The Biodiversity and Environment Institute of the University of Navarra joins Recicleta Ribera -group of people who promote the use of bicycles as a sustainable means of transport in the municipalities of the Ribera de Navarra - to develop a project of environmental pollution in the surroundings near the schools of Tudela. The project consists of measuring pollution -generated by traffic- inside and outside public and private schools, and propose solutions to improve air quality.

This is a Citizen Science initiative in which the students of Education primary and secondary schools of Tudela - two schools of Fontellas and Corella will also join - will be the protagonists in the extraction and measurement of data, and the elaboration of a monthly report on the status of their school.

From high school the scientific part will be coordinated and student body will be trained on how to extract data, interpret results, and prepare reports. "Bioma will prepare more complete reports on pollution levels in school environments by relating the results obtained by the students to different variables such as, for example, weather, traffic intensity, time of day, street characteristics, etc.," says Jesús Miguel Santamaría, director of high school.

One of the important aspects of this project is to raise awareness among the younger generations about the importance of breathing clean air and the means of transport used to travel in the city. "Students from different schools will be able to compare the levels of pollution to which they are exposed and propose possible solutions to improve the quality of the air they breathe. This can lead to changes in their behavior, for example, by choosing more sustainable means of transport," he says.

For Jesús Miguel Santamaría, breathing clean air is a fundamental right of people and "any project in which the levels of contamination to which citizens are exposed are investigated, especially in the case of vulnerable groups such as children, are of great importance", he concludes.