This document summarizes work to define citizen observatories and map existing initiatives across Europe. It reviewed literature for a consolidated definition of citizen observatories and frameworks for classifying initiatives based on characteristics like geographic scope, participants, data accessibility, and more. Existing citizen observatory projects from the EU's Horizon 2020 and FP7 programs are mapped according to these classifications to benchmark features and functions. Practitioners are invited to share additional project details to compile a more comprehensive landscape of citizen observatory initiatives in Europe.

1.
In
the
first
WeObserve
Landscape
Report
of
COs
in
Europe,
we
reviewed
the
literature
for
a
consolidated
defini=on
of
what
makes
a
CO,
and
frameworks
for
mapping
exis=ng
CO
ini=a=ves
and
their
relevant
communi=es
and
interac=ons
WeSenseIT
“a method, an environment and an
infrastructure supporting an information
ecosystem for communities and citizens, as well
as emergency operators and policymakers, for
discussion, monitoring and intervention on
situations, places and events”
2013
PARTICIPATION OF
CITIZENS ‘IN-SITU’
https://tinyurl.com/
COlandscape
COMMONELEMENTS
1. Geographic scope
2. Type of participants
3. Network establishment
mechanism
4. Revenue stream
5. Communication Paradigm
6. Effort required
7. Platform support
8. Data accessibility,
availability & quality
1
Geographic scope
& no. of member
stations
2
Type of
Participants
3
Network
establishment
mechanism
4
Revenue
stream to sustain
the network
5
Communication
paradigm
6
Effort required
by data sharers
7
Support offered by
platform providers
8
Data accessibility,
availability
& quality
Dimensions
↔
(Scien=fic)
experts
Private
sector
NGOs
Emergency
services
Local
authori=es
Na=onal
organiza=ons
Regional
organiza=ons
Interna=onal
organiza=ons
BoKom
Up
Adver=sing
Licencing
Dona=on
Uni-­‐direc=onal
Knowledge
requirements
Diversiy
of
supported
sensor
types
Suppor=ng
material
Usability
of
the
web-­‐plaRorm
Usability
of
the
app
← Classifications →
Citizen
Observatories
Source:
Gharesifard,
Wehn,
&
van
der
Zaag,
2017
Towards
benchmarking
Ci=zen
Observatories:
Features
and
func=oning
of
online
amateur
weather
networks.
Journal
of
Environmental
Management.
CityManagement
Water,streams,
snow,sea
Air, noise,
smell
spectrum
Tools formonitoring
Disaster
monitoring
Commodity-
based
Management
1 2
3
Secondary
4
5
7
6
7
9
9
8
9
8
10
11
H2020 COs
1. Ground Truth 2.0
2. GROW
3. LandSense
4. Scent
5. D-Noses
6. Monocle
FP7 COs
7. COBWEB
8. Ominscientis
9. Citi-Sense
10. WeSenseIt
11. Citiclops
ENVIRONMENTAL
MONITORING
BI-DIRECTIONAL
DATA & INFO
MOBILE + WEB
TECHNOLOGIES
ALAN GRAINGER
“any use of Earth observation technology in
which citizens collect data and are empowered
by the information generated from these data
to participate in environmental management.”
2017
CITI-SENSE
“the citizens’ own observations and
understanding of environmentally related
problems and in particular ... reporting and
commenting on them within a dedicated ICT
platform”
2014
Calling
all
CO
Prac==oners
We
are
now
compiling
project
details
on
as
wide
a
range
of
ini=a=ves
in
Europe
as
possible.
Please
share
project
informa=on
with
us
via
this
online
form.
What
data
would
YOU
like
to
see
captured?
JOIN the WeObserve Communities of Practice - https://tinyurl.com/WOCoPs
This work is part of the WeObserve project. WeObserve has received
funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research & innovation
program under Grant Agreement No 776740.
Content reflects only the author’s view and European Commission is not
responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
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