Public access to environmental information: Past, present and future

Since the late 1960s and the "environmental revolution", information and information systems have been an integral part of the environmental debate. In the decade that has passed since the Rio conference and the establishment of the "sustainable development" principle, there have been legislative and practical moves to open access to environmental information for all stakeholders that are involved in environmental decision making processes. In this paper, the origins of environmental information and public environmental information systems are explored and scrutinised. The paper questions the current state of the art in environmental information provision, and offers some directions for possible improvements. © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd

Beyond quantification: a role for citizen science and community science in a smart city

When approaching the issue of data in Smart Cities, there is a need to question the underlying assumptions at the basis of Smart Cities discourse and, especially, to challenge the prevailing thought that efficiency, costs and productivity are the most important values. We need to ensure that human and environmental values are taken into account in the design and implementation of systems that will influence the way cities operate and are governed. While we can accept science as the least worst method of accumulating human knowledge about the natural world, and appreciate its power to explain and act in the world, we need to consider how it is applied within the city in a way that does leave space for cultural, environmental and religious values. This paper argues that a specific form of collaborative science – citizen science and community science – is especially suitable for making Smart Cities meaningful and democratic

Citizen Science and Policy: A European Perspective

This report explores the intersection of citizen science and policy at local, regional, and national levels and across policy domains, on the basis of the emerging experience in Europe. The past decade has witnessed a sustained growth in the scope and scale of participation of people from outside established research organizations, in all aspects of scientific research. This includes forming research questions, recording observations, analyzing data, and using the resulting knowledge. This phenomenon has come to be known as citizen science. While the origins of popular involvement in the scientific enterprise can be traced to the early days of modern science, the scale and scope of the current wave of engagement shifts citizen science from the outer margins of scientific activities to the center—and thus calls for attention from policymakers. This is to ensure that citizen science is supported appropriately by policymakers and officials who understand the paradigm and its potential, as well as the impact that citizen science can have on policy formation and implementation. This report explains the current phenomenon of citizen science and the underlying societal and technological trends behind it. On the basis of this understanding, unfolding analysis considers the multidimensional aspects of citizen science: geography, policy area, and type of citizen science activity. This report identifies areas where citizen science actively contributes to the formation of policy and also explores areas where we can expect to see further developments. The final portion explores key challenges and potential solutions for policy and decision making within the context of widespread and accessible citizen science

The Three Eras of Environmental Information: The Roles of Experts and the Public

The chapter explores the relationships between the public and environmental information since the 1960

Participatory GIS and community-based citizen science for environmental justice action

The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice presents an extensive and cutting-edge introduction to the diverse, rapidly growing body of research on pressing issues of environmental justice and injustice

Geography and HCI

In this contribution, the linkage between the fields of HCI and geography is outlined and explored mostly from a geographer’s perspective. In particular, the linkage between the areas of geographical information science and cartography on the one hand and HCI and usability engineering on the other shows that, while some attention is being paid to insights from both sides, there is a disciplinary gap that makes more integrated interactions challenging. In the places where there are sustained interactions, benefits occur to both sides. The paper ends with identification of some of the contributions that each side can make to the field of Geographical HCI (GeoHCI

Participatory mapping for transformation: multiple visual representation of foodscapes and environment in informal settlements in Nairobi

Although branded as ‘obstructionists’ and major agents of ‘disease and filth’ by city authorities, food vendors remain the pivotal node in the local food system in most informal settlements; therefore, their interaction with the environment and infrastructure services, and challenges they face to keep the food safe to eat, requires further grounded exploration. Food vendors from informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, who are acting as mappers and change agents, are building multi-layered views of places through the deliberative process of knowledge coproduction by participatory sensing, which lead to opportunities and challenges to improve those places

