For several years, relatively inexpensive micro-sensors with increasing performance have been available. Atmo Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and its partners have undertaken work to characterize their performance and to identify the most suitable conditions of use. They are already mobilized within the framework of studies or in a logic of citizen appropriation. In addition, the integration of a network of micro-sensors in the observatory constitutes a medium-term development path that would increase its spatial and temporal resolution as well as its capacity to take into account localized or atypical events. This type of approach could in the future complement the existing observation approaches, without however replacing the homologated measurements on which the observatory is based.

There are two types of micro-sensors: mobile sensors that mainly allow citizens to test their environment anywhere and to take ownership of air quality issues, and fixed sensors more oriented towards the development of citizen observatories to compare their environment with that of others.

 

The Captotheque, the vision of Atmo Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to bring together citizens and air quality monitoring

The Captotheque device is thus designed to use mobile and fixed micro-sensors as a link between citizens and the citizen observatory. It aims to offer all the inhabitants of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, without any resource condition, the possibility of measuring the air they breathe by borrowing a measurement sensor free of charge. Everyone will thus be able to discover their atmospheric environment, learn and share their discoveries, thanks in particular to a web platform. Atmo Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is testing its Captotheque® project before its deployment this winter on the Grenoble metropolis (CheckBox PRIMEQUAL project) and on the community of communes of the Mont-Blanc countries (BB-Clean Interreg Alpine Space project) and currently on the Clermont-Ferrand metropolis.

Still under development, the Captotheque® will be offered on pilot territories from the end of 2019.

 

A necessary harmonization of measures

The integration of sensor networks into a citizen observatory, however, requires upstream standardization and validation of measurements before they can be shared and compared. Thus Atmo Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and its partners are working on methodologies that will make it possible in the short term to guide citizens in the construction and deployment of networks that can be connected to the Captotheque.

Discovering air quality measurement: A workshop to assemble micro-particle sensors organized for Grenoble residents

Workshops aimed at discovering the operation, assembly and configuration of micro-sensors, and enriched by the expertise of the networks of approved air quality monitoring associations, bring the observatories closer together.

The citizen's workshop on the construction of a fixed luftdaten-type micro-sensor, which will take place over two sessions on June 7 and 14, 2019, at the Casemate, and is organized jointly by the Enairgie-commune association and the fablab of the Grenoble Casemate, is part of a collaborative project from Germany and is a forerunner of the regional Captotheque® approach initiated by Atmo Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Participants will be able to build their sensors, install them in their homes and enhance a citizen observatory. These data are not yet connectable to the Captotheque® but aim to become so.

This workshop is open to the general public and does not require any particular prerequisite in the field of electronics or air pollution.
It is financially supported by the Grenoble Metropolis as part of the Metropolitan Participation Fund. Registration is open and places are limited. 

Location: La Casemate, 2 Place Saint-Laurent, 38000 Grenoble, France