Citizen Monitoring Research Articles

Involving citizens in monitoring the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

AbstractThe Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and its monitoring framework aims to reverse the decline of nature. The GBF tasks governments to report progress towards 23 targets and four goals but also “invites Parties and relevant organizations to support community-based monitoring and information systems and citizen science” to improve information for decision-making and build support for conservation efforts throughout society. We assessed how Indigenous Peoples, local communities and citizen scientists and professional scientists can help monitor the GBF. Of the 365 indicators of the GBF monitoring framework, 110 (30%) can involve Indigenous Peoples, local communities and citizen scientists in community-based monitoring programmes, 185 (51%) could benefit from citizen involvement in data collection and 180 (49%) require scientists and governmental statistical organizations. A smaller proportion of indicators for GBF targets are amenable to citizen monitoring than for the previous Aichi targets or other multilateral environment agreements—largely because 196 GBF indicators are analytically complex (54%) and 175 require legislative overview (48%). Greater involvement of citizens in the GBF would increase societal engagement in international agreements, harness knowledge from those living close to nature to fill data gaps and enhance local to national decision-making based on improved information, leading to better conservation actions.

Citizen monitoring in environmental disclosure: An economics perspective

Criticism is mounting that market-led and state-led initiatives for environmental impact disclosure are too limited in scope and that they rest on too strong assumptions about the quality and impartiality of monitoring and enforcement, with resulting insufficient effect on environmental sustainability. It has been proposed that citizen monitoring may contribute to counteract this void. However, to our knowledge, policy analysis in general and economics in particular has not paid much attention to this role of citizen monitoring. This paper aims to bridge that gap from an economics lens, by exploring the dynamics of disclosing local environmental impact and the potential role of citizen monitoring in environmental policy. To this end, the paper addresses monopolistic versus pluralistic environmental disclosure, letting citizen monitoring represent the latter. The study uses the mining industry as an illustrative case, because of that sector's particular transparency challenges in international value chains, typically with strong negative local environmental impact. It is shown how pluralistic information provision such as citizen monitoring can contribute to incentivizing more reliable information provision, especially in countries with weak state institutions, which is particularly important in the case of high-risk environmental impact. The findings should be of use for shaping environmental policy, providing valuable insights for both policymakers and scholars.

"Community strengthening through citizen monitoring of water quality: A systematic review".

Citizen participation in decision-making is a fundamental democratic pillar of democracy. However, the degree of citizen involvement and recognition by governmental institutions may be conditioned by the level of competence and knowledge demonstrated. Therefore, carrying out collective projects can contribute to strengthening citizen engagement in water management issues. Nonetheless, there is limited knowledge about the various types of citizen engagement and the practices that have facilitated greater inclusion in decision-making regarding water resources. This study aims to identify and analyze practices that strengthen water community organizations through citizen monitoring-based involvement. A systematic literature review was conducted using the PRISMA method. The research was guided by the following questions: What are the differences in the level of citizen involvement and the degree of transformation facilitated by citizen monitoring of water quality (CMWQ) between the global North and South? What practices strengthen community organizations in decision-making based on CMWQ? Moreover, what challenges do community water organization structures community water organization structures face when based on CMWQ? A total of 161 publications were identified for the analysis of critical themes. After applying the eligibility criteria, 33 documents were selected for content analysis. The reviewed monitoring exercises indicate that the highest level of citizen organization achieved by participants is commonly recognized as "Water Committees". One practice that strengthens these committees is the generation of collaboration agreements among different types of allies, based on a shared objective. However, in the Global South and at the institutional level, there is still resistance to water quality data generated by citizen monitors, especially in regions with large-scale open-pit mining projects. To sustain the efforts of community figures, monitoring programs with public funding need to be established, and public policies supporting these initiatives at the institutional level must be implemented.

