Assessing Urban Air Quality in Syracuse


From SyracuseCoE 2024 Newsletter, the environmental and economic landscapes of Syracuse are expected to undergo substantial change over the next several years. The city’s transformation is being driven by major urban developments; most notably, the demolition and reconstruction of the Route 81 highway and the establishment of a Micron chip manufacturing facility directly north of Syracuse (Clay). Both ventures are expected to stimulate Syracuse’s economy and create new residential and work opportunities, with improved access to the city’s downtown areas and potential job openings at the nearby Micron facility. Researchers from local institutions, including Syracuse University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and SUNY Upstate Medical University are collaborating with community partners to better understand the environmental and health impacts of the city’s major upcoming developments. These researchers are working toward the deployment of an environmental monitoring network to provide baseline data needed to fully assess the impact of large events, including the I-81 reconstruction, wildfire and smoke/smog migration, Micron manufacturing facility development and the associated urban development, and current and future climate changes within Syracuse communities. The testbed capability of SyracuseCoE is playing a central role in environmental quality data collection, as a team of SyracuseCoE faculty, staff and research graduate students have been working on the development of a multiscale physical testbed and modeling/simulation platform in support of various multi-disciplinary industrial-academic collaborations. When complete, testbed capabilities will include environmental monitoring for both indoor and outdoor air quality, power consumption metering, site energy monitoring, as well as individual labs for testing and evaluating sensors, devices, equipment and control algorithms. The image shows an example of an air quality sensor installed by PhD students Sameeraa Soltanian-Zadeh, Shayan Mirzabeigi and Jeremy Wheeler, Chief Technology Office at VIP Structures, at one of the selected monitoring sites close to the I-81.