Democratizing co-production of thematic co-explorations for Citizen Observatories

Citizen Observatories (CO) are initiatives that empower citizens to actively participate in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data to address various issues affecting their communities and contribute to policymaking and community development
Thematic co-exploration is a collaborative approach where citizens actively participate alongside scientists and other stakeholders in exploring specific topics related to environmental monitoring and observation, e.g. air quality
Core challenges of thematic co-explorations are:
Data quality and reliability
Engagement and Retention of Participants
Integration with Policy and Decision-Making

1. 1
Democratizing co-production of thematic co-
explorations for Citizen Observatories
(co-authored by Diego López-de-Ipiña, Rubén Sánchez-Corcuera, Felipe Eduardo Vergara, Mikel Emaldi, Dawid Wolosiuk,
Diego Casado-Mansilla, Alessandra Feliciotti, Jan Peter-Anders)
9
th
International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Technologies (Splitech 2022)
25 –28 June 2024, https://2024.splitech.org/
Dr. Diego López-de-Ipiña González-de-Artaza
[email protected]
http://paginaspersonales.deusto.es/dipina
http://www.morelab.deusto.es
@dipina

2. 2
Introduction
•Citizen Observatories (CO) are initiatives that empower citizens to actively
participate in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data to address
various issues affecting their communities and contribute to policymaking
and community development
–Thematic co-exploration is a collaborative approach where citizens actively
participate alongside scientists and other stakeholders in exploring specific
topics related to environmental monitoring and observation, e.g.air quality
–Corechallenges of thematic co-explorations are:
•Data quality and reliability
•Engagement and Retention of Participants
•Integration with Policy and Decision-Making
GREENGA GE

3. 3
GREENGAGE –engaging citizens, mobilizing technology,
delivering Green Deal
•GREENGAGEcontributes withseveralassetstorealize thematic co-exploration
and thus democratize Citizen Observatories
–Aco-production methodologyframework
–Asuite of knowledge assets, termed as Academy
–Asuite of digital tools, termed as GREEN Engine
•Key aspects of GREENGAGE approach to realize Citizen Observatories are:
–Collaborative Research
–Citizen engagement
–Mutual learning
–Empowerment and ownership
–Technology used
–Community building
–Policy impact
GREENGA GE

4. 4
‘ A la GREENGAGE’recipe for thematic co-explorations
•GREENGAGE proposes a co-production recipe to empower citizens
and stakeholders in actively engaging in environmental
observation and decision-makingprocesses
1.Community and Co-production Process Management –building a
strong, informed, and active community which collaborates through a co-
production process by co-producing (co-design + co-deliver)a thematic
co-exploration
2.Data Crowdsourcing and Capture –active participation, leveraging
technology to gather vital curated high quality environmental data
3.Data Analysis and Insights Generation –datatransformed in actionable
information, becomes a powerful tool for understanding and influencing
environmental policy

5. 5
GREENGAGE recipe for thematic co-explorations

6. 6
GREENGAGE thematic co-exploration co-production process
•Based on previous work on co-production in
INTERLINKproject, a thematic co-
exploration co-production process template
has been defined
–4 main phasesa co-production of a thematic co-
exploration
–each phase is divided into objectives
–objectives comprise several tasks
–for each tasksseveral CO enablers are
recommendedfrom the GREENGAGE Academy
•Itisaco-production model framework,
tunable to each specific thematic co-
exploration’s purpose
•SupportedbyCollaborativeEnvironment
(CE)
Phase 1: Preparing
1.1 Theme selection
1.2 Internal (Pilot Owner) training & preparing
1.3 Core Team Onboarding
1.4 Training of the Core Team
Phase 2: Designing
2.1 Experiment specification
2.2 Tools & resources selection
2.3 Tools & resources customization
2.4 Testing of tools & resources
Phase 3: Delivering
3.1 Observers onboarding
3.2 Observers training & support
3.3 Data collection
3.4 Data combination, analysis & visualization
3.5 Experiment evaluation
Phase 4: Sharing
4.1 Storytelling
4.2 Impact on policies
4.3 Experiment sustainability

7. 7
GREENGAGE thematic co-exploration co-production process
I nterfa z de usua rio g rá fica , Texto, A plica ción, Correo electrónico
Descripción g enera da a utomá tica mente

