2022 Crown Communities Award winner: Real-time air quality monitoring app from Southern California air quality management district

Air quality impacts every aspect of daily life, from the way people work, to social interactions and all kinds of outdoor activities. Especially for vulnerable populations like elderly people and those with a medical condition, being able to monitor pollution particles in the air in real time is important for health and quality of life.

A few years ago, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) launched an app that displays air quality information in real time at the neighborhood level—giving residents a chance to plan accordingly. The district includes most of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties (including the Coachella Valley).

“I grew up in this area. As a kid, I remember playing outside in the summer, and coming inside, my lungs hurt,” said Ron Moskowitz, chief information officer and deputy executive officer for the district. “We had no real information on smog alerts, or how long we had to stay inside. That’s really what the vision was.”

The app’s latest update, which was released in May 2022, takes access to information a step further by giving Spanish speaking users the ability to navigate in their preferred language. It also lets residents submit and track air quality complaints.

For its benefit to the local community, inclusivity and the district’s outside-the-box thinking, AQMD’s Mobile App is a recipient of this year’s American City and County Crown Community Award, an annual merit-based award that recognizes innovative city and county-level initiatives that have a substantial positive impact on constituents. Articles highlighting other award winners will be published throughout the coming months.

Between wildfires, traffic congestion and industrial pollution, the area around Los Angeles, Calif. where the management district is based has some of the worst air quality in the nation. The American Lung Association’s latest State of the Air report ranks the region as America’s most polluted area based on ozone levels. And it’s among the top 10 in both year-round and short-term particle pollution.

The app seeks to help residents navigate these environmental challenges by seamlessly blending real time data from the management district’s regulatory monitoring network of 40 stations with that from an National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration air quality model and “several hundred low cost air monitoring sensors,” said Dr. Scott Epstein, the program’s supervisor. 

The aggregated data is plainly displayed via a simple dashboard on the app, which sections air quality into colors—green through red, depending on the location’s current air quality index. Users can add multiple cities in the district to their homepage. The dashboard also shows the number of fine particles in the air and the day’s weather forecast including temperature, wind, humidity and ultraviolet index. A button at the bottom allows users to easily submit alerts or complaints to the district’s smog hotline. 

The app has been received favorably by the community at large.

“We answer a lot of questions from the community about air quality, and we know they’re using the app,” Epstein said, noting its use among vulnerable populations, in particular. “We also get calls from school districts to know if the kids should be out at recess, or if they should reschedule sporting events. We get calls from businesses who want to protect their employees per OSHA.”

Before the app, Moskowitz said residents had to gather air quality information from various websites, and relied on notifications from social media or email to alert them about poor conditions when they were on the go. It’s intended to be a one-stop place “that has everything on it,” including the locations of vehicle charging stations.

“If you have a car that is a fuel efficiency car that’s electric, hybrid, or even hydrogen, we provide driving directions to the nearest charging station,” he said. “At the macro level, you can see what the air quality is like in the region.”

Because it’s a standalone app, users can set up notifications based on the level of pollution that’s currently in their area. 

“Each of those levels has a different set of recommendations,” Epstein said, noting users can set parameters “based on their personal health situation, or if they have young kids, or if they’re older.”

To date, South Coast AQMD’s Mobile App has nearly 60,000 user installs and a feedback rating of 4.7 out of five stars, according to a statement from the district. More than 15,000 users installed the app during the September to November wildfire season of 2021. Moskowitz said the app had 320,000 impressions that month. For more information, visit the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s website. Download the app on IOS systems via Apple’s App Store, and on Android devices through the Google Play Store.