지방세 비과세 및 감면제도와 지방세 징수 규모의 관계 분석: 시민 모니터링의 조절효과를 중심으로

지방세 비과세 및 감면제도와 지방세 징수 규모의 관계 분석: 시민 모니터링의 조절효과를 중심으로

Supervising Local Cadres in China: The Quest for Authoritarian Accountability

This article examines the compatibility of authoritarianism and accountability through groundbreaking research on citizen supervision of local state agents, a novel form of accountability politics that has been underway in China for a decade. Based on an in-depth political ethnography of the Citizen Monitoring Organization in Wenzhou, this article examines how the authoritarian instrument that produces relations of domination can be turned into a bonanza for public accountability. The article demonstrates that local leaders may encourage citizens to help restrain the exercise of power in the lower state echelons when agent malfeasance is considered a threat to local leaders' career advancement. This opportunity structure leads to the mechanism of “state-backed supervision”: enlisted citizen participants draw on the delegated and entitled authority of the state to demand accountability from local state agents. Examining the logic, dynamics, limitations, and outcomes of state-backed supervision, this article identifies a novel pathway to accountability in authoritarianism.

인공어초 단지 주변 해양쓰레기 피해 시민모니터링과 스쿠버다이빙 레저활동 접목 방안

인공어초 단지 주변 해양쓰레기 피해 시민모니터링과 스쿠버다이빙 레저활동 접목 방안

관광활동의 민원 관계망 최적화 관광 와치도그 도입에 관한 소고

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to formulate a plan to cope with tourists' rights which can occur in tourist attraction place and anywhere for tourist activities and to seek a plan for introducing a watchdog system for tourists' civil complaints. Design/methodology/approach - To perform this purpose, this article will discuss a research review of the scope of tourist activities in terms of space and place perspectives and compare them to the watchdog and ombudsman concepts. And the study analyses and look at the suggestion about Tourism complains center and the Tourism policy system of procedure function and role critically. Findings - The Watchdog system is a routine activity in which citizen monitoring activities are developed in the form of a system and share inconvenience and anxiety detected in time and space in the expanding range of entertainment, leisure, and sports tourism activities. The resulting accident rate can be reduced, the administrative and private businesses can be resolved, and the cost of handling can be solved. Research implications or Originality - The social contribution of Watchdog can be systematically expanded and resolved at various sites by securing public trust in the country threats in daily places preventing risks securing continuous safety management of related facilities and other industries

스페인 인플루엔자 유행 시기(1917-1919년) 프랑스인들의 일상사

This article is one of the research attempts by which we study the french lives in the various aspects, from 1918 to 1919, when the Spain influenza exploded. We grasp that at the first time of introduction of Spain Influenza, many french thought that Flu was light, for the reason of the First World War, and rejoiced in the news that this Flu severely exploded in Germany. The citizen made the various mere conjectures and even used the expression, ‘the Chinese epidemic’, or ‘German epidemic’. This epidemic’ spreading speed was fast, but not greatly severe than expected. Nevertheless, Spain Influenza caused many deceased, in the link of the First World War.
 Meanwhile french medical and pharmaceutical world payed the minute attention to this epidemic and prepared the variety of countermeasures on the pharmaceutical and therapeutic ways. This article includes the studies on the daily life of the french citizen monitoring on these aspects of changes.

Bird predation on Roseau cane scale as revealed by a web image search and querying a citizen monitoring database

AbstractAn invasion of Roseau cane scale, Nipponaclerda biwakoensis, native to East Asia, is associated with recent widespread dieback of common reed stands in the Mississippi River Delta, Louisiana. A previous study suggested that, in its native range, the combined mortality from Common Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus and parasitoid wasps may control the abundance of Roseau cane scale. However, there is limited knowledge about which other bird species may prey on Roseau cane scale or the feeding patterns of these birds. Here we used web search and citizen science monitoring data to tabulate bird predation events on Roseau cane scales across sites in Japan and determine which bird species may be the most important predators and when the observed feeding typically occurs. We scanned web entries using both Google image searches and the social networking services including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Additionally, we accessed long‐term field observation records obtained by volunteer monitoring conducted by the members of the Kanagawa Branch of the Wild Bird Society of Japan. By using these citizen science approaches, we detected 16 bird species, mainly Common Reed Bunting but also other migratory and resident species, preying on the Roseau cane scale in reed beds throughout central Japan and most detection occurred during the winter. This study demonstrates that biological information obtained from publicly available data from citizen observers can be useful for exploring ecological patterns of various species including potential predators against invasive species.

