scholarly journals Geoinformatics in Citizen Science

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Bordogna

This editorial introduces the special issue entitled “Geoinformatics in Citizen Science” of the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. The issue includes papers dealing with three main topics. (1) Key tasks of citizen science (CS) in leveraging geoinformatics. This comprises descriptions of citizen science initiatives where geoinformation management and processing is the key means for discovering new knowledge, and it includes: (i) “hackAIR: Towards Raising Awareness about Air Quality in Europe by Developing a Collective Online Platform” by Kosmidis et al., (ii) “Coupling Traditional Monitoring and Citizen Science to Disentangle the Invasion of Halyomorpha halys” by Malek et al., and (iii) “Increasing the Accuracy of Crowdsourced Information on Land Cover via a Voting Procedure Weighted by Information Inferred from the Contributed Data” by Foody et al. (2) Evaluations of approaches to handle geoinformation in CS. This examines citizen science initiatives which critically analyze approaches to acquire and handle geoinformation, and it includes: (iv) “CS Projects Involving Geoinformatics: A Survey of Implementation Approaches” by Criscuolo et al., (v) “Obstacles and Opportunities of Using a Mobile App for Marine Mammal Research” by Hann et al., (vi) “OSM Data Import as an Outreach Tool to Trigger Community Growth? A Case Study in Miami” by Juhász and Hochmair, and (vii) “Experiences with Citizen-Sourced VGI in Challenging Circumstances“ by Hameed et al. (3) Novel geoinformatics research issues: (viii) “A New Method for the Assessment of Spatial Accuracy and Completeness of OpenStreetMap Building Footprints” by Brovelli and Zamboni, (ix) “A Citizen Science Approach for Collecting Toponyms” by Perdana and Ostermann, and (x) “An Automatic User Grouping Model for a Group Recommender System in Location-Based Social Networks” by Khazaei and Alimohammadi.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Claudio Aguayo ◽  
Moira Decima

When do Salps bloom? In this MBIE Curious Minds funded project we sought to address the growing need to involve people at a young age in learning involving active scientific research, to enhance societal understanding of science and technology and promote careers in STEM/STEAM to groups traditionally less represented. We engaged Leigh Primary School children with Salp research led by Dr Moira Decima from NIWA, and with citizen science through involvement in the co-design of a mobile app to report salp (marine invertebrate) sightings in coastal and underwater environments in our case study site: Goat Island Marine Reserve. The goal of the project was to engage students in cutting-edge marine science research and conservation; and in technological development through the co-design of a mobile app to report salps sightings in local coastal environments.      Salps constitute essential prey items for multiple species of fish (including commercially important species like Hoki and Oreos), and can play a major role in ocean biogeochemistry by enhancing carbon (CO2) sequestration. In addition, the presence and extent of population blooms has increased in some parts of the world, presumably as a consequence of global warming, making these organisms sentinels of climate change. They are also unique in New Zealand because they seem to predictably bloom during the summer in coastal areas, yet this information is anecdotal and hence constituted a real opportunity to involve Leigh School to contribute to globally-relevant marine research. Important to local communities, the presence and abundance of these organisms affects tourist and local enjoyment of marine habitats, as low densities can result in attractive items for underwater experiences, but high densities render diving, fishing, boating and other water activities problematic.   Students participated in a series of face-to-face events, including two visits to the Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre (University of Auckland); vlogging with Dr Decima while leading the RV Tangaroa on the #SalpPOOP (Salp Particle expOrt and Oceanic Production) research voyage; snorkelling at Goat Island Marine Reserve; and learning presentations by Leigh School children during SeaWeek 2019, where students presented their learning, enjoyed a sausage BBQ, and tried out virtual reality experiences designed to learn about salp research and marine conservation in general. We also engaged with Goat Island Dive & Snorkel dive instructors and selected customers during the app co-design phase to gain app prototype feedback.   A mobile application (salpcount.nz) following a citizen science engagement framework that will allow data collection of salps in New Zealand was created with input from Leigh School students and selected Goat Island Dive & Snorkel customers and instructors, and with the engagement of multiple partners and through a hands-on educational program. Leigh School students were able to learn about an interesting marine biology topic relevant to them, while contributing to an application that will hopefully produce data through citizen science on the patterns and frequency of salp blooms around New Zealand. Here we report on this case study project highlighting what worked and what we learned, and some implications for future practice.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 679
Author(s):  
Avi Bar-Massada

The Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) is where human settlements border or intermingle with undeveloped land, often with multiple detrimental consequences. Therefore, mapping the WUI is required in order to identify areas-at-risk. There are two main WUI mapping methods, the point-based approach and the zonal approach. Both differ in data requirements and may produce considerably different maps, yet they were never compared before. My objective was to systematically compare the point-based and the zonal-based WUI maps of California, and to test the efficacy of a new database of building locations in the context of WUI mapping. I assessed the spatial accuracy of the building database, and then compared the spatial patterns of WUI maps by estimating the effect of multiple ancillary variables on the amount of agreement between maps. I found that the building database is highly accurate and is suitable for WUI mapping. The point-based approach estimated a consistently larger WUI area across California compared to the zonal approach. The spatial correspondence between maps was low-to-moderate, and was significantly affected by building numbers and by their spatial arrangement. The discrepancy between WUI maps suggests that they are not directly comparable within and across landscapes, and that each WUI map should serve a distinct practical purpose.


Author(s):  
Laura Ballerini ◽  
Sylvia I. Bergh

AbstractOfficial data are not sufficient for monitoring the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): they do not reach remote locations or marginalized populations and can be manipulated by governments. Citizen science data (CSD), defined as data that citizens voluntarily gather by employing a wide range of technologies and methodologies, could help to tackle these problems and ultimately improve SDG monitoring. However, the link between CSD and the SDGs is still understudied. This article aims to develop an empirical understanding of the CSD-SDG link by focusing on the perspective of projects which employ CSD. Specifically, the article presents primary and secondary qualitative data collected on 30 of these projects and an explorative comparative case study analysis. It finds that projects which use CSD recognize that the SDGs can provide a valuable framework and legitimacy, as well as attract funding, visibility, and partnerships. But, at the same time, the article reveals that these projects also encounter several barriers with respect to the SDGs: a widespread lack of knowledge of the goals, combined with frustration and political resistance towards the UN, may deter these projects from contributing their data to the SDG monitoring apparatus.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 421
Author(s):  
Marzena Tomaszewska ◽  
Beata Bilska ◽  
Agnieszka Tul-Krzyszczuk ◽  
Danuta Kołożyn-Krajewska

The problem of food waste in food services, which is global and essentially affects the entire world, is a major challenge for the hospitality industry. At the same time, it should be noted that this problem has not been sufficiently studied, which makes it difficult to reduce it effectively. The study was carried out in four hotels in late 2019 and early 2020. In order to determine the scale of food waste, the diary method was used, which consists of systematically recording, for seven days, in forms prepared for workstations, the weight of all food products and unused food, including the stage of the technological process. In the hotels under study, most food was wasted in the serving department, i.e., in the buffet in the dining room or in the form of plate waste (on average 72.55% of wasted food). After taking into account the number of hotel guests served, it was found that in the investigated facilities, an average of 0.046 kg was wasted from each serving offered to guests in the form of plate waste, which constituted 5.8% of its weight. In sum, it should be stated that in order to reduce food waste, it is necessary to educate both food services staff and consumers. Employees should be trained in the proper handling of food. Consumer education, on the other hand, should be directed toward raising awareness of the negative impact of food waste, such as that on the natural environment. In addition, it should indicate what action everyone can take to limit this negative phenomenon, whether at home, in the workplace, or in a food service establishment.


Author(s):  
Mazlan Mohd Sappri Et.al

Social media application (SMA) shows several important functions that causing theincrement of usage among mobile application or mobile app users, especially among18 to 28 years-old users. This causing several developers to create their own SMA thathave been targeted to mobile app users. However, only several SMA managed tobecome popular and successful in term of usage, leaving other unpopular SMA in thelower rank of the Google PlayStore. SMA created by developer in Malaysia face thesame situation as mentioned before where those SMA were supposed to attractMalaysian mobile users more. To assess this situation, this study aims to identify thesuccess factors of SMA usage and develop a set of metric based on the success factorsusing research model that have been developed in the past. Information SystemSuccess Model (ISSM) were studied and chosen as the reference model for this studybecause the model is suitable and have been used by other researchers in studiesregarding social media and SMA. ISSM contains several success factors like systemquality, service quality and information quality that affect the user satisfaction and useof a system, where this model were modified in this study with the addition ofnetworking quality and perceive privacy factors. This study were conducted on 380Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) students and after analysing the data collected, allproposed success factors except of service quality were found to have a positive impacttowards user satisfaction and usage. The success factors were included in the metricdesign and the metric were presented in an evaluation form for SMA developer inMalaysia to evaluate and applied the metric in their SMA.


