Centre for Sustainable Solutions

About the Sensing Change Project

The Sensing Change: Heat and Air Quality in the Gorbals project brings together researchers from the University of Glasgow and the Crossroads Youth and Community Association to explore how residents experience changes in temperature and air quality in their neighbourhood.

Situated on the edge of Glasgow’s new Low Emission Zone (LEZ), the Gorbals faces complex climate-related challenges, from rising temperatures and high-density construction to reduced greenspace and increased traffic. This project combines environmental sensing with community storytelling to better understand how these conditions affect everyday life and how citizen-generated data can inform local climate resilience.

Aims and Approach 

The project integrates scientific and community-led methods to create a multidimensional picture of local environmental change.

Through collaboration between researchers, local residents, and artists, Sensing Change aims to:

• Map spatial and temporal patterns of heat and air quality in the Gorbals using both static and portable sensors.
• Understand how citizen observations and lived experience align with, or challenge, scientific data.
• Co-produce a four-layered dataset combining historic weather records, static sensor data, portable sensor data, and community observations gathered through the communiMap app.
• Translate findings into a creative art installation that helps communicate data in accessible, visual, and locally meaningful ways.

This interdisciplinary approach connects data science with social insight, making environmental change tangible and actionable.

What the Project Will Do

• Install static sensors to monitor air quality and temperature at key community sites across the Gorbals.
• Recruit and train 10–15 local residents as community scientists to carry portable Airbeam sensors, collecting mobile air quality and heat data as they move through their daily routines.
• Use communiMap, GALLANT’s citizen science app, to integrate community stories and environmental observations with sensor data.
• Host participatory workshops where residents, researchers, and artists collaboratively interpret and visualise the findings.
• Work with artists to co-create an artistic representation of the data, to be displayed locally and at a central exhibition in 2027.

Impact

• The project will strengthen Glasgow’s capacity to design climate-adaptive, socially informed interventions, demonstrating how data and lived experience can work together to inform better policy.
• By connecting sensor science with community storytelling, Sensing Change will showcase a replicable model for citizen-led environmental monitoring and contributes to GALLANT’s mission of creating sustainable, inclusive urban futures.
• Findings will be shared with Glasgow City Council’s Sustainability Team and other local partners to inform future urban planning and adaptation strategies.