Atmosphere

Community Based Participatory Research Guide for Air Quality Management

This project is a collaborative partnership between the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation and the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Water Resources.
July, 2007

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Introduction

Air quality continues to be a key environmental issue of interest for the community and government. Research has shown that air pollution, depending on its nature and concentration, can adversely affect human health, the environment and our quality of life (DEC, 2007). For this reason environmental agencies at a Federal and State level have undertaken air quality monitoring for a number of years in cities and increasingly in regional areas.

There is a growing expectation in the community for local people to be actively engaged in environmental monitoring. This has been demonstrated in land and water resource management and is becoming increasingly common in air quality management.

Through actively engaging the community in the collection and interpretation of air quality data, the community, researchers and government will develop a better understanding of air quality issues as well as joint ownership of the air quality management processes.

Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is one approach to achieve this through the direct involvement of the community in the entire research process, from the initial development of the research questions to the interpretation and dissemination of project results. Unlike traditional research, CBPR focuses on issues identified by the community. Most importantly, in CBPR, the community participants provide the research findings to the broader community so they can be used to make changes and improve conditions in environmental and health policy.

Cover of Community Based Participatory Research Guide for Air Quality Management

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