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Beyond Bureaucracy pp 167–184Cite as

Citizen Observatories: Concept, Opportunities and Communication with Citizens in the First EU Experiences

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Part of the book series: Public Administration and Information Technology ((PAIT,volume 25))

Abstract

This chapter discusses the emerging concept of Citizen Observatories (COs), explores the opportunities it represents for public authorities to go beyond incremental bureaucratic innovation and presents the first generation of European-funded experiences, held between 2012 and 2016. The concept of CO implies, according to the existing definitions, an open and shared information system dedicated to the collection of data on the environment and natural resources, using ICT, and the volunteer participation of individuals in data collection. The EU has adopted a more specific concept of CO in the projects funded, so that the resulting information complements existing earth observation systems (including the European Copernicus satellite programme). In the 2012–2016 period five CO projects have been funded by the EU, covering different areas: natural waters monitoring, odour monitoring, air quality monitoring, flood risk management and a platform for citizen science surveys. These COs allowed to develop and test the concept’s implementation, although the societal impact is still very limited, involving a reduced number of users. These projects have, however, established a very valuable set of resources, knowledge and expertise. This is an emerging field with interesting perspectives and possibilities. Although there is an economic rationale behind it (lowering the cost of in situ observation networks), it encloses the possibility of using ICT in the creation of a relation between public authorities and citizens that can produce a valuable return for citizens.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.earthobservations.org/g_faq.html.

  2. 2.

    NASA started to conceive and develop its own Earth Observing System (EOS) in the 1980s that began to take shape in the early 1990s. In Europe, the Copernicus system started to take shape in the late 1990s, with the first services being available since the 2010s.

  3. 3.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicus_Programme.

  4. 4.

    http://cordis.europa.eu/programme/rcn/664594_en.html.

  5. 5.

    http://www.copernicus.eu/main/data-access.

  6. 6.

    http://www.copernicus.eu/main/faqs. It must be noted, however, that there are other relevant information sources. GEOSS (the Global Earth Observation System of Systems), for instance, shares information from a set of earth observation, information and processing systems (http://www.geoportal.org/web/guest/geo_home_stp).

  7. 7.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicus_Programme.

  8. 8.

    http://www.citclops.eu. See also http://www.eyeonwater.org, for data collection and dissemination, and http://www.1000001labs.org/project/citclops/, for the project deliverables.

  9. 9.

    http://www.omniscientis.eu.

  10. 10.

    http://omniscientis.spacebel.be:8000/AddAnonymObs.

  11. 11.

    http://co.citi-sense.eu and http://www.citi-sense.eu.

  12. 12.

    http://srv.dunavnet.eu/new/citisense/OutdoorDataPortal/ or, with a slightly different menu layout, http://co.citi-sense.eu/CitizensObservatoriesToolbox/Data.aspx.

  13. 13.

    http://wesenseit.eu.

  14. 14.

    https://cobwebproject.eu.

  15. 15.

    http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/203271_en.html.

  16. 16.

    http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/203269_en.html.

  17. 17.

    http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/203260_en.html.

  18. 18.

    http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/203387_en.html.

  19. 19.

    https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Communication and Media Studies (ESCS) and Lisbon Institute of Communication and Media Studies (ICML), Lisbon, Portugal

    Filipe Montargil

  2. NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS) and NOVA IMS Research and Development Center (MagIC), Lisbon, Portugal

    Vitor Santos

Authors
  1. Filipe Montargil
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  2. Vitor Santos
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Correspondence to Filipe Montargil .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Computer Aided Automation, Wien, Wien, Austria

    Alois A. Paulin

  2. Project Management Department, Technological Education Inst (TEI), Larissa, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Leonidas G. Anthopoulos

  3. Dept of Public Administration, The Univ of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA

    Christopher G. Reddick

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Montargil, F., Santos, V. (2017). Citizen Observatories: Concept, Opportunities and Communication with Citizens in the First EU Experiences. In: Paulin, A., Anthopoulos, L., Reddick, C. (eds) Beyond Bureaucracy. Public Administration and Information Technology, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54142-6_11

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