titre:Intro-
duction ---- color: #00BCE4 ---- id: introduction ---- imagehead: 12_Heuchera.png ---- imagestart: image-start-intro.jpg ---- imageend: ---- text: ## Phyto-sensor toolkit Air pollution is a major issue in many cities throughout the world. While reducing emissions at the source is the best way to address air pollution, plants can play an important role in mitigating air pollution. This Phyto- sensor toolkit provides resources for learning how to make your own air quality garden. The Phyto-sensor toolkit was tested and refined through a workshop and walk held in the City of London in March 2018 to investigate the ways in which vegetation can improve air quality. The Phyto-sensor toolkit is developed by the Citizen Sense research group, led by Jennifer Gabrys. Citizen Sense is funded through the European Research Council, and is based at Goldsmiths, University of London. The Phyto-sensor project and events have received additional support through the Low Emission Neighbourhood (LEN) fund, an initiative from the Mayor of London to help local councils improve air quality. There are a number of clean air gardens installed in the City of London, which have also been supported through the LEN initiative, and are partially documented on the map in this toolkit. ## Phyto-sensoR Plants are organisms that are continually sensing and changing our environments. Some plants are especially effective at taking up pollutants, whether by absorbing gas- eous pollutants through their stomata, drawing in heavy metals through their roots, or channelling and depositing particulates in their leaves. The Citizen Sense research group has developed the term ‘Phyto-sensor’ to describe these vegetal processes where-by plants sense and respond to their environments. Of particular focus here is the way in which phyto-sensing can improve air quality, especially in urban settings. Plants are participants in our urban ecologies, and they contribute to our urban environmental communities. This exploration of plant sensing is connected to a wider Citizen Sense project area, ‘Wild Sensing’, which investigates how organisms sense their environments, and how this might inform new types of environmental practices. Numerous studies have now established that vegetation can play an important role in mitigating air pollution. Trees and plants can capture particulate matter, absorb gaseous pollutants, and also phyto-remediate soils. In addition, vegegation can enhance biodiversity, capture stormwater and reduce flooding, and lessen the urban heat island effect. One study undertaken by the Nature Conservancy, “Plant-ing Healthy Air” (McDonald 2016) found that urban trees could make a significant local improvement in air quality by reducing particulate matter levels between 7 to 24 percent. These effects were most notable within 100 meters of a planting. Additional studies from Imperial College (Shackleton et al. 2012) have shown that vegetation, such as shrubs and perennials, planted near or as barriers to emissions sources can also make a positive contribution to lowering particulate matter levels and absorbing some gases such as nitrogen dioxide. A King’s College London report (Tremper et al. 2015) further documents how an ivy screen contributed to the reduction of pollution levels near a playground, with nitrogen dioxide lowered between 24 to 36 percent, and particulate matter 10 levels lowered by between 38 to 41 percent in the immediate proximity of the screen. Strategies for reducing pollution at source by removing polluting vehicles and cleaning up fuel for heating are the most important place to start when working to improve air quality. However, urban planting can make a clear contribution to improving air quality and urban ecologies more generally.