The project team is deploying PurpleAir sensors – low-cost air quality monitors that are part of a global, open-access network – to generate hyper-local, real-time air quality data. Previously, Professor Andrei Harwell installed seven PurpleAir sensors in Dwight in collaboration with the Greater Dwight Development Corporation. For the Impact! project, the team is installing seven PurpleAir sensors throughout East Rock to compare the two neighborhoods’ air quality. The data generated over six months for both neighborhoods will be publicly available. This data complements other Yale studies on heat disparities in New Haven and can inform interdisciplinary environmental health policy solutions used by local leaders, policymakers, and funders to improve community health, green space investment, and urban design in the City of New Haven and beyond.
Localized Air Pollutant Inequity: An Analysis of Air Quality Disparities Between New Haven’s Dwight and East Rock Neighborhoods
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Project Overview
Poor air quality is a planetary challenge that affects low-socioeconomic neighborhoods disproportionately. This interdisciplinary project team (with architecture, urban studies, public health, and environmental studies backgrounds) is comparing air pollution levels between two New Haven neighborhoods: Dwight, a predominantly low-income, minority race community and East Rock, a wealthier, predominantly White community. The disparities between Dwight and East Rock in New Haven serve as an example for much larger socioeconomic inequities and environmental health risks faced on a global scale. Understanding these connections within New Haven is key to tackling major global problems locally.
Project Leads
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Daniel Carrión, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health) | Director of Education, Climate Change and Health
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Andrei Harwell
Senior Critic | Director of the Urban Design Workshop