Citizen monitoring of ambient dose rate: the SAFECAST project.

Citizen Science (CS) is research performed by citizens who are not professional scientists in general. SAFECAST was founded in Japan after the Fukushima accident 2011, motivated by distrust in the perceived biassed information by authorities about radiation situation. Measurements of ambient dose rate (ADR) performed by citizens were intended to verify and complement official data using bGeigieNano designed for purpose, recording ADR, GPS coordinates and date/time allowing projection on digital maps. The project expanded internationally, by mid-2022 containing ⁓180 million measurements. CS generates large amount of data as valuable source for science; it has educational value and serves communication between citizens and professionals. Problems consist in quality assurance (QA): citizens who are no trained metrologists are usually little familiar with notions of representativeness, measurement protocols and uncertainty that are the central QA topics. We discuss variability of response of instruments of the same kind under same ambient conditions and isotropy of response under field conditions.

The Tragedy of the Nurdles: Governing Global Externalities

Nurdles have been referred to by some as a global environmental disaster. However, relative to the controversies surrounding industrial fracking practices, such as public health and safety associated with extraction of shale gas (as well as shale oil), the problems with nurdles are not as widely known. In this article, we highlight that fracking and nurdles are interrelated: fracking processes are a major source of the raw materials used to produce nurdles, which are tiny plastic pellets polluting our waters. Our contention is that a key question for analysis of fracking is how to regulate the externalities associated with downstream products produced in the fracking process. This article takes insights from Elinor Ostrom and scholars of the Bloomington School of Political Economy—such as polycentricity, diversity of collective action problems (CAPs), coproduction, and institutional diversity—to analyze nurdles pollution as a global commons problem. Nurdles generate widespread, large-scale negative externalities that are difficult to contain and address within a fixed geographical boundary governed by a static jurisdictional authority. Using the case of the Royal Dutch Shell cracker plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, we show that nurdles present complex and nested challenges that require coproduction, with citizen monitoring playing an essential role in mitigating negative externalities. We demonstrate the efficacy of applying polycentric approaches toward addressing CAPs associated with nurdles.

Digging out intersexual and meteorological effects on cicada emergence using 10‐year citizen monitoring

Abstract Understanding the mechanisms determining the emergence timing of herbivorous insects is ecologically important. However, little is known about the effect of climatic factors and the presence of conspecific individuals on their emergence in the field. In particular, it is challenging to investigate the seasonal emergence of cicadas because these insects have a long life‐cycle and subterranean larval stages. We assembled a time‐series dataset that consists of daily counts of emerging cicadas together with meteorological factors, using long‐term collection of cicada exuviae by elementary and junior‐high‐school students. We then performed a non‐linear time‐series analysis, empirical dynamic modelling, to identify factors behind the timing of cicada emergence. Our findings are three‐fold: (1) emergence of individuals of the opposite sex constitute a major driver of the number of individuals emerging per day, and this effect is stronger in males than in females, (2) as in other insect species, air temperature consistently affects cicada emergence, but its effects are relatively weak and (3) precipitation and humidity were causally related to emergence. These results are consistent with the theory of sexual selection as well as the fact that it is hard for the subterranean cicada larvae to use information about air temperature. Significantly, the findings are based on long‐term field data collected by non‐expert citizens.

