Capturing and communicating impact of citizen science for policy: A storytelling approach

In response to the need for approaches to understand how citizen science is currently influencing environmental policy and associated decision making, we devised the Citizen Science Impact StoryTelling Approach (CSISTA). We iteratively designed instruments to be used as tools primarily for citizen science practitioners seeking to understand or communicate policy impacts. We then trialled the CSISTA and associated instruments on four exemplary citizen science initiatives, using different forms of inquiry and collaboration with respective initiative leaders. In this paper, we present CSISTA, with details of the steps for implementing inquiry and storytelling instruments. Additionally, we reflect on insights gained and challenges encountered implementing the approach. Overall, we found the versatility and structure of CSISTA as a process with multiple guiding instruments useful. We envision the approach being helpful, particularly with regards to: 1) gaining an understanding of a citizen science initiative's policy and decision-making impacts; 2) creating short policy impact stories to communicate such impacts to broader audiences; or 3) fulfilling both goals to understand and communicate policy impacts with a unified approach. We encourage others to explore, adapt, and improve the approach. Additionally, we hope that explorations of CSISTA will foster broader discussions on how to understand and strengthen interactions between citizen science practitioners, policy makers, and decision makers at large, whether at local, national, or international scales

Community-based monitoring initiatives of water and environment: Evaluation of establishment dynamics and results

Citizen participation in water and environmental management via communitybased monitoring (CBM) has been praised for the potential to facilitate better informed, more inclusive, transparent, and representative decision making. However, methodological and empirical research trying to conceptualize and evaluate the dynamics at play that might enable or hinder these initiatives from delivering on their potential is limited. This research contributed to the conceptualization of CBMs through development of a conceptual framework that is suitable for Context analysis, Process evaluation and Impact assessment of CBMs – the CPI Framework. This conceptualization provides an interpretation of what ‘community’ means in the context of a CBM initiative. In addition, this research contributed to the existing empirical knowledge about the establishment, functioning and outcomes of CBMs by testing the CPI Framework for studying two real life CBMs throughout the lifetime of an EU-funded project – the Ground Truth 2.0. The first CBM is called Grip op Water Altena that focuses on the issue of pluvial floods in ‘Land van Heusden en Altena’ of the Netherlands. The second CBM is Maasai Mara Citizen Observatory and aims at contributing to a better balance between biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihood management in the Mara ecosystem in Kenya

Community-based monitoring initiatives of water and environment: Evaluation of establishment dynamics and results

Citizen participation in water and environmental management via communitybased monitoring (CBM) has been praised for the potential to facilitate better informed, more inclusive, transparent, and representative decision making. However, methodological and empirical research trying to conceptualize and evaluate the dynamics at play that might enable or hinder these initiatives from delivering on their potential is limited. This research contributed to the conceptualization of CBMs through development of a conceptual framework that is suitable for Context analysis, Process evaluation and Impact assessment of CBMs – the CPI Framework. This conceptualization provides an interpretation of what ‘community’ means in the context of a CBM initiative. In addition, this research contributed to the existing empirical knowledge about the establishment, functioning and outcomes of CBMs by testing the CPI Framework for studying two real life CBMs throughout the lifetime of an EU-funded project – the Ground Truth 2.0. The first CBM is called Grip op Water Altena that focuses on the issue of pluvial floods in ‘Land van Heusden en Altena’ of the Netherlands. The second CBM is Maasai Mara Citizen Observatory and aims at contributing to a better balance between biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihood management in the Mara ecosystem in Kenya.Water Resource

To share or not to share: Drivers and barriers for sharing data via online amateur weather networks

Increasing attention is being paid to the importance and potential of crowd-sourced data to complement current environmental data-streams (i.e. in-situ observations and RS data). In parallel, the diffusion of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) that are interactive and easy to use have provided a way forward in facing extreme climatic events and the threatening hazards resulting from those. The combination of these two trends is referred to as ICT-enabled ‘citizen observatories’ of the environment. Nevertheless, the success of these citizen observatories hinges on the continued involvement of citizens as central actors of these initiatives. Developing strategies to (further) engage citizens requires in-depth understanding of the behavioral determinants that encourage or impede individuals to collect and share environment-related data. This paper takes the case of citizen-sensed weather data using Personal Weather Stations (PWSs) and looks at the drivers and barriers for sharing such data via online amateur weather networks. This is done employing a behavioral science lens that considers data sharing a decision and systematically investigates the influential factors that affect this decision. The analysis and findings are based on qualitative empirical research carried out in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Italy. Subsequently, a model was developed that depicts the main drivers and barriers for citizen participation in weather observatories. This resulting model can be utilized as a tool to develop strategies for further enhancing ICT-enabled citizen participation in climatic observations and, consequently, in environmental management

