Lower Hunter Air Quality Community Research Project

The aim of this study was to investigate ways to improve community access to information on, and understanding of, air quality in the Lower Hunter region which consists of the local government areas of Newcastle, Cessnock, Lake Macquarie, Maitland and Port Stephens. The project involved an extensive search of the literature which included examining national and international studies. It employed Intergenerational Democracy (ID), a method of community engagement developed by Dr Kirsten Davies (2012) that involved the inclusion of children through to the elderly. Through adopting this method the range of divergent views, pertaining to air quality and in particular air pollution, across the community was captured. This study engaged 395 participants in total, including 210 interviewees and 185 focus group participants. This whole-of-community study revealed the existence of complex and differing perceptions, levels of concern and knowledge pertaining to air quality, environmental protection and the role of the EPA in the Lower Hunter region.