Knowledge co-production, VGI and the implications on future transport systems

The capacity of the transport system to support the growing mobility needs of populations have been pushed to the limit in most cities and the approach of governments to resolve the problem has been to increase capacity (where this is possible) and repeat what has been the practice so far (Banister, 2007). This however has resulted in congested networks, unhealthy living conditions due to pollution, and infrastructures that are both unequal in dealing with particular groups within the population as well as costly to build and maintain. Miller (2013) contends the need to identify new capabilities (instead of capacity) of the transport infrastructure in order to increase efficiency and increase capacity without extending the existing infrastructure. In 2003 Susan Kenyon and Glen Lyons (working on earlier work by Lyons, 2001) described the potential of information to influence travel choices. Specifically they identified integrated traveller information to help make transport decisions. Both the transport industry and the research community supported this thesis with many cities developing multimodal information systems to support sustainability-oriented decisions (Kramers, 2014). Fast forward to today where the potential of information is not only to be integrated across different modes (e.g., cooperative transport systems) but also be user generated, real time and available on smart phones anywhere. User generated information play today an important role in sectors such as politics, businesses and entertainment, and presumably this phenomena would extend to transport in revealing people’s preferences for mobility (Gal-Tzur et al., 2014) and therefore be useful as tools for decision making and support. The widespread availability of smart phone technology and the growing coverage of ubiquitous data communication networks in urban areas are causing a dramatic transformation in the way information is produced and consumed (Manovich, 2009). It has also offered new opportunities for what are termed cooperative transport systems supported by smart phone apps and crowdsourcing through social media such as the successful community based traffic and navigation app Waze (www.waze.com), bought by Google for $1.3 billion (Rushe, 2013); Moovit for transit planning (www.moovitapp.com); community car sharing programmes such as Zipcar (www.zipcar.co.uk); and more recently peer-to-peer vehicle and ride sharing systems such as Getaround (www.getaround.com) and Uber (www.uber.com). Some of these systems are already being branded by Lanzendorf (2014) as Mobility 2.0, however many of which would not be so successful if not enough users actively participate and generate information (knowledge co-production). It is this revolution in the potential of data-driven planning, management and use of transport systems that has led Winter et al. (2011) to call for a new interdisciplinary field called computational transportation science, defined as a science concerned with the study of transportation systems where people interact with information systems (e.g., interfaces for driver assistance, or integrated transport information); where systems monitor and interpret traffic (e.g., mining for activity patterns, or crowd-sourcing to monitor events); or where systems manage the traffic (e.g., control of traffic flow at traffic lights, or toll management). It is the second objective that is of particular interest to our research here. In particular, its impact on the traveller and the potential of governments to use crowd-sourced information and social media effectively for sharing information, creating opportunities for collaboration, enhancing government responsiveness, planning and governance to achieve sustainability and climate change goals (related studied included Panagiotopoulos et al., 2014; Bertot et al., 2012). This article reflects on (i) the impact of technologies on travellers, particularly the information that is co-produced through crowdsourcing and VGI techniques (ii) its potential for supporting and achieving sustainable mobility goals, and (iii) what role exists for governments (if any at all) in the use of user generated information. A review of the literature and existing technology informs this article and the aim is to propose further research into these growing technologies as well as increasing participation through the development of VGI and Citizen Science for travel and transport

Identifying success factors in crowdsourced geographic information use in government

Crowdsourcing geographic information in government is focusing on projects that are engaging people who are not government officials and employees in collecting, editing and sharing information with governmental bodies. This type of projects emerged in the past decade, due to technological and societal changes - such as the increased use of smartphones, combined with growing levels of education and technical abilities to use them by citizens. They also flourished due to the need for updated data in relatively quick time when financial resources are low. They range from recording the experience of feeling an earthquake to recording the location of businesses during the summer time. 50 cases of projects in which crowdsourced geographic information was used by governmental bodies across the world are analysed. About 60% of the cases were examined in 2014 and in 2017, to allow for comparison and identification of success and failure. The analysis looked at different aspects and their relationship to success: the drivers to start a project; scope and aims; stakeholders and relationships; inputs into the project; technical and organisational aspect; and problems encountered. The main key factors of the case studies were analysed with the use of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) which is an analytical method that combines quantitative and qualitative tools in sociological research. From the analysis, we can conclude that there is no “magic bullet” or a perfect methodology for a successful crowdsourcing in government project. Unless the organisation has reached maturity in the area of crowdsourcing, identifying a champion and starting a project that will not address authoritative datasets directly is a good way to ensure early success and start the process of organisational learning on how to run such projects. Governmental support and trust is undisputed. If the choice is to use new technologies, this should be accompanied by an investment of appropriate resources within the organisation to ensure that the investment bear fruits. Alternatively, using an existing technology that was successful elsewhere and investing in training and capacity building is another path for success. We also identified the importance of intermediary Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) with the experience and knowledge in working with crowdsourcing within a partnership. These organizations have the knowledge and skills to implement projects at the boundary between government and the crowd, and therefore can offer the experience to ensure better implementation. Changes and improvement of public services, or a focus on environmental monitoring can be a good basis for a project. Capturing base mapping is a good point to start, too. The recommendation of the report address organisational issues, resources, and legal aspects