The grand challenges facing environmental citizen science

Fritz, Steffen; See, Linda; Grey, François

doi:10.3389/fenvs.2022.1019628

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The results particularly substantiate the idea of change through knowledge product development based on citizen science data, since knowledge product development and political advancement are closely connected (Section 4.2). This, in turn, is in line with the environmental change literature, which highlights how citizen science can induce change at the policy level (Fritz et al, 2019;Fraisl et al, 2020;Fritz et al, 2022;Sauermann et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussion Of Descriptive Statistics and Factor Analysissupporting

confidence: 84%

“…The results are also in line with citizen science evaluations highlighting the role of citizen science in raising awareness of environmental issues (Chase and Levine, 2016;Brouwer et al, 2018;Peter et al, 2019). The results, however, also question the probability of significant middle to long-term impacts of citizen science projects beyond ultimate data outputs (e.g., Fritz et al, 2019;Fraisl et al, 2020;Fritz et al, 2022;Sauermann et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussion Of Descriptive Statistics and Factor Analysissupporting

confidence: 78%

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Design impacts of citizen science. A comparative analysis of water monitoring projects

Kirschke,

Bennett,

Ghazani

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Citizen science is often promoted as having the capacity to enable change–from increasing data provision and knowledge product development, via behavioral change of citizens, to problem-solving. Likewise, researchers increasingly emphasize the role of project design in initiating these changes through citizen science. However, respective claims are mostly based on single case studies and reviews, calling for a systematic comparative approach to understanding the effects of project design on change. Based on a survey of 85 water-related citizen science projects from 27 countries, we analyze the comparative effects of literature-based design principles on project impacts. Factor analysis first reveals three key impact factors which are ‘Data output’, ‘Citizen outcome’, and ‘Impact chain’. Regression analysis then shows that these impact factors are significantly influenced by several design factors, amongst which motivational factors are most prominent. The analysis also shows that design factors are most important for ‘Impact chain’, followed by ‘Citizen outcome’, and ‘Data output’. While design factors only partly explain the overall project effects, the regression results are rather stable and significant when including other potential influencing factors like project responsibility and funding. In sum, the results provide an empirically substantiated and differentiated understanding of citizen science impacts and how these are influenced by project design.

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Section: Discussion Of Descriptive Statistics and Factor Analysissupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Discussion Of Descriptive Statistics and Factor Analysissupporting

confidence: 78%

Design impacts of citizen science. A comparative analysis of water monitoring projects

Kirschke,

Bennett,

Ghazani

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

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“…Navigating the realm of citizen science and its implications for air quality monitoring, it's clear that while the methodology offers promise, it isn't without its hurdles. Fritz et al, describe challenges for typical citizen science projects across six overarching domains including quality, reliability, and standardization -which are discussed in our results (Fritz et al, 2022) (Wesseling et al, 2019); and utilizing sensor data to quantify pollution during specific events like wildfires (Gupta et al, 2018). These projects demonstrate the power of citizen science for environmental monitoring, data gathering, and policy advocacy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Evaluating Performance of Socio-Technical Systems for Improved Reliability: Evidence from Sensor and Human Networks

2023

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Air pollution, especially PM2.5 (aerosols < 2.5μm diameter), contributes to 8-10 million early deaths annually. The WHO's 2021 guidelines on PM2.5 exposure show 97.3% of people globally live beyond safe exposure levels, reducing global average life expectancy by 2.2 years. This dissertation investigates the efficacy of IoT-based low-cost sensors in delivering credible, localized pollution data and fostering public environmental advocacy. Three essays structure the exploration:Essay 1 reviews the evolution and performance of low-cost PM sensors (from 2012-2022) and highlights the efficacy of appropriate calibration models to improve performance.

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“…It considers different perspectives including those of citizen science researchers and practitioners, NSOs, and international organizations, among others. In line with the frequently cited geographical bias in citizen science studies (Cunha et al 2017;Vasiliades et al 2021;Fritz et al 2022), most papers had authors located in the Global North, particularly Europe (12 papers) and, to a lesser extent, Australia (two papers). Only five papers included authors affiliated to more than one region including the US, South America, Africa, and New Zealand.…”

mentioning

confidence: 66%

The Contributions of Citizen Science to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Other International Agreements and Frameworks

Fraisl¹,

See

Campbell

et al. 2023

Citizen Science: Theory and Practice

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The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a series of global development targets that were adopted by all UN member states in 2015 to address the world's most pressing societal, environmental, and economic challenges by 2030 (UN 2015). They include 17 goals and 169 targets covering a wide range of topics from inclusive and equitable education to climate change. The achievement of the SDGs depends on our ability to accurately measure progress towards these topics using timely, relevant, and reliable data (Dang and Serajuddin 2020). To help in the development and implementation of such data and of monitoring mechanisms, a Global Indicator Framework was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2017, which currently includes 231 unique indicators as a set of metrics to deliver information on the status and trends in each SDG target (UN 2017). However, the lack of resources and institutional capacity makes the monitoring of these indicators very challenging for the producers and users of official statistics, including National Statistical Offices (NSOs), line ministries, UN agencies and others that are responsible for compiling and disseminating official statistics (Fraisl et al. 2022).Citizen science, along with other new sources of data such as remote sensing and mobile phone records, offers a novel solution to complement and enhance official statistics, and to provide more detailed information that cannot be captured through traditional sources of data such as household surveys (Fritz et al. 2019;Dörler et al. 2021). Accordingly, Fraisl et al. (2020 found that citizen science data are contributing or could contribute to the monitoring of 33 percent of the SDG indicators. In addition to the SDGs, there are other frameworks such as the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC 2023), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR 2015), the New Urban Agenda (UN HABITAT 2016), and the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (UN 2022a) that also require better monitoring and implementation, to which citizen science could contribute. For example, Danielsen et al ( 2014) have previously shown that 63 percent of the 186 indicators of 12 multilateral environmental agreements can be informed by citizen science data.Citizen science can also help to achieve transformative change, which can be defined as an extensive and foundational shift across social, environmental, economic, technological, and

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The grand challenges facing environmental citizen science

Cited by 7 publications

References 26 publications

Design impacts of citizen science. A comparative analysis of water monitoring projects

Design impacts of citizen science. A comparative analysis of water monitoring projects

Evaluating Performance of Socio-Technical Systems for Improved Reliability: Evidence from Sensor and Human Networks

The Contributions of Citizen Science to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Other International Agreements and Frameworks

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