Building Resilience and Synergies for Healthy Air Practices Through Community Engaged Research: Learnings from the BEHAV-I-AIR Project in Cork City, Ireland

Air pollution (AP) is an invisible threat to health and wellbeing, particularly among vulnerable groups like children, the elderly and people with low socioeconomic background. It is also a key driver of the extreme changes in climate observed worldwide. Individual and household behaviours such as solid fuel burning and motor car dependence are major sources of AP; however, its invisibility makes it difficult to understand the links between behaviour, pollutants and health risks, which causes psychological distance and hinder opportunities for adaptive and mitigating behaviours. The complexity of this issue requires diverse and inclusive communication strategies that can foster not only individual but also collective resilience. This chapter will describe the experience of BEHAV-I-AIR (Behaviour and Impact on Air Quality), a collaborative interdisciplinary project based in Ireland which employs participatory design thinking and AQ data advancements to enhance public communication of AP-related risks and solutions. We discuss the approach and strategies used to support public and institutional mobilisation around AQ topics, and how we strived to foster collective resilience through our approach. Key learnings about capacity and trust building are identified and discussed.