Becoming Infrastructure: Integrating Citizen Science into Disaster Response and Prevention

Abstract

Citizen science has the potential to contribute to infrastructures for disaster prevention and response. However, sensor networks and crowdsourcing platforms do not in themselves constitute infrastructure. They become disaster infrastructure only to the extent that they are integrated into the routine practices of disaster responders. This paper examines several community-led initiatives for characterizing disasters related to air quality, to understand how citizen science becomes, or fails to become, disaster infrastructure. The integration of citizen science into disaster infrastructure is fostered by creating communities of practice that include citizen scientists and disaster responders, and actively connecting new platforms and information to pre-existing infrastructure. By deliberately undertaking these activities, practitioners can help ensure that citizen science fulfills its potential to enhance disaster infrastructure.