D-NOSES: Big Data, Big Citizens
EU-Citizen.Science
Oct. 22, 2020, 10:53 a.m.
“International organisations and governments are developing data portals to track SDG indicators. There is a significant rise in the city data portals, that receive and display data in dashboards, covering all aspects of city life - health, economics, etc. Citizen science is often mentioned as a way to bridge regulatory gaps. So what role does/can/will citizen science play in this proliferation of data?
To have a contribution, citizen science must be recognized as an officially acceptable method for the creation of data. This requires extending Principle 10 from enabling access to data to also the right to create data by the citizens. This data must then also have a role in policy and governance. Especially with the increasing importance of Big Data, we must avoid a continued dominance of entrenched authorities who might produce only data that follows their own agendas. Citizen science can thus empower citizens to become contributors and drivers of change.”
Principle 10 sets out three fundamental rights: access to information, public participation and justice, as key pillars of environmental governance. It is a cornerstone of citizen science projects that tackle environmental regulatory gaps. In the D-NOSES project, we know that odours are the second most common environmental complaint after noise. Yet the regulation and management of odour issues lags far behind. Several factors contribute to this, including that it has proven difficult to measure the impact of odours on those affected. There is a lack of transparent data on odour issues, particularly because those usually mandated to collect the data tend to be the emitters in the first place. Citizen science (CS) projects can produce data to demonstrate, diagnose and help resolve these problems, but the data needs to be trusted and accepted by all stakeholders for this to work.
Big Data is when vast amounts of data are collected and linked for computer analysis or visualisations that allow policy and decision makers to better understand the causes of issues and effects of decisions. Measuring progress towards the ambitious sustainable development goals (SDGs) underlies some of the development of these databases, so they include data on indicators that have been defined as significant to track. This, together with wider operational needs, has also led to the development of city data portals and dashboards that can cover all aspects of city life - health, economics, etc. No doubt a valuable and useful resource to improve SDG performance. However, there is a risk that this will limit the attention of stakeholders to only these data points, and thus limit resources devoted to issues outside of the standard measures. It could be concluded that control over data defined and collected can potentially control the focus of developments. Moreover, as data repositories grow in size and importance, so will their ability to drown out other sources of data.
Democratisation of data, or a citizens right to create data, is a necessary extension of the Principle 10 philosophy to enable people to take responsibility for their own environment. But it is not enough to create it; data must also be included in the dominant databases and platforms for it to have influence. The potential is certainly there. A systematic mapping of the 244 SDG indicators to citizen science initiatives shows that they are already contributing data to 5 indicators and have the potential to contribute to 76 more. To activate this potential, citizen science will need to produce data that is better integrated into the analysis performed by academics, policy makers and hopefully even industries. Policy dialogues should focus on making room for CS in the data tables of portals. CS practitioners can also help by promoting more common standards and repositories that can facilitate integration.
In the age of Big Data, we must have a Big Citizens contribution so that they can take on the Big Responsibility for their own environment.