Author(s):  
Roanne Van Voorst

Understanding human adaptation to climate changes is one of the most important research issues within the area of global environmental change, accounting for the fact that people worldwide are currently adapting to their changing environment (Adger and Kelly 2000: 253; Smit et al. 2008). The Greenlandic case study as presented in this paper is mainly based on a literature analysis and ethnographic data obtained during the Greenlandic winter of 2008, with emphasis on the latter. Participant observation and interviews were combined with a discursive analysis of climate change-related policies. The empirical findings as presented in this paper suggest that an exclusive and gender-neutral focus of policy makers on economic aspects of adaptation to climate changes may increase socio-economic inequality as well as male domestic violence over women. Social research can help to identify such chains of reactions resulting from climate changes and related policies, by focusing on individual adaptation strategies of male and female actors in vulnerable societies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff McCarthy ◽  
Jennifer Rowley ◽  
Catherine Jane Ashworth ◽  
Elke Pioch

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute knowledge on the issues and benefits associated with managing brand presence and relationships through social media. UK football clubs are big businesses, with committed communities of fans, so are an ideal context from which to develop an understanding of the issues and challenges facing organisations as they seek to protect and promote their brand online. Design/methodology/approach – Due to the emergent nature of social media, and the criticality of the relationships between clubs and their fans, an exploratory study using a multiple case study approach was used to gather rich insights into the phenomenon. Findings – Clubs agreed that further development of social media strategies had potential to deliver interaction and engagement, community growth and belonging, traffic flow to official web sites and commercial gain. However, in developing their social media strategies they had two key concerns. The first concern was the control of the brand presence and image in social media, and how to respond to the opportunities that social media present to fans to impact on the brand. The second concern was how to strike an appropriate balance between strategies that deliver short-term revenue, and those that build longer term brand loyalty. Originality/value – This research is the first to offer insights into the issues facing organisations when developing their social media strategy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-133
Author(s):  
Fathiya Nur Rahmi ◽  
Hanny Hafiar ◽  
Iriana Bakti

AbstractThe awareness of job providers to employ people with disabilities is directly proportional to the participation of persons with disabilities in the formal work sector which is relatively low. Another problem faced by persons with disabilities is a negative stigma attached to them. This research was conducted to find out persuasive communication conducted on the Advocacy of LSM Saujana’s Public Relations, related to elements of communicators, messages, and audiences involved in persuasive communication. The research method used in this research is a case study with qualitative analysis techniques. Data collection techniques used in this study are interviews, observation, and documentation. Researchers conducted data analysis based on Flow Analysis Models. Based on the results, there were stages of persuasive communication undertaken including the preparation of communicators, delivery of messages, the use of online and offline media in delivering messages, the behavioral changes and evaluation. The LSM Saujana used the central route in persuasive communication that was appropriate to support advocacy. The findings suggest the institution focus on messages delivered to the target audience, starting with raising awareness and focusing on behavioral change.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0248948
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Schulwitz ◽  
Greg C. Hill ◽  
Vanessa Fry ◽  
Christopher J. W. McClure

Citizen science programs can be powerful drivers of knowledge and scientific understanding and, in recent decades, they have become increasingly popular. Conducting successful research with the aid of citizen scientists often rests on the efficacy of a program’s outreach strategies. Program evaluation is increasingly recognized as a critical practice for citizen science practitioners to ensure that all efforts, including outreach, contribute to the overall goals of the program. The Peregrine Fund’s American Kestrel Partnership (AKP) is one such citizen science program that relies on outreach to engage participants in effective monitoring of a declining falcon species. Here, we examine whether various communication strategies were associated with desired outreach goals of the AKