Rowan receives $100K federal grant for Camden air quality education

Rowan University this summer received a $100K grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to help address the ongoing health threat to residents of Camden, one of America’s poorest cities, posed by low air quality.

Led by Dr. Mahbubur Meenar, an associate professor of Geography, Planning & Sustainability in the School of Earth & Environment, a multi-point project funded by the federal grant will help city residents claim a larger role in improving air quality, in particular through greening efforts like tree planting and community gardens.

Through an initiative dubbed “Greening Camden: Educating, Empowering and Enriching Communities for Climate Action and Cleaner Air,” a team of researchers and students will help address the city’s air quality concerns through coursework, air quality monitoring, detailed mapping (to pinpoint areas with poor air quality as well as green space initiatives), and the development of grassroots action plans.

Long committed to improving quality of life issues in the city through planning and education, Meenar said the EPA award will significantly impact residents’ ability to participate in improving air quality.

As in many older American cities, the air quality in Camden has been eroded on several fronts by heavy manufacturing, vehicular traffic, a dearth of green space and climate change.

Though air quality varies from place to place in Camden, as it does in many municipalities, “there are areas where there is heavy truck traffic and polluting industries,” contributing to lower air quality, Meenar said. “More heat and less vegetation are triggers.”

Created specifically for education, the federal grant will not directly fund tree planting and other greening projects like community gardens, but it will support those types of initiatives by other organizations, Meenar said.

Instead, it will help spur healthy change by teaching residents how to monitor air quality and how to help improve it through a seven-point plan to:

• Raise awareness
• improve knowledge
• encourage critical thinking
• spur problem solving
• foster decision making
• facilitate action
• and champion stewardship.

Rowan is one of three organizations in New Jersey and New York that will each take one third of a $300,000 EPA grant to develop educational programs and resources to improve urban air quality.

“Advancing environmental education advances EPA’s mission because it better equips our communities with the information they need to protect public health today and in the future,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “This year’s environmental education grant recipients will work in underserved communities across the country to foster a deeper understanding of environmental challenges and inspire action towards sustainable solutions.”

Meenar said the funding will enable Rowan to develop both formal (classroom-based) resources and informal (community-based) initiatives to address the city’s air quality issues.

Activities affiliated with the plan include creating learning modules and an online certificate program as well as collecting micro-level air quality data from various locations across the city.

To learn more about the project, please visit the project website.