Citizen Science and Smart Cities

The report summarizes the presentations, discussions, and conclusions of the Citizen Science and Smart Cities Summit organised by the European Commission Joint Research Centre on 5-7th February 2014. In the context of the Summit, the label Citizen Science was used to include both citizen science projects, and others that are about user-generated content, not necessarily addressing a scientific process or issues. The evidence presented by 27 different projects shows the vitality and diversity of the field but also a number of critical points: • Citizen science project are more than collecting data: they are about raising awareness, building capacity, and strengthening communities. • Likewise, smart cities are not only about ICT, energy and transport infrastructures: Smart cities are about smart citizens, who participate in their city’s daily governance, are concerned about increasing the quality of life of their fellow-citizens, and about protecting their environment. Technology may facilitate, but is no solution per se. • Unfortunately to date there seems to be little synergy between citizen science and smart cities initiatives, and there is little interoperability and reusability of the data, apps, and services developed in each project. • It is difficult to compare the results among citizen science, and smart cities projects or translate from one context to another. • The ephemeral nature of much of the data, which disappear short after the end of the projects, means lack of reproducibility of results and longitudinal analysis of time series challenging, if not impossible. • There are also new challenges with respect to the analytical methods needed to integrate quantitative and qualitative data from heterogeneous sources that need further research. • Building and maintaining trust are key points of any citizen science or smart city project. There is a need to work with the community and not just for, or on, the community. It is critical not just to take (data, information, knowledge) but to give back something that is valued by the community itself. The development of citizen science associations in Europe and the US are important developments that may address some of the points above. There are also actions through which the European Commission Joint Research Centre can make an important contribution: • Map citizen science and smart cities projects, and generate a semantic network of concepts between the projects to facilitate search of related activities, and community building. • Provide a repository for citizen science and smart cities data (anonymised and aggregated), software, services, and applications so that they are maintained beyond the life of the projects they originate from, and made shareable and reusable. • Develop regional test beds for the analysis and integration of social and environmental data from heterogeneous sources, with a focus on quality of life and well-being. • Undertake comparative studies, and analyse issues related to scaling up to the European dimension. • Support citizen science and smart cities projects with the JRC knowledge on semantic interoperability, data models, and interoperability arrangements. • Partner with the European Citizen Science Association, and contribute to its interoperability activities. • Work towards making the JRC, and the European Commission, a champion of citizen participation in European science.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Socio-Economic Benefits from the Use of Earth Observations

This report summarizes the outcomes of the discussion of the workshop on Socioeconomic Benefit from the use of Earth Observation workshop held at JRC from 11 to 13 July 2011.JRC.H.6-Spatial data infrastructure

Estimating population density distribution from network-based mobile phone data

In this study we address the problem of leveraging mobile phone network-based data for the task of estimating population density distribution at pan-European level. The primary goal is to develop a methodological framework for the collection and processing of network-based data that can be plausibly applied across multiple MNOs. The proposed method exploits more extensive network topology information than is considered in most state-of-the-art literature, i.e., (approximate) knowledge of cell coverage areas is assumed instead of merely cell tower locations. A distinguishing feature of the proposed methodology is the capability of taking in input a combination of cell-level and Location Area-level data, thus enabling the integration of data from Call Detail Records (CDR) with other network-based data sources, e.g., Visitor Location Register (VLR). Different scenarios are considered in terms of input data availability at individual MNOs (CDR only, VLR only, combinations of CDR and VLR) and for multi-MNO data fusion, and the relevant tradeoff dimensions are discussed. At the core of the proposed method lies a novel formulation of the population distribution estimation as a Maximum Likelihood estimation problem. The proposed estimation method is validated for consistency with synthetically generated data in a simplified simulation scenario.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

The Use of Spatial Data for the Preparation of Environmental Reports in Europe

This report presents the findings of an online survey on the use of spatial data to produce environmental reports conducted by the European Commission Joint Research Centre in 2009. The objectives of the survey were twofold: on the one hand, to understand how easy it is for practitioners to obtain the spatial data they need to carry out Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and/or Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) and on the other hand, to provide information to the European Commission (EC) on the developments made in the use of spatial data to undertake EIAs and SEAs. The 2009 survey represents, in fact, an update of a similar survey conducted in 2002 by DG Environment and provides where relevant a comparison of results. A significant increase in the number of respondents was registered since the original survey, however it should be noted that the sample does not represent all practitioners that carry out EIA/SEA reports in Europe. Nevertheless, the results give an indication of the trends and problems in the market of EIA and/or SEA. The main outcome of the survey is that practitioners still face problems in using spatial data for the preparation of environmental reports. Issues mainly relate to finding and accessing data of the quality needed for the purpose. As a consequence, there is an increase in cost and time to produce environmental reports. The estimate of such additional burden is quantified as well as potential savings that could be achieved if problems connected with the use of spatial data were removed.JRC.DDG.H.6-Spatial data infrastructure

