Air pollution research data

Professor Simon Kingham, from the University of Canterbury, explains how scientists often use sources of data that are collected as part of other studies. Researchers at the university use the data from the general Census, collected every five years, to compare the number of people who heat their homes using wood burners with changes in air pollution levels.

Transcript

PROFESSOR SIMON KINGHAM In terms of other aspects of New Zealand as a challenging place to do research or a good place, one is there is some areas of data availability that are really good. For instance, the Census is collected every five years instead of every 10 years. It includes a huge amount of detail on some aspects. So having questions about home heating, the detail we have is actually really, really useful. So there are some things about New Zealand which are great for doing research and really interesting.