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AQVx - an interactive visual display system for air pollution and public health

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-20, 14:37 authored by Grant WilliamsonGrant Williamson, Christopher LucaniChristopher Lucani
Fine particulate matter emissions (PM2.5) from landscape biomass fires, both prescribed and wild, pose a significant public health risk, with smoke exposure seasonally impacting human populations through both highly concentrated local plumes, and more dispersed regional haze. A range of technologies now exist for mapping and modeling atmospheric particulate concentration, including low-cost mobile monitors, dispersion and chemical transport modeling, multi-spectral earth observation satellites, weather radar, as well as publicly available real-time data feeds from agencies providing information about fire activity on the ground. Ubiquitous smart phone availability also allows instant public reporting of both health symptoms and smoke exposure. We describe a web-based visual display interface, Air Quality Visualization (AQVx), developed to allow the overlaying, synchronization and comparison of a range of maps and data layers, in order to both assess the potential public health impact of landscape fire smoke plumes, and the accuracy of dispersion models. The system was trialed in the state of Victoria, in south-eastern Australia, within the domain of the AQFx chemical transport model, where large-scale annual prescribed burning operations (~11,000 km2 yr) are carried out, and where extreme wildfires frequently occur during the summer months. AQVx, coupled with the ARSmoke smart phone application, allowed managers to rapidly validate modeled smoke transport against satellite imagery, and identify potential exposure risks to populated areas.

History

Publication title

Frontiers in Public Health

Volume

8

Article number

85

Number

85

Pagination

1-10

ISSN

2296-2565

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Frontiers Research Foundation

Place of publication

Switzerland

Rights statement

Copyright 2020 Williamson and Lucani. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Public health (excl. specific population health) not elsewhere classified

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