Breathe Providence is a community-scale, low-cost air sensing network based in Providence, RI. The objectives of this project are to contribute towards a more comprehensive understanding of air quality in Providence and support environmental justice, community health, and greenhouse gas reduction goals. Towards these objectives, Breathe Providence developed an integrated sensor network design approach, balancing both community and scientific priorities in the monitoring site selection process to maximize (1) community investment and collaboration, and (2) data quality and utility. Enabled by partnerships with community-based organizations, guidance from the Providence Climate Justice Plan, and findings from low-cost sensing literature, Breathe Providence’s site selection strategy operated at both the geographic and host-specific levels to prioritize data utility for community members, researchers, and decision-makers alike. The two-stage network design process employed a Providence-based air quality vulnerability index to guide and evaluate network development at a geographic level, and a community-informed definition of ‘meaningful’ to guide it at the sensor host level. The result of these efforts is a network of air monitoring stations throughout Providence that is primarily hosted by community-serving institutions and is weighted towards neighborhoods with higher vulnerability to air pollution. The network successfully represents the priorities of the Climate Justice Plan and community-based project partners on both a geographic and sensor host level. Sensor hosts have become meaningfully involved through the co-planning of public events, which have in turn broadened the project’s channels for public outreach. Scientific considerations were largely compatible with community criteria: by supporting data quality and completeness, they supported the broader policy applicability goals stressed by community partners. The site selection process presents an essential opportunity to build relationships and align monitoring priorities; as a result, it better positions networks to yield community-relevant benefits.

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