An EU team established Citizen Observatories to help monitor air quality in cities. The network included 24 observatories, including 324 sensors and 400 volunteers across 9 EU cities, yielding a total of 9.4 million air quality observations.
Governments have a very significant role in finding solutions to environmental problems, but not the only role. Often, citizens can band together to both monitor and manage local environmental problems in ways that government agencies cannot.
Further details: Citizen-based air quality monitoring