Citizen monitoring promotes informed and inclusive forest governance in Liberia

Global forest loss depends on decisions made in the rural, often poor communities living beside the Earth's remaining forests. Governance problems in these forest-edge communities contribute to rapid deforestation and household vulnerability. In coordination with experimental studies in 5 other countries, we evaluate a program that recruits, trains, and deploys citizens to monitor communal forestland in 60 communities in rural Liberia. The year-long intervention is designed to promote more informed and inclusive resource governance, so that that citizens' preferences (and not just leaders' interests) are reflected in forest management. In our control communities, households are uninformed and disengaged; leaders' authority is unchecked. The program both engages and mobilizes community members: households are better informed and participate more in the design and enforcement of rules around forest use. They also report receiving more material benefits from outside investors' activities in their community forests. The chiefs who lead these communities attest to strengthened accountability. Using both on-the-ground environmental assessments and remotely sensed data, we find no effects on forest use or deforestation. Households do not favor more conservation, and, thus, more inclusive management does not reduce forest use. Conservation likely requires compensating community members for foregoing forest use; citizen monitoring, we argue, could ensure that such schemes enjoy popular support and do not just benefit local elites.

Citizen monitoring of waterways decreases pollution in China by supporting government action and oversight

Water pollution is a persistent problem in China, in part, because local governments fail to implement water quality standards set by national and provincial authorities. These higher authorities often lack regular information about the immediate and long-term achievement of remediation targets. Accordingly, central authorities have encouraged nongovernmental organizations to monitor local governments' remediation efforts. This study examines whether nongovernmental monitoring of urban waterways improves water quality by facilitating oversight of local governments or instigating public action for remediation. We randomly assigned urban waterways in Jiangsu province previously identified for remediation to be monitored by a partner nongovernmental organization for 15 mo. We further randomized whether the resulting information was disseminated to local and provincial governments, the public, or both. Disseminating results from monitoring to local and provincial governments improved water quality, but disseminating results to the public did not have detectable effects on water quality or residents' pursuit of remediation through official and volunteer channels. Monitoring can improve resource management when it provides information that makes local resource managers accountable to higher authorities.

Can participatory approaches strengthen the monitoring of cyanobacterial blooms in developing countries? Results from a pilot study conducted in the Lagoon Aghien (Ivory Coast).

Monitoring of cyanobacteria in freshwater ecosystems is a complex task, which is time consuming and expensive due to the chaotic population dynamics and highly heterogeneous distribution of cyanobacteria populations in water bodies. The financial cost constitutes a strong limitation for the implementation of long-term monitoring programs in developing countries, particularly in Africa. The work presented here was performed in the framework of an international project addressing the sustainable monitoring and management of surface water resources used for the production of drinking water in three African countries. We tested the potential of a citizen approach for monitoring cyanobacterial blooms, which are a growing threat to the drinking water supply. This pilot study was designed, implemented and evaluated in close interaction with the Pasteur Institute of the Ivory Coast and with the populations of three villages located on the shoreline of a freshwater lagoon located near Abidjan city. Based on the use of a smartphone application, the citizens of the three villages were invited to report water color changes, as these changes could reflect cyanobacteria proliferations. A two-year experimentation period has shown that it is possible to mobilize the local populations to monitor cyanobacterial blooms. The data collected by citizens were consistent with the data obtained by a classical monitoring of cyanobacteria performed over seven months, but it appeared that new approaches were needed to validate the citizen data. This participatory approach also provided great improvements to the understanding and awareness of local populations regarding water quality and cyanobacterial bloom issues. Finally, we discuss some of the difficulties and limitations of our participatory monitoring approach that should be considered by further implementations. Despite these difficulties, our work suggests that citizen monitoring is a promising approach that may complement the classical approach to sustainable monitoring of cyanobacteria in developing countries.

Combining bottom-up monitoring and top-down accountability: A field experiment on managing corruption in Uganda

Citizen monitoring of government performance is often ineffective at improving performance, perhaps because information from monitoring does not make it far enough up in the chain of bureaucracy where the authority to punish public mismanagement rests. In a field experiment, we test whether delivering regular, officially certified reports derived from citizen monitoring and describing specific problems with the implementation of public projects to high-level bureaucrats charged with overseeing the projects improved their delivery. We do not find evidence that this treatment improved the delivery of public projects. Follow-up interviews revealed that the targeted officials seemed to avoid knowledge of the monitoring, perhaps to avoid taking on the responsibility that would come from such knowledge. However, the treatment also provided information to citizens about what they should expect from local governments, which instigated several direct complaints that the targeted officials did not ignore. Based on this alternative channel, which we did not anticipate, we conclude that citizen monitoring must be deployed in ways that make knowledge of problems undeniable for authorities who have a responsibility to address them.