Building the Synergy between Public Sector and Research Data Infrastructures

INSPIRE is a European Directive aiming to establish a EU-wide spatial data infrastructure to give cross-border access to information that can be used to support EU environmental policies, as well as other policies and activities having an impact on the environment. In order to ensure cross-border interoperability of data infrastructures operated by EU Member States, INSPIRE sets out a framework based on common specifications for metadata, data, network services, data and service sharing, monitoring and reporting. The implementation of INSPIRE has reached important milestones: the INSPIRE Geoportal was launched in 2011 providing a single access point for the discovery of INSPIRE data and services across EU Member States (currently, about 300K), while all the technical specifications for the interoperability of data across the 34 INSPIRE themes were adopted at the end of 2013. During this period a number of EU and international initiatives has been launched, concerning cross-domain interoperability and (Linked) Open Data. In particular, the EU Open Data Portal, launched in December 2012, made provisions to access government and scientific data from EU institutions and bodies, and the EU ISA Programme (Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations) promotes cross-sector interoperability by sharing and re-using EU-wide and national standards and components. Moreover, the Research Data Alliance (RDA), an initiative jointly funded by the European Commission, the US National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council, was launched in March 2013 to promote scientific data sharing and interoperability. The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC), besides being the technical coordinator of the implementation of INSPIRE, is also actively involved in the initiatives promoting cross-sector re-use in INSPIRE, and sustainable approaches to address the evolution of technologies - in particular, how to support Linked Data in INSPIRE and the use of global persistent identifiers. It is evident that government and scientific data infrastructures are currently facing a number of issues that have already been addressed in INSPIRE. Sharing experiences and competencies will avoid re-inventing the wheel, and help promoting the cross-domain adoption of consistent solutions. Actually, one of the lessons learnt from INSPIRE and the initiatives in which JRC is involved, is that government and research data are not two separate worlds. Government data are commonly used as a basis to create scientific data, and vice-versa. Consequently, it is fundamental to adopt a consistent approach to address interoperability and data management issues shared by both government and scientific data. The presentation illustrates some of the lessons learnt during the implementation of INSPIRE and in work on data and service interoperability coordinated with European and international initiatives.We describe a number of critical interoperability issues and barriers affecting both scientific and government data, concerning, e.g., data terminologies, quality and licensing, and propose how these problems could be effectively addressed by a closer collaboration of the government and scientific communities, and the sharing of experiences and practices.JRC.H.6 - Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Next Generation Air Quality Platform: Openness and Interoperability for the Internet of Things

The widespread diffusion of sensors, mobile devices, social media, and open data are reconfiguring the way data underpinning policy and science are being produced and consumed. This in turn is creating both opportunities and challenges for policy-making and science. There can be major benefits from the deployment of the IoT in smart cities and environmental monitoring, but to realize such benefits, and reduce potential risks, there is an urgent need to address current limitations including the interoperability of sensors, data quality, security of access, and new methods for spatio-temporal analysis. Within this context, the manuscript provides an overview of the AirSensEUR project, which establishes an affordable open software/hardware multi-sensor platform, which is nonetheless able to monitor air pollution at low concentration levels. AirSensEUR is described from the perspective of interoperable data management with emphasis on possible use case scenarios, where reliable and timely air quality data would be essential.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Destination Earth: Ecosystem Architecture Description