8. 8
GREEN Enginesupport for Citizen Observers
•Configures data value chains that combine official data (EU Copernicus, Open Data) with
crowdsourced data (provided by citizens through wearables or apps) to generate evidence
that inform improved models of urban governance. Includes:
–Tools, and infrastructures to support the data-mining cycle (gather –validate –control –analyse–
manage –interpret –visualise–publish –exchange), following CRISP-DM model
–GREENGAGE Academy or Knowledge Base, which is a centralized repository of freely available
information, training materials, procedures and data that serves as a valuable resource
–Communityandprocessmanagementtools to guide and streamline co-production
•It covers 3 areas of concern essential to “cook” thematic co-explorations ala GREENGAGE:
–Area of Concern 1: Community and Co-production Process Management
•CollaborativeEnvironment +Discourse+Wordpress
–Area of Concern 2: Data Crowdsourcing and Curation
•MindEarthapp, GREENGAGE app, MODE, IoT sensors, e.g.AtmoTubePRO
–Area of Concern 3: Analysis and Visualization for Insights Generation
•Apache NiFi, Apache Druid, Superset, Data Quality Dashboard

9. 9
GREEN Enginesupportfor Citizen Observers
•Configures data value chains that combine official data (EU Copernicus, Open Data) with
crowdsourced data (provided by citizens through wearables or apps) to generate evidence
that inform improved models of urban governance. Includes:
–Tools, and infrastructures to support the data-mining cycle (gather –validate –control –analyse–
manage –interpret –visualise–publish –exchange), following CRISP-DM model
–GREENGAGE Academy or Knowledge Base, which is a centralized repository of freely available
information, training materials, procedures and data that serves as a valuable resource
–Community and process management tools to guide and streamline co-production
•It covers 3 areas of concern essential to “cook” thematic co-explorations ala GREENGAGE:
–Area of Concern 1: Community and Co-production Process Management
•Collaborative Environment + Discourse + Wordpress
–Area of Concern 2: Data Crowdsourcing and Curation
•MindEarthapp, GREENGAGE app, MODE, IoT sensors, e.g.AtmoTubePRO
–Area of Concern 3: Analysis and Visualization for Insights Generation
•Apache NiFi, Apache Druid, Superset, Data Quality Dashboard

10. 10
Validation of GREENGAGE approach
•Example to illustrate co-production of a thematic co-exploration
using some of the tools provided by GREENGAGE platform
–analyze the air quality data for the city of Bristol
•identify air pollution in the city and the different factors that may affect it
•a single dataset from the Air Quality Data Continuousopen dataset has been used
•The following steps were carried following GREENGAGE recipe:
1.Community and Co-production Process Management
•Through theCollaborativeEnvironmenttool,themanagersofthethematicco-exploration: a)
set upaco-productionprocess; b) Create teams with different roles; and c) guided bytheco-
production process schema, they define the thematic co-exploration spec, e.g.Noord
Brabant thematic co-exploration on air quality
•Through Discourseand WordPress tools, the thematic co-exploration owners created a
community around this thematic co-exploration

11. 11
Validation of GREENGAGE approach

12. 12
Validation of GREENGAGE approach
•The following steps should be carried out according to GREENGAGE recipe:
2.Data Crowdsourcing and Capture
•Data collection: data from the different sensors that deployed in the city was collected
–NiFiflow that iteratively gathers the datafrom the API and stores in a local file was generated
•Data ingestion and storage
–Apache Druid datastore tool was used to ingest the data from the aggregated data file created
through Apache NiFi
3.Data Analysis and Insights Generation: collected data was transformed into actionable
insights, understanding and influencing environmental policy
•Data visualization and dashboard creation: Apache Supersetto create visualizations that may
support the decision-making process,e.g.NO2 collected by 11 different stations over seven
months.
•Data cataloguing: Data Hubused to index the results obtained
•Insights generation: In this step the participants of the thematic co-exploration analyze the
data and the visualizations generated from it and extract insights from it

13. 13
Validation of GREENGAGE approach

14. 14
Conclusions
•GREENGAGEproject provides a methodology and a suite of tools and knowledge assets
to democratize the realization of such thematic co-explorations
–A simple thematic co-exploration realization through the provided infrastructure has been
shown to illustrate the potential of such approach for tackling Green Deal challenges
•Future workshould:
–Assess the effectiveness of “GREENGAGE as a means” and the impactassociated to the “co-
produced thematic co-explorations as an end”
–GREENGAGE is exploring how well it helps tackling CO challenges: data accuracy, community
retention and impact generation
–The impact of resulting co-produced artefacts will be assessed through ACTIONmethodology
GREENGA GE

15. 15
Democratizing co-production of thematic co-
explorations for Citizen Observatories
(co-authored by Diego López-de-Ipiña, Rubén Sánchez-Corcuera, Felipe Eduardo Vergara, Mikel Emaldi, Dawid
Wolosiuk, Diego Casado-Mansilla, Alessandra Feliciotti, Jan Peter-Anders)
9
th
International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Technologies (Splitech 2022)
25 –28 June 2024, https://2024.splitech.org/
Dr. Diego López-de-Ipiña González-de-Artaza
[email protected]
http://paginaspersonales.deusto.es/dipina
http://www.morelab.deusto.es
@dipina