Overview (First Page)

Data source

top5_cities.rds (Week 10 folder)

Background

This dashboard summarizes air quality (AQI) for five California cities over time (1980–2022). Each record represents a city–date observation, with additional context on pollutant category and the number of monitoring sites reporting.

Question: How do long-term AQI patterns differ across these cities, and how do geographic location and extreme events shape those patterns?

Results

The map shows the five cities distributed across California, with the Southern California cities (Los Angeles and Riverside) located close together compared to Fresno, Bakersfield, and Bishop. Mean AQI differs across cities on the map, suggesting persistent spatial differences rather than a single short-lived episode.

The smoothed time-series reveals clear separation between cities over multiple decades. Riverside and Los Angeles consistently exhibit higher AQI levels, while Bishop remains substantially lower across the period. Fresno and Bakersfield fall between these extremes and show gradual shifts over time rather than abrupt, sustained changes.

The interactive table highlights recent extreme AQI events (2018–2022), often classified as hazardous, providing context for the long-term trends by emphasizing short-term spikes.

City Locations (map)

AQI over time (interactive)

Summary by city (table)

Data table (interactive)

This interactive table displays AQI observations from 2018–2022 to keep the dashboard responsive and focused on recent conditions. Color shading in the AQI column is used to help identify higher values while preserving numeric labels for accessibility.