Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington are using the FIFA World Cup to measure how big crowds, more flights and increased traffic affect air quality.
Environmental sensors at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium – known as Dallas Stadium for the duration of the World Cup – and Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport will monitor conditions throughout the tournament. The project could help researchers and local governments understand how to improve air quality in North Texas.
Yunyao Li, an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences and director of UTA’s Atmospheric Intelligence and Modeling Lab, said her team wants to understand where pollution is coming from, how large events can change air quality and which communities are most affected.
“The World Cup can give us a unique, real-world stress test,” she said. “With more visitors, more cars, more busses, airport activity, we can observe which traffic-related pollutants increase, how far the effects [go] and whether certain neighborhoods are more affected than the others.”
The need for air quality data
Air quality can be affected by several factors, including weather, traffic patterns and what’s happening in the area. Li said understanding what is causing air pollution is critical to developing ideas or policies to improve air quality.
Harmful gases, like the carbon monoxide released from gas-powered cars, and particulate matter, like dirt or smoke, have been shown to have negative effects on the environment. But many researchers also highlight the significant ways those pollutants can affect people’s health.
“Bad air quality can affect everyone, but some groups are more vulnerable,” Li said. “This includes children, older adults, people with asthma and people with heart issues or lung issues.”
Pollutants can irritate people’s lungs, worsen asthma symptoms, reduce lung function and increase the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular issues. Li said that’s why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set national ambient air quality standards for major air pollutants.
Several North Texas counties have exceeded those levels for years.
Li’s team is building a regional air quality monitoring network to put together a fuller image of what causes air pollution in North Texas, so that local officials can make informed decisions on how to improve air quality.
Based on her team’s analysis, as well as previous studies, Li said traffic is a major source of pollution in the Metroplex, but that could come from a lot of different factors.
“If we can know which one is the major source, we can use different strategies to reduce air pollutants in the area,” Li said. “If the tailpipe is a major source, we can have more [electric vehicle] polices. If road dust is a major source, we can have more frequent road cleaning.”
In her research, Li partners with the City of Arlington and the North Central Texas Council of Governments, or NCTCOG, to provide them weekly updates on the information her team has gathers.
“For example, in the past year, we showed them some satellite observations,” she said. “The average satellite measured air quality in this region…we use that map to identify some air pollution hotspots in the DFW region.”
Li said the city and NCTCOG found that data helpful, and she hopes the data collected during the World Cup will give them important information.
How the FIFA World Cup could offer insight
Li said the World Cup is a big opportunity to gather data because of the millions of people expected to visit. She said it offers a snapshot into what future growth could mean for North Texas – one of the fastest growing areas in the country.
The region is expected to reach a population of nine million people over the next year, according to recent data from NCTCOG.
To accommodate growth in the region, Li said North Texas needs to continue developing, but that could add even more pollution. But officials and researchers may not know what pollutants to focus on.
“This research hasn’t been done before,” Li said. “The air quality study focused on this region is not much compared to other major metropolitan areas in the U.S. This data is a new study and can give us new insights.”
Li has been at UTA working on this type of research since 2024. She said the goal is to develop long-term data – which is what makes the World Cup such a valuable opportunity.
Li’s team will be able to contextualize the data collected during the World Cup with the data they already have and the data they plan on continuing to collect.
Getting the public involved
While the World Cup could offer valuable insight, Li said one of the challenges in air quality research is how small of a scale they’re able to measure.
The environmental sensors that Li’s team uses just measure the conditions in a small area – which can limit how much data they’re able to collect and analyze.
Li said the next step of her team’s research is to find people living in the DFW region willing to have a small, low-cost sensor, provided by UTA, in their backyard.
“Even though we have multiple sensors…the monitoring network is still spatially sparse,” she said. “There are many areas between the monitors where we do not have direct measurements, so that’s why we want to use these low-cost sensors and collaborate with volunteers to get more information between these monitors.”
To participate, Li said people can reach out to her via email or contact UTA’s Air Quality Lab.
“This will help us to collect more neighborhood level data and have a better understanding of how air quality varies across the region,” Li said.
Abigail Ruhman is KERA’s health reporter. Got a tip? Email Abigail at aruhman@kera.org.
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