The concept of Digital Twins of the Earth is at the heart of the recent and ambitious European Commission’s initiative, named Destination Earth –also known as DestinE. This initiative was introduced by the EU data strategy, as a concrete action contributing to realize the Common European Green Deal data space, with the aim of using the major potential of data in support of the Green Deal priority actions on climate change, circular economy, zero pollution, biodiversity, deforestation and compliance assurance. DestinE will “bring together European scientific and industrial excellence to develop a very high precision digital model of the Earth. This groundbreaking initiative will offer a digital modelling platform to visualize, monitor and forecast natural and human activity on the planet in support of sustainable development thus supporting Europe’s efforts for a better environment as set out in the Green Deal. Destination Earth will contribute to Shaping Europe digital future, according to the EU digital strategy and noticeably its principles on ethics, democracy, fairness and open autonomy. The present document introduces a set of principles and patterns to be applied by the Destination Earth ecosystem in order to match its stakeholders’ and users’ needs and requirements. They have been captured and articulated in a set of significant use cases, analysed in a previous study of the JRC. The presented well-defined principles are important to realize a flexible, evolvable, and viable Destination Earth ecosystem. Then, the document provides an architectural description of the ecosystem, applying a set of international standards for the definition of complex system architectures. Specific sections are dedicated to present and discuss the different concerns that characterize the Destination Earth system: the business, information, functional, engineering, and technological viewpoints. Then, a technological architecture, based on a virtual cloud platform enabled by a multi-cloud environment, is discussed. Finally, the results of a proof-of-concept implementation of such technology architecture are reported and discussed.JRC.T.1 - Digital Econom

Enhancing activity and population mapping: Exploratory research project interim report

ENACT (“ENhancing ACTivity and population mapping”) is a JRC Exploratory Research Project involving various units at the JRC, and spanning 2 years (2016-2017). Current knowledge of population distribution is still very limited even for Europe. Existing spatial datasets refer only to ‘residential’ population distribution, and more complete datasets reflecting spatiotemporal population variations are still lacking. Yet, this type of information is essential for multiple purposes such as analysis of human exposure, regional and urban planning and impact assessment of new investments or infrastructures. ENACT aims at contributing to fill the existing knowledge gap by producing consistent, seamless, multi-temporal and high-resolution population distribution grid maps for Europe that take into account major daily and seasonal population variations. Most of ENACT’s tasks consist of exploring and combining new and unconventional datasets which can be useful to map spatiotemporal population distribution. In the herein interim report we describe with some detail ENACT’s scope, objectives and workflow, and make an account of the state of the work conducted so far, with highlight to the tasks related to the literature review, activity mapping, and collection of population statistics at regional level.JRC.B.3-Territorial Developmen

Destination Earth: Use Cases Analysis

Destination Earth (DestinE) is an initiative initiated and coordinated by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT) in support of the European Green Deal1 and as contribution to the establishment of the Green Deal Data Space, one of several data spaces envisaged in the European Strategy for Data (COM2020 66 final). The overall objective of DestinE is to develop a service infrastructure that: - serves specific EU needs based on clearly identified EU policy priorities and user needs in relation to e.g. the Green Deal, and - is at the same time firmly based on European values, such as commitment to quality and transparency in order to build trust in evidence-based policy-making among all stakeholders. DestinE will include a shared horizontal layer including computer processing, data, software, and infrastructure and some vertical applications, Digital Twins (DTs), in selected thematic areas responding to priority policy use cases. To identify these priorities, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) has been tasked by DG CNECT to collect a number of potential use cases for DestinE representing needs of policy DGs in the Commission. This document presents 30 use cases received from six policy DGs, the JRC and 5 relevant European stakeholders. The use cases were preliminarily evaluated and clustered according to their assumed maturity level in terms of policy, scientific and anticipatory potential. Following a series of interactions with all stakeholders consulted, JRC identified two initial DTs on: - Extreme Earth issues (disaster risk management in relation to extreme weather-induced natural disasters); - Climate change adaptation issues (primarily food and water supply security). Another DT on digital oceans (around food and energy issues) was introduced as a suggestion to DG CNECT to be possibly developed in the second phase of DestinE’s implementation. Although this report is certainly neither exhaustive nor fully descriptive e.g. in relation to the assumed maturity levels of the mentioned use cases, it served nevertheless as a useful input to DG CNECT’s final definition of the scope of DTs whose development would be prioritized in the course of the DestinE implementation.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Next-Generation Digital Earth - A Position Paper from the Vespucci Initiative for the Advancement of Geographic Information Science

This position paper is the outcome of a joint reflection by a group of international geographic and environmental scientists from government, industry, and academia brought together by the Vespucci Initiative for the Advancement of Geographic Information Science, and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. It argues that the vision of Digital Earth put forward by Vice-President Al Gore 10 years ago needs to be re-evaluated in the light of the many developments in the fields of information technology, data infrastructures, and earth observation that have taken place since. It focuses the vision on the next-generation Digital Earth and identifies priority research areas to support this vision. The paper is offered as input for discussion among different stakeholder communities with the aim to shape research and policy over the next 5-10 years.JRC.H.6 - Spatial data infrastructure