Expert workshop (Brussels, 14 November 2019)

On November 14th the LIFE VAQUUMS-project organized a workshop on air quality sensors. International experts in air quality measurements gathered in Brussels to discuss the data quality of low cost air quality sensors.

During the morning session the LIFE VAQUUMS-project was explained in detail. In addition, Laurent Spinelle (INERIS) and Vasu Kilaru (USEPA) presented their experiences with low cost air quality sensors.

In the afternoon, all participants shared their knowlegde during the workshop. The experts were challenged to define quality criteria for 21 possible use cases. In addition, we tried to link guidelines to eacht of these criteria. In general, we concluded that the context of a use case (e.g. which criteria are important for the users) is very important. Therefore, one needs to keep the context in mind when evaluating the usability of a certain sensor. We were able to formulate clear guidance for some criteria, while for others it was only possible to indicate relations and their impact on certain measurements and their interpretation.

The report of this workshop is still under construction. We aim to give guidance to the end users to decide which (quality)criteria are relevant for their use case, which requirements are crucial for their sensor choice, how to deal with uncertainties, etc. At the end of the LIFE VAQUUMS-project we intent to make a decision tree on how to start measuring (sensor choice, experimental design,…) for a certain use case. The final product can support legislation on the use of low cost air quality sensors.