Citizen Science for Transformative Air Quality Policy in Germany and Niger

Abstract

How can citizen science projects advance the achievement of transformative air quality-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Germany and Niger? We investigate the promise of using citizen-generated data (CGD) as an input for official SDG monitoring and implementation in a multidisciplinary project, based on activities undertaken in Niger and Germany ranging from surveys, action research, policy and legislative analysis and environmental monitoring in Niamey and Leipzig, respectively. We critically describe and evaluate the great potential, but very limited actual use of CGD sources for these global goals in both contexts from technical and policy perspectives. Agenda 2030 provides an opportunity to tackle indoor and outdoor air quality in a more integrated and transformative perspective. However, we find this agenda to be remarkably absent in air quality policy and monitoring plans. Likewise, we find no meaningful links of existing citizen science initiatives to official air quality policy. We propose how SDGs-aligned citizen science initiatives could make major contributions to environmental and health monitoring and public debate, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This however requires researchers to more strategically link these initiatives to policymakers and policy frameworks, such as SDG indicators and the governance structures in which they are embedded.

Fine-Granularity Urban Microclimate Monitoring Using Wearable Multi-Source Sensors

“…In addition, they can automatically find out the nearest data for online checking and precision correction, and regularly correct the sensor's zero drift to realize three-dimensional monitoring and dynamic checking in the urban area. It is conducive to establishing the mobile monitoring system for spatial distributed urban environmental quality with a large database of environmental data, which can be used in some citizen science (CS) projects specifically focused on tackling air pollution and contributing to the SDGs [28].…”

Citizen Science for One Digital Health: A Rapid Qualitative Review of Studies in Air Quality with Reflections on a Conceptual Model

“…The duration of research projects recruiting citizen participants ranged from a day of citizen sensing (Johnston et al 2019) to several months (Gabrys 2017;Lepenies and Zakari 2021). Data collection in over half the studies did not go beyond end of project funding; in one case, COVID-19 was a factor in the suspension of part of the study (Lepenies and Zakari 2021).…”

“…Indoor and ambient air quality concerns triggered by an adjacent refinery petrochemical release and linked to noxious odors, burning eyes, irritated throats and lungs were the focus of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community study in the US Pacific Northwest (Rohlman et al 2019). Using cooking fuels and woodburning inside homes was a problematic source of chronic respiratory conditions in Niamey, Niger (Lepenies and Zakari 2021). Harmful emissions from fracking in northeastern Pennsylvania, associated environmental disturbances, and their impacts on public and environmental health were highlighted in the Citizen Sense project (Gabrys 2017).…”

Barriers to Full Participation in the Open Science Life Cycle among Early Career Researchers

“…Involvement in CS also provides ECRs with the opportunity to interact with community members and develop research programs of relevance to these communities. Although the number of CS projects has increased exponentially since the late 1980s (annual rate of increase of 10%; Pocock et al 2017), CS is still relatively uncommon as a primary data source (Burgess et al 2016) and has not been used to its fullest potential towards tracking global sustainability goals (Lepenies & Zakari 2021).…”