Enabling citizen science in rural environments with IoT and mobile technologies

Citizen Science focuses on engaging and incentivising individuals to collect, categorise and sometimes analyse scientific data. Over the last few years, many of these projects have contributed to relevant scientific discoveries, but bringing them to successful completion is often full of challenges and complexities. In this paper we present our progress in the creation and deployment of a Citizen Science project in Guapiruvu, a village located in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. We propose an IoT communications platform based on LoRa- enabled Raspberry Pis, which act as network hubs, and which can communicate directly with smartphone hosted applications. This platform is used to run a messaging app that allows two or more smartphones to exchange text over a LoRa network. We tested the platform in the village and results show that communication was possible up to 220 meters, even if one of the hubs was located in an area densely populated with trees. We also discuss how Sapelli Collector, a popular Citizen Science-enabler app, can be used over our developed infrastructure, and mechanisms that can used to increase adoption

Enabling citizen science in rural environments with IoT and mobile technologies

Citizen Science focuses on engaging and incentivising individuals to collect, categorise and sometimes analyse scientific data. Over the last few years, many of these projects have contributed to relevant scientific discoveries, but bringing them to successful completion is often full of challenges and complexities. In this paper we present our progress in the creation and deployment of a Citizen Science project in Guapiruvu, a village located in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. We propose an IoT communications platform based on LoRa- enabled Raspberry Pis, which act as network hubs, and which can communicate directly with smartphone hosted applications. This platform is used to run a messaging app that allows two or more smartphones to exchange text over a LoRa network. We tested the platform in the village and results show that communication was possible up to 220 meters, even if one of the hubs was located in an area densely populated with trees. We also discuss how Sapelli Collector, a popular Citizen Science-enabler app, can be used over our developed infrastructure, and mechanisms that can used to increase adoption

Mapping Participatory Sensing and Community-led Environmental Monitoring Initiatives: Making Sense H2020 CAPS Project

This report presents a summary of the state of the art in urban participatory sensing and community-led environmental monitoring, the types of engagement approaches typically followed, contextual examples of current developments in this field, and current challenges and opportunities for successful interventions. The goal is to better understand the field and possible options for reflection and action around it, in order to better inform future conceptual and practical developments inside and outside the Making Sense project.JRC.I.2-Foresight, Behavioural Insights and Design for Polic

Regulatory Imperatives for the Future of SADC’s “Digital Complexity Ecosystem”

This article uses a “digital complexity ecosystem” framing to delineate the challenges facing regulation of the digital economy in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The digital complexity ecosystem approach, grounded in the field of complexity science – and in particular the study of complex adaptive systems (CASs) – is used to illuminate the sources of uncertainty, unpredictability and discontinuity currently present in the SADC digital sphere. Drawing on examples from three regulatory areas, namely mobile financial services, Internet of Things (IoT) network and services markets, and e-health services, the article argues that SADC regulatory bodies will themselves need to adopt highly adaptive, nonlinear approaches if they are to successfully regulate activities in the digital ecosystem moving forward. Based on the findings, recommendations are made on SADC regional regulatory agendas and, at national levels, matters of concurrent jurisdiction.CA201

Scenarios for Educational and Game Activities using Internet of Things Data

Raising awareness among young people and changing their behavior and habits concerning energy usage and the environment is key to achieving a sustainable planet. The goal to address the global climate problem requires informing the population on their roles in mitigation actions and adaptation of sustainable behaviors. Addressing climate change and achieve ambitious energy and climate targets requires a change in citizen behavior and consumption practices. IoT sensing and related scenario and practices, which address school children via discovery, gamification, and educational activities, are examined in this paper. Use of seawater sensors in STEM education, that has not previously been addressed, is included in these educational scenaria

South American Expert Roundtable : increasing adaptive governance capacity for coping with unintended side effects of digital transformation

This paper presents the main messages of a South American expert roundtable (ERT) on the unintended side effects (unseens) of digital transformation. The input of the ERT comprised 39 propositions from 20 experts representing 11 different perspectives. The two-day ERT discussed the main drivers and challenges as well as vulnerabilities or unseens and provided suggestions for: (i) the mechanisms underlying major unseens; (ii) understanding possible ways in which rebound effects of digital transformation may become the subject of overarching research in three main categories of impact: development factors, society, and individuals; and (iii) a set of potential action domains for transdisciplinary follow-up processes, including a case study in Brazil. A content analysis of the propositions and related mechanisms provided insights in the genesis of unseens by identifying 15 interrelated causal mechanisms related to critical issues/concerns. Additionally, a cluster analysis (CLA) was applied to structure the challenges and critical developments in South America. The discussion elaborated the genesis, dynamics, and impacts of (groups of) unseens such as the digital divide (that affects most countries that are not included in the development of digital business, management, production, etc. tools) or the challenge of restructuring small- and medium-sized enterprises (whose service is digitally substituted by digital devices). We identify specific issues and effects (for most South American countries) such as lack of governmental structure, challenging geographical structures (e.g., inclusion in high-performance transmission power), or the digital readiness of (wide parts) of society. One scientific contribution of the paper is related to the presented methodology that provides insights into the phenomena, the causal chains underlying “wanted/positive” and “unwanted/negative” effects, and the processes and mechanisms of societal changes caused by digitalization

Integrated system architecture for decision-making and urban planning in smart cities

Research and development of applications for smart cities are extremely relevant considering the various problems that population growth will bring to large urban centers in the next few years. Although research on cyber-physical systems, cloud computing, embedded devices, sensor and actuator networks, and participatory sensing, among other paradigms, is driving the growth of solutions, there are a lot of challenges that need to be addressed. Based on these observations, in this work, we present an integrated system architecture for decision-making support and urban planning by introducing its building blocks (termed components): sensing/actuation, local processing, communication, cloud platform, and application components. In the sensing/actuation component, we present the major relevant resources for data collection, identification devices, and actuators that can be used in smart city solutions. Sensing/actuation component is followed by the local processing component, which is responsible for processing, decision-making support, and control in local scale. The communication component, as the connection element among all these components, is presented with an emphasis on the open-access metropolitan area network and cellular networks. The cloud platform is the essential component for urban planning and integration with electronic governance legacy systems, and finally, the application component, in which the government administrator and users have access to public management tools, citizen services, and other urban planning resources15