About CitiMeasure
The CitiMeasure project (2021-2023) aimed to bring together the experiences and expertise of European cities, organisations, and networks in implementing citizen science initiatives. The project, coordinated by Eurocities, followed a co-creation approach to develop and test three instruments for tackling commons challenges in citizen science, namely, comparability of air quality measurement initiatives, competencies (skills, knowledge, and attitude) for digital inclusion, and influence of citizen science initiatives on behaviour and policy changes.
This was done through the establishment of four working groups (WGs): Comparability, Behavior & Policy, Digital Inclusion and Strategy & Oversight. The fourth WG (Strategy and Oversight) focused on providing strategic direction and ensuring cohesion of activities across the three instrument WGs, and the project in general.
The project had four main phases:
- Establishment of the EU working groups (June 2021 – September 2021)
- Instrument development (September 2021 – May 2022)
- Piloting (May 2022 – December 2022)
- Consolidation (December 2022 – May 2023)
CitiMeasure has also raised awareness of the importance of citizen measurement initiatives and capitalised on the results and tools of similar citizen science projects by creating an online European Knowledge Centre.
Challenges
Establishing a successful, sustainable citizen science initiative with relevance for society, science and policy is a challenging task. CitiMeasure focused on three specific challenges:
Comparability and interoperability
Data can be gathered by multiple stakeholders (e.g., researchers, businesses, public administrations, or by citizens via citizen science initiatives), and at different levels (local, regional, national, etc.). Therefore, data comparability and interoperability are essential for exploring the full potential of citizen science initiatives. This is a challenge because guidance and frameworks that would allow greater comparability are missing.
Changing behaviours and impacting policies
Citizen science can underpin environmental policies, support policymaking, and prompt behavioural change. However, there are many barriers for the use of citizen science data for behaviour and policy change. More efforts thus need to be addressed at breaching this gap, supporting fit-for-purpose approaches as well as appropriately measuring these impacts.
Addressing the digital divide
There is a digital divide in citizen science, i.e., there are differences in motivation, physical access to technology, digital skills, and usage patterns. Enhancing the digital inclusion of citizen science initiatives is thus key for their legitimacy and representativeness.
Working groups
Following a co-creation and collaborative approach CitiMeasure established four working groups to develop and test three instruments with the aims of improving comparability of air quality monitoring initiatives, fostering behaviour and policy change outcomes of citizen science, and reducing digital divide in citizen measurement initiatives.
From May to December 2022, the prototype instruments were piloted in the cities of Barcelona, Roeselare and Prague (through the initiative of Sensor2School). In addition, dozens of citizen science initiatives on air quality have been added to CitiAIR from all over Europe.
The CitiMeasure pilots and working groups collaborated to collect and use feedbacks from the pilot cases and used those feedbacks to improve and consolidate the CitiMeasure instruments.
Strategy and oversight WG
This working group oversaw the development of the instruments, implementation of the pilots and ongoing development of the Knowledge Centre by identifying linkages between the instruments being developed, sharing good practices and new information, ensuring connections with external stakeholders, and being advocates for citizen science and CitiMeasure.
Comparability WG
Behaviour & Policy WG
This working group worked towards increased understanding of the changes in behaviour of different stakeholder groups, as well as decision and policy making processes. This includes changes in trust, participation behaviour, new culture of collaboration, sharing responsibilities, as well as established decision and policy making processes.
Digital inclusion WG
This working group worked towards advancing the understanding of the issue of ‘competencies’ for digital inclusion. This included both unpacking competencies required by citizens to participate in citizen science initiatives, as well as those of policy makers, decision makers and municipal employees to engage citizens in such initiatives.
Who is part of the CitiMeasure working groups?
Challenges
Establishing a successful, sustainable citizen science initiative with relevance for society, science and policy is a challenging task. CitiMeasure focused on three specific challenges:
Comparability and interoperability
Data can be gathered by multiple stakeholders (e.g., researchers, businesses, public administrations, or by citizens via citizen science initiatives), and at different levels (local, regional, national, etc.). Therefore, data comparability and interoperability are essential for exploring the full potential of citizen science initiatives. This is a challenge because guidance and frameworks that would allow greater comparability are missing.
Changing behaviours and impacting policies
Citizen science can underpin environmental policies, support policymaking, and prompt behavioural change. However, there are many barriers for the use of citizen science data for behaviour and policy change. More efforts thus need to be addressed at breaching this gap, supporting fit-for-purpose approaches as well as appropriately measuring these impacts.
Addressing the digital divide
There is a digital divide in citizen science, i.e., there are differences in motivation, physical access to technology, digital skills, and usage patterns. Enhancing the digital inclusion of citizen science initiatives is thus key for their legitimacy and representativeness.
Working groups
Following a co-creation and collaborative approach CitiMeasure established four working groups to develop and test three instruments with the aims of improving comparability of air quality monitoring initiatives, fostering behaviour and policy change outcomes of citizen science, and reducing digital divide in citizen measurement initiatives.
From May to December 2022, the prototype instruments were piloted in the cities of Barcelona, Roeselare and Prague (through the initiative of Sensor2School). In addition, dozens of citizen science initiatives on air quality have been added to CitiAIR from all over Europe.
The CitiMeasure pilots and working groups collaborated to collect and use feedbacks from the pilot cases and used those feedbacks to improve and consolidate the CitiMeasure instruments.
Strategy and oversight WG
This working group oversaw the development of the instruments, implementation of the pilots and ongoing development of the Knowledge Centre by identifying linkages between the instruments being developed, sharing good practices and new information, ensuring connections with external stakeholders, and being advocates for citizen science and CitiMeasure.
Digital inclusion WG
This working group worked towards advancing the understanding of the issue of ‘competencies’ for digital inclusion. This included both unpacking competencies required by citizens to participate in citizen science initiatives, as well as those of policy makers, decision makers and municipal employees to engage citizens in such initiatives.
Behaviour & Policy WG
This working group worked towards increased understanding of the changes in behaviour of different stakeholder groups, as well as decision and policy making processes. This includes changes in trust, participation behaviour, new culture of collaboration, sharing responsibilities, as well as established decision and policy making processes.
Comparability WG
The CitiMeasure Comparability WG facilitated information sharing across different cities and organizations involved in air quality monitoring by creating an inventory of air quality monitoring activities and approaches. This inventory was developed as an interactive tool that will inform citizen science initiatives and city officials on what sensors to use to ensure comparability with existing observations.
Who is part of the CitiMeasure working groups?