Abstract
Participatory sensing has become an important element in citizen science projects. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as web platforms and mobile phones can generate high-resolution data for science and progress assessment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (e.g., SDGs 11, 13, and 15). This paper gives an overview of web technologies in citizen science and illustrates how these technologies were applied in the citizen science project BAYSICS (Bavarian Citizen Science Information Platform for Climate Research and Science Communication) in Bavaria, in the south-eastern part of Germany. For the project, three digital platforms were developed: a website, web portal, and mobile application, each of which fulfills different tasks based on the project’s needs. The website informs visitors about the project structure, makes the project known to the community, and advertises the latest activities. The web portal is the main interface for citizens who want to join and actively participate in the project. The mobile application of the web portal was realized in the form of a progressive web application, which allows installation on a mobile phone and is connected with offline access to the content. The provision of an IT service for participatory sensing-based research which covers a development package, including a database, website/web application, and smartphone application, is further discussed.
Highlights
Citizen science supports sustainable development by communicating environmental awareness to citizens and facilitating participation in scientific research
This paper aims to provide an overview of web technologies in citizen science and illustrate how these technologies were used in the BAYSICS (Bavarian Citizen Science Information Platform for Climate Research and Science Communication) project
We provide an overview of the current web technologies within citizen science
Summary
Citizen science supports sustainable development by communicating environmental awareness to citizens and facilitating participation in scientific research. Most of the German citizen science projects provide websites and web applications, but only a small number of projects (30%) provide mobile applications The reasons for this low rate may be the high financial costs and programming effort required and the need for continuous technical maintenance. The BAYSICS project was initialized through the cooperation of the Technical University of Munich, Leibniz Supercomputing Centre of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (LRZ), Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences, University of Augsburg, University of Regensburg, and Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich in 2018 This citizen science project, which is based in Bavaria (Germany), seeks to create hands-on experiences for students and citizens interested in nature dynamics and conservation and climate change. Four research topics were picked out and citizen science data has been collected: “plants”, “allergenic species”, “tree lines”, and “animals”. EAs central themes, four research topics were picked out and citizen science data has been collected: “plants”, “allergenic species”, “tree lines”, and “animals”. PostgreSQL, among other known database systems such as MySQL and SQLite, is often used in citizen science projects to store collected data [13]
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