Community-Academic Partnered Research:

Addressing Santa Rosa Air Pollution Burdens

Presenter: Casey Hemphill

Co-Presenter(s):
Jeremiah Bazan, Ignacio Garcia, Claudia Muralles, Stephany Orellana

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 22-23

Semester: Spring

Faculty Mentor: Daniel Soto

Department: Geography, Environment, & Planning

Funding Source/Sponsor: Koret Scholars Program

Abstract:
Only 15 minutes from Sonoma State, the Roseland area in Santa Rosa has pollution burdens significantly higher than most areas in the North Bay. To address this, our community-academic team, Partners for Equity Research (P4ER) conceptualized a community-driven research framework grounded in addressing the environmental injustice facing the community of Roseland in Santa Rosa. Utilizing this framework, we collected preliminary air pollution data, geospatially analyzed the results, and presented the data to the Latinx Student Congress of the North Bay Organizing Project. We engaged the youth in community through interactive participatory workshops on asset mapping and distributed air monitors for future use. P4ER characterized the Particulate Matter pollution burden with hyperlocal low-cost, fixed, and handheld air monitors. Here we present our community-driven research framework and the community-driven exposure assessment for diesel pollution disparity for this overburdened and predominantly Latinx community.