Citizen-sensor-networks to confront government decision-makers: Two lessons from the Netherlands

Abstract

Highlights:1. Citizen groups increasingly embrace low-cost sensor networks, open data and social media for environmental monitoring.2. Case studies in monitoring provide insight in how social-technical innovations of 'citizen-sensor-networks' come about and form 'networked geo-information tools' in a process of co-construction.3. Analyzed citizen-sensor-networks, which monitor airport noise and gas-extractioninduced earthquakes, publicly falsified the hypotheses held by governing regimes.4. Through processes of collective sense-making and meaning construction, citizensensor-networks form a powerful tool for informed planning. There is a shift in power balance involved between government and affected communities, as the government no longer has information monopoly on environmental measurements. Abstract:This paper presents one emerging social-technical innovation: The evolution of citizensensor-networks where citizens organize themselves from the 'bottom up', for the sake of confronting governance officials with measured information about environmental qualities. We have observed how citizen-sensor-networks have been initiated in the Netherlands in cases where official government monitoring and business organizations leave gaps. The formed citizen-sensor-networks collect information about issues that affect the local community in their quality-of-living. In particular, two community initiatives are described where the sensed environmental information, on noise pollution and gas-extraction induced earthquakes respectively, is published through networked geographic information methods. Both community initiatives pioneered in developing an approach that comprises the combined setting-up of sensor data flows, real-time map portals and community organization. Two particular cases are analyzed to trace the emergence and network operation of such 'networked geo-information tools' in practice: (1) The Groningen earthquake monitor, and (2)

Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms

“…Dutch people are involved in a variety of citizen science projects, for example, air quality monitoring (Jiang et al 2016) and noise monitoring and gas extraction-induced earthquakes (Carton and Ache 2017). These projects are often bottom-up in origin.…”

Increasing Public Participation and Influence in Local Decision-making to Address Social Determinants of Health During Times of Resource Constraint: A Systematic Review Examining Initiatives and Theories

“…The key role of power inequalities as an in uencing factor during processes of participation was emphasised (44,52,54,55). Two studies noted dilemmas regarding how far initiatives instigated by local government to increase involvement should give communities decision-making powers when there is disparity between what local government perceive to be acceptable and sustainable, and resident expectations of what could be achieved (46,56).…”

Social Middleware for Civic Engagement

“…With the exception of AppCivist, most Civic Tech platforms concentrate on one function of civic engagement, thereby leaving their smooth inter-working up to the end-users. Further, studies show that citizens must be provided with adequate data access [13], including leveraging appropriate data sources [27], [14]. This in particular calls for adequate connection with the physical world.…”

“…Despite the above trends, digital technologies supporting inclusive participation toward civic engagement remains a major challenge -even at a local scale. Understanding the motivations for public engagement has been and is still the focus of various studies, especially in the HCI domain (e.g., [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16]). However, studies concentrate on very specific use cases.…”