Measuring and Predicting Agriculture-related Ambient Air Pollution

Agricultural emissions of air pollutants are of growing concern for air quality, public health, climate change, and environmental justice. However, there are no existing approaches to accurately qualify air pollution exposure in non-urban areas or from agriculture activities. This project integrates multidisciplinary knowledge and methods to address the need of quantifying high-resolution agricultural-related air pollutant concentration and exposure. The objectives are (i) to establish a spatial and temporal predictive model targeting agricultural-related ammonia using various data sources, and (ii) to estimate atmospheric ammonia concentration and exposure during the study period in the Champaign-Urbana area. We conduct a densely spaced spatiotemporal campaign of air quality measurements in the Champaign-Urbana area and use the results to model the spatiotemporal variability in human exposure to agriculture-related pollution in the area, with a particular focus on the spatial patterns of pollution near agricultural activities including crop farms and livestock operations.