Citizen Science, a promising tool for detecting and monitoring outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish Acanthaster spp.

Monitoring potentially devastating coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) populations at scales relevant to management is a challenging task. Here, we investigated a citizen science approach to detect COTS outbreaks and prioritize management responses. Between 2014 and 2018, 38 000 COTS were recorded through 641 online observation reports submitted across New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji by private stakeholders (51%), NGOs (22%), business operator (11%), research/government agencies (16%). COTS were observed in multiple areas, including in remote/inhabited reefs where they had never been reported. A three-level classification was developed to discriminate risk areas and propose operational guidelines to streamline management actions. About two-thirds of reports had low abundances (<10 starfish sighted) and could be addressed with low priority. Verification surveys at 65 reef sites confirmed outbreaks in half of the cases, along with high peak densities (7 000 ind.ha−1). Combining professional and non-professional observers increased the detection range (+27%) and the number of COTS detections (+129%). Citizen reports were eventually followed by removal campaigns organized within diverse institutional frameworks. While citizen monitoring has intrinsic limitations, we advocate that it constitutes a complementary and promising approach to support the ongoing management efforts in all countries affected by COTS.

Hackerspace movement: a study of the Brazilian experience

Hackerspaces are part of a phenomenon emerging all over the world of building alternative spaces and infrastructure for research, experimenting and learning. They differ from other institutionally established spaces in their principles of autonomy: they are financed and managed by their own members and, as a result, they enjoy greater freedom in the definition of their themes and issues. In this article, we present the results of a research project carried out in 2017 about Brazilian hackerspaces. In the analysis, we resorted to the structure proposed by Smith and others (2017) in their study about grassroots innovation movements, organized into four complementary aspects as follows: context, framings, spaces and strategies, and pathways. Thus, we contemplate the history of the movement in Brazil; meanings and narratives shared by participants; spaces and strategies employed in their structure and organization; and, finally, case studies selected because they can be articulated with the local community issues. The survey identified 21 active hackerspaces in the country in 2017, distributed in the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast and South. Sixteen of them answered a questionnaire that revealed the diversity of their activities and proximity to the university community, among other characteristics. The case studies have shown that, besides contributing to the broader circulation of technological knowledge, hackerspaces are also spaces for the development of practices and technologies that seek to answer social and environmental issues, such as sustainability in the disposal of electronic waste and citizen monitoring of the environment.

Politics, technology, and accountability: The Transparency Façade of Open Government Data Reforms in Paraguay

Governments have adopted the rhetoric of promoting transparency, citizen engagement, and accountability through technological innovation. The provision of open government data has been encouraged as a foundational reform in that direction. This study argues that, in Paraguay’s education sector, these reforms were never capable of matching said rhetoric. Using a case study design, the research shows that the stated goals of intuitively simplifying information to facilitate citizen monitoring of funds for education infrastructure were never realistically attempted by the government. It will advocate the relevance of considering the relationship between politics, accountability, and technology to uncover transparency façades.

SUPPORT TO CITIZEN RADIATION MONITORING OF RADIOACTIVITY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC-PROJECT RAMESIS.

Project 'RAMESIS', solved by SURO+UTEF+NUVIA, is aimed at the improvement of population safety through supporting Citizen Monitoring in Czechia. Radiation monitoring system at the level of institutions, schools and citizens will be developed and implemented, covering equipment for both fixed-site and mobile monitoring using simple-designed and easy-to-operate detectors, enabling their usage by public and mass-production at acceptable price. The instrumentation includes central application for reception, storage, administration and publication of monitoring results analyzed and presented on web-portal, tools for user's local online and offline data visualization on a map background, and web portal providing training and informational materials for understanding radiation problems. The system will be implemented in selected institutions and schools, initial sets of detectors are distributed free of charge among schools, institutions and the public. This article describes the technical part of the project, solved in the framework of Ministry of Interior-founded security research ID VI20152019028.