In this episode, we discuss air pollution in African cities with a focus on transportation, capacity building, air pollution measurement infrastructure, and other perspectives related to air quality.
- Urban transportation and air pollution: Integrated policies towards more sustainable ways of transportation in Africa
- Local capacity building and the use of low-cost sensors and other monitoring infrastructure for air quality management networks
- Meaningful partnerships and long-term strategies for research funding and awareness initiatives within local communities
Our guest Dr Andriannah Mbandi is a chemical engineer, educator and an entrepreneur with 16 years of experience in manufacturing, hazardous chemicals and waste, climate change, mobility and air pollution. Her research seeks to support evidence-based air quality management policy by assessing the impact of transport emissions on human health and the environment with a focus on African cities. She holds a PhD from University of York, UK (2013-2017) in Environmental Science, and currently supervises and teaches at the School of Engineering and Technology at the South Eastern Kenya University in Kenya. In addition she is a member of several associations working to foster collaboration between African air pollution scientists, local and international communities, and policy makers, such as Kenya Air Quality Network (KAQN) which she is a founding member of. She is also a co-founder of AfriSTEM Connection, a company working to increase STEM awareness in under-served communities in Africa. Find her on Twitter.
Our interviewer Dr Collins Gameli Hodoli holds a PhD in Environment and Agrifood from Cranfield University, UK where his research focused on the applicability of low-cost sensors for ground-based air quality monitoring in resource-constrained environments using Ghana as an exemplar for wider Africa. He is the Founder and Director of Operations at Clean Air One Atmosphere (CAOA), a registered not-for-profit in Ghana. CAOA is using DIY approaches and low-cost environmental sensing tools to revolunise AQ monitoring in Ghana and wider Africa. Find him on Twitter.
Episode notes and references:
- Estimating On-Road Vehicle Fuel Economy in Africa: A Case Study Based on an Urban Transport Survey in Nairobi, Kenya
- Air Pollution in Africa in the time of COVID-19: The air we breathe indoors and outdoors
- The cost of air pollution in Africa
Music by Ritesh Prasanna
Podcast website: https://atmospherictales.com