Abstract
In recent years there has been a trend to view the Citizens’ Observatory as an increasingly essential tool that provides an approach for better observing, understanding, protecting and enhancing our environment. However, there is no consensus on how to develop such a system, nor is there any agreement on what a Citizens’ Observatory is and what results it could produce. The increase in the prevalence of Citizens’ Observatories globally has been mirrored by an increase in the number of variables that are monitored, the number of monitoring locations and the types of participating citizens. This calls for a more integrated approach to handle the emerging complexities involved in this field, but before this can be achieved, it is essential to establish a common foundation for Citizens’ Observatories and their usage. There are many aspects to a Citizens’ Observatory. One view is that its essence is a process that involves environmental monitoring, information gathering, data management and analysis, assessment and reporting systems. Hence, it requires the development of novel monitoring technologies and of advanced data management strategies to capture, analyse and survey the data, thus facilitating their exploitation for policy and society. Practically, there are many challenges in implementing the Citizens’ Observatory approach, such as ensuring effective citizens’ participation, dealing with data privacy, accounting for ethical and security requirements, and taking into account data standards, quality and reliability. These concerns all need to be addressed in a concerted way to provide a stable, reliable and scalable Citizens’ Observatory programme. On the other hand, the Citizens’ Observatory approach carries the promise of increasing the public’s awareness to risks in their environment, which has a corollary economic value, and enhancing data acquisition at low or no cost. In this paper, we first propose a conceptual framework for a Citizens’ Observatory programme as a system that supports and promotes community-based environmental governance. Next, we discuss some of the challenges involved in developing this approach. This work seeks to initiate a debate and help defining what is the Citizens’ Observatory, its potential role in environmental governance, and its validity as a tool for environmental research.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1476-069X-13-107) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The word “environment” is derived from the old French, ‘environ’ which means encircle or surround [1]
From the information in Additional file 1, we have identified the following characteristics that seem to be vital for the Citizens’ Observatories: (i) A Citizens’ Observatory (CO) should involve citizens as active partners in environmental monitoring and decision-making, since this is central for protecting and enhancing our environment; (ii) CO-related environmental monitoring should target an array of natural resources and/or a range of environmental components; (iii) Generally, the involvement of citizens in CO has multiple purposes, with education and raising public awareness being the most common objectives associated with a CO [45,51,52,53]; (iv) There is value in CO as a way to bring community groups together
Citizens’ observatory framework Based upon the definition of the CO we have given and our understanding of how a Citizens’ Observatory may supports environmental governance, we propose that a Citizen’s Observatory comprises four aspects, which we refer to as the CO framework (Figure 1), as follows: (i) Collaborative participation process; (ii) Two data layers: hard layer comprising data generated from sensors and the soft layer comprising data generated from citizens; (iii) Two-directional approach: top-down and bottom-up and (iv) Two-way interactive communication model
Summary
It has been suggested [80] that improved citizens’ monitoring can even have adverse effects on environmental quality This dichotomy suggests that the following areas should receive careful consideration: (i) Data quality (i.e., accuracy and uncertainty) – especially when comparing crowd-sourced and reference data; (ii) Data privacy and security – sharing of data and information requires strong ethical and security considerations; (iii) Data interpretation – qualitative indicators such as “quality of life”, “wellbeing”, “happiness”, etc., should be developed in parallel with more quantitative indicators that are based on individual perception, but on an integrated sensor network; (iv) Systematisation and structuring of citizens-created content and feedback – establishing a viable model(s) to support decisions and empower the public [81]; (v) Involving and maintaining a broad spectrum of society – implementing various location-specific and target group-tailored tools in recruiting and sustaining citizens’ participation in environmental monitoring [82]. We believe Citizens’ Observatories provide the possibility by addressing several of the concerns mentioned, such as increased spatial resolution, up-to-the-minute data coverage and improved environmental awareness leading to a stronger public voice
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
