway Science and Technology Fair