Leading members of universities from NSW and the ACT, industry and government met at UTS as part of a NSW Smart Sensing Network networking event about OPENAIR.

Leading members of universities from NSW and the ACT, industry and government have met at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) as part of a NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) networking event about OPENAIR.

OPENAIR is a $2.4 million air quality monitoring program led by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) in collaboration with the NSSN.  

The project was launched in January 2022 with the primary aim of developing best practice methodology and supporting resources to help councils use low-cost sensors to address the variety of air quality issues experienced across NSW.  

To address this aim, NSSN brought together an expert multidisciplinary team that includes representatives from government, leading universities and industry to ensure participating councils had the necessary resources at hand to help deliver better air quality outcomes for NSW.  

By bringing together this expertise, OPENAIR has been able to ensure that participating local councils have the capability to address a range of environmental issues that affect their local communities. 

Jo White, NSSN Chair and Director of Questacon highlighted the importance of the OPENAIR program in the effective use of low-cost sensors to address environmental issues across NSW.  

“This program represents the power of partnerships, this is a true multidisciplinary project, working with the NSW Government, five universities, local councils and industry. So many people talk about being multidisciplinary, but the participants in OPENAIR are actually doing it.   

This is an exemplary demonstration of NSSN bringing together expertise and skilled teams. I’ve always been keen on applying science to real-world problems and OPENAIR is a great example of this. This is not the end, but the start of an exciting new chapter and NSSN is the perfect vehicle to make it happen.”  

Representatives from participating NSSN member universities attended the networking event to share their experiences and knowledge including UTS, the University of Sydney, Western Sydney University, UNSW and the Australian National University.   

Nine councils participating in OPENAIR include Sutherland Shire Council, Tweed Shire Council, Lake Macquarie Council, Muswellbrook Shire Council, Newcastle City Council, Wollondilly Council, Orange City Council, Wollongong City Council and City of Parramatta Council.  

Muswellbrook Shire, Newcastle City, Sutherland Shire, Tweed Shire, Lake Macquarie and City of Parramatta Councils provided overviews of their air quality projects, sharing their learnings and how they are using smart sensors to address local environmental concerns and provide educational resources for their communities.   

Peter Runcie, NSSN Theme Leader for Bushfires and Smart Cities emphasised the benefits of bringing together diverse skillsets from government, industry and universities to deliver the project.  

“Experts in sensing, data management and sharing, air quality science, urban heat, institutional enablement, community engagement and business cases have all provided significant contributions to the success of OPENAIR.  

NSSN has been delighted to bring together an extremely talented group of individuals from across NSW and the ACT to deliver a project that will continue to deliver positive outcomes for our partners in government and the communities that they serve.”  

Kiersten Fishburn, Deputy Secretary, Cities and Active Transport spoke of the inspiration she took from listening to council representatives and how working with OPENAIR had impacted their communities.   

“I am really inspired to be here tonight and to listen to each council and to hear how each council has used the technology was fascinating, given how they have used it in so many different ways. OPENAIR is a really important project and I’m excited to see where it goes next.”  

Matthew Riley, Director Climate and Atmospheric Science, NSW DPE highlighted how much he had learned from the OPENAIR program and looked forward to seeing it progress long into the future.  

“This is an exciting project and I have learnt a lot from it, not only how we can use low-cost sensing technology to answer a wide range of questions, but vitally, how we can engage the community from a young age so we can ultimately answer the one question we’re always asked, how can we make our air quality better? This project will really help us answer this. This is the start of a long journey.”  

Participating councils are already using their knowledge from the project to address environmental issues in their communities, armed with best practice resources and effective technology that provides key data for local conditions.   

OPENAIR has built a strong community of collaboration, learning through doing, where participating councils are now easily able to share information amongst themselves to enhance their environmental data gathering capabilities.  

The program also provides value to participants long into the future. The project team is currently developing recommendations for future investment, policy development and research possibilities to enhance data.

OPENAIR is being delivered with funds from the NSW Government Smart Places Acceleration Program, part of the Digital Restart Fund.  

This article was originally published by NSW Smart Sensing Network.