Building Air Quality Monitoring

Capacity in Southeast Asia

Air Quality in Southeast Asia (AQSEA) Workshop 2

April 2, 2024

In partnership with:

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer

This project is funded by a grant from the United States Department of

State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of
the author[s] and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States
Department of State.

1 RTI International is a registered trademark and a trade name of Research Triangle Institute. www.rti.org
AQSEA Leadership Team

Dr. Prakash Doraiswamy, Dr. Somporn Chantara, CMU Dr. Ngo Tho Hung, AQSEA
Former RTI AQSEA Thailand Lead Vietnam Lead
AQSEA Project Lead

Mr. Ryan Chartier, RTI Dr. Keo Phonhalath, NUOL Dr. Ron Macatangay, NARIT
AQSEA Project Lead AQSEA Lao PDR Lead AQSEA Collaborator

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 Introducing the AQSEA Project
 Motivation
– Air pollution is the 4th largest risk factor for early
mortality
– 99% of SEA population live in areas that exceed
WHO safe air standards, resulting in 2.4 million
premature deaths annually (WHO 2018)
– Air quality (AQ) monitoring is essential for
managing AQ; however significant gaps exist in
reliable AQ monitoring in the open domain in
southeast Asia (SEA)

 Objectives
– Engage and train stakeholders and build capacity
in AQ monitoring
– Deploy low-cost fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
sensor network
– Expand public awareness and outreach
– Provide sensor data for advanced analyses
– Overall goal is to strengthen local capacity to
monitor AQ and expand awareness of AQ issues
among decision makers and the public in
Thailand, Lao PDR, and Vietnam
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Increase AQ Monitoring Capacity – Sensor
 Approx. 100 low-cost sensors deployed across
SEA (Thailand, Lao PDR, Vietnam).
– Combination of PurpleAir and Dustboy monitors
 PM2.5 data available from late-2020 until Jan
2024
– PurpleAir, IQAir, OpenAQ (soon)
– Calibrated data available upon request
 Against Thailand PCD monitor (> 1 year)

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Real-time AQI data availability

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Stakeholder Engagement

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Increase Public Awareness
• AQSEA developed an educational pamphlet and 2 educational video
• Information pertaining to the health effects of air pollution exposure, sources in
SEA, and exposure mitigation suggestions
• These are available for distribution

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AQSEA Workshop 2
Overview
• There are 6 presentations planned
• 15 minutes per presentation and 5 minutes for questions
• At least one presentation from each of the AQSEA team countries
• Presentation will be in English
• Questions can be asked in native language, we ask that the speaker
or an AQSEA team member translate the question before answering
• If you’d like to be included in the distributed attendee list, please put your
name, institute, title, and email address into the chat window
• We will not distribute the registered attendee list

Objectives
• Highlight ongoing and completed AQ research projects in SEA
• Provide a forum for open discourse related to AQ and SEA and how to address
concerns going forward
• Networking amongst SEA AQ researchers – how can we continue to work
together limit air pollution and associated health outcomes

• RTI will be happy to facilitate future conversations/networking amongst

attendees
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Agenda

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Thank you!

 United States Department of State staff and grantees

 AQSEA Team
– Dr. Hong Le and colleagues at UMP HCMC
 Attendees and stakeholders

For additional questions, comments, or feedback, please

contact:
Ryan Chartier rchartier@rti.org
1-919-541-6057

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