Citizen-Based Air Quality Monitoring: The Impact on Individual Citizen Scientists and How to Leverage the Benefits to Affect Whole Regions

Abstract

Air pollution is a serious problem that is causing increasing concern among European citizens. It is responsible for more than 400,000 premature deaths in Europe each year and considerably damages human health, agriculture, and the natural environment. Despite these facts, the readiness and power of citizens to take actions is limited. To address this challenge, the citizen science project CAPTOR was launched in 2016. Using low-cost measurement devices, citizens in three European testbeds supported the monitoring of tropospheric ozone. This paper presents the results from 53 interviews with involved residents and shows that the active involvement of individuals in a complex process such as measuring tropospheric ozone can have important impacts on their knowledge and attitudes. In an attempt to expand the benefits of low-cost air quality sensors from an individual to a regional level, certain preconditions are key. Strong support in assuring data quality, visibility of the collected data in online and offline media, broad dissemination of results, and intensified communication with political decision-makers are needed.

Evaluation in Citizen Science: The Art of Tracing a Moving Target

“…Also, changing attitudes towards more environmentally sustainable resource management could be observed amongst environmental citizen scientists. In one of the case studies below we exemplify how a citizen science project on air quality contributed to stewardship and citizen activism (Schaefer et al 2020).…”

“…These projects demonstrate a higher sense of community as an outcome, stimulate discussions with policymakers, and influence political decisions in the involved regions (Van Brussel and Huyse 2019). There is also evidence from evaluation that citizen engagement in air quality monitoring may trigger the development of measures to avoid exposure to air pollutants or to an active political involvement in seeking solutions to the problem (Schaefer et al 2020). Another impressive example comes from Japan, where Safecast, an international, volunteerbased organisation devoted to monitoring and openly sharing information on environmental radiation and other pollutants, emerged as a response to the lack of publicly available information about radiation levels after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011.…”

Large-scale citizen science provides high-resolution nitrogen dioxide values and health impact while enhancing community knowledge and collective action

“…We further assess the health impacts that air pollution levels have in the city. The xAire project is an example of how a broad partnership is able to enhance community (and individual) knowledge and attitudes towards city-level collective response to air pollution exposure [73][74][75].…”

“…These campaigns make use of existing mobile infrastructures and people's common daily routines to deploy measurement devices, for example, with the participation of city employees to measure black carbon [71] or determining burden of disease by adding passive sensing of human mobility using cellular phone signals [72]. Other initiatives enhance their impact on participant's knowledge and attitudes [73,74] and untap the potential of incorporating citizens and local communities in research processes [75].…”

“…Some studies have focused on the methods and strategies being deployed [67,76], while others on data quality and standards compliance [64]. Others show their societal impact through interviews [73] or highlight the need to take an inclusive approach in research design [74,75].…”