Analysing the value of environmental citizen-generated data: Complementarity and cost per observation

The proliferation of Citizen Science initiatives has increased the expectations of practitioners who need data for design, analysis, management and research in environmental applications. Many Citizen Science experiences have reported tangible societal benefits related to improved governance of natural resources due to the involvement of citizens and communities. However, from the perspective of data generation, most of the literature on Citizen Science tends to regard it as a potentially cost-effective source of data, with major concerns about the quality of data. The Ground Truth 2.0 project brought the opportunity to examine the scope of this potential by analysing the value of citizen-generated data. We propose a methodology to account for the value of citizen observations as a function of their complementarity to existing environmental observations and the evolution of their costs in time. The application of the proposed methodology in the chosen case studies that were all established using a co-design approach shows that the cost of obtaining Citizen Science data is not as low as frequently stated in literature. This is because the costs associated with co-design events for creating a Citizen Science community, as well as the functional and technical design of the tools, are much higher than the costs of rolling out the actual observation campaigns. In none of the considered cases did an increment in the number of preparatory events translate into an immediate increase in the collected observations. Nevertheless, Citizen Science appears to have the greatest value in places where in-situ environmental monitoring is not implemented

Towards benchmarking citizen observatories: Features and functioning of online amateur weather networks

Crowd-sourced environmental observations are increasingly being considered as having the potential to enhance the spatial and temporal resolution of current data streams from terrestrial and areal sensors. The rapid diffusion of ICTs during the past decades has facilitated the process of data collection and sharing by the general public and has resulted in the formation of various online environmental citizen observatory networks. Online amateur weather networks are a particular example of such ICT-mediated observatories that are rooted in one of the oldest and most widely practiced citizen science activities, namely amateur weather observation. The objective of this paper is to introduce a conceptual framework that enables a systematic review of the features and functioning of these expanding networks. This is done by considering distinct dimensions, namely the geographic scope and types of participants, the network's establishment mechanism, revenue stream(s), existing communication paradigm, efforts required by data sharers, support offered by platform providers, and issues such as data accessibility, availability and quality. An in-depth understanding of these dimensions helps to analyze various dynamics such as interactions between different stakeholders, motivations to run the networks, and their sustainability. This framework is then utilized to perform a critical review of six existing online amateur weather networks based on publicly available data. The main findings of this analysis suggest that: (1) there are several key stakeholders such as emergency services and local authorities that are not (yet) engaged in these networks; (2) the revenue stream(s) of online amateur weather networks is one of the least discussed but arguably most important dimensions that is crucial for the sustainability of these networks; and (3) all of the networks included in this study have one or more explicit modes of bi-directional communication, however, this is limited to feedback mechanisms that are mainly designed to educate the data sharers.Water Resource

Unravelling the influence of human behaviour on reducing casualties during flood evacuation

Floods are the natural hazards that are causing the most deaths worldwide. Flood early warning systems are one of the most cost-efficient methods to reduce death rates, triggering decisions about the evacuation of exposed population. Although previous studies have investigated the effect of human behaviours on evacuation processes, studies analysing a combination of behaviours, flood onset and warning timing are limited. Our objective is to explore how changes on the aforementioned factors can affect casualties. This is done within a modelling framework that includes an agent-based model, a hydraulic model, and a traffic model, which is implemented for the case study of Orvieto (Italy). The results show that the number of casualties is most impacted by people’s behaviour. Besides, we found that a delay of 30 min in releasing the warning can boost the number of casualties up to six times. These results may help managers to propose effective emergency plans

Coordinator perceptions when assessing the impact of citizen science towards sustainable development goals

Tracking progress towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires high-quality, timely, and accessible data, often in areas where data are rarely available. Problems exist due to socioeconomic variations between countries and the qualitative nature of certain indicators in their definition. Citizen science has the potential to contribute to several SDGs. However, whilst citizen science’s potential to contribute towards SDGs is well documented, limitations exist when measuring the impact that citizen science has made toward SDG progress. To better understand the issues and prospective solutions surrounding impact assessment towards SDG progress, this work presents the outcomes of semi-structured interviews with citizen science project coordinators. They reveal the complex nature of impact assessment within a citizen science context. Coordinators demonstrate greater confidence when the project is easier to relate to the SDGs, and the project methodology can objectively measure indicators. Issues exist, however, when considering SDGs with a broader, global context, those more difficult to link to project goals and when the project’s impact on them happens at timescales beyond the funding period. If the full potential of citizen-science contributions to the SDGs is to be realised, approaches are needed to fully consider practitioners’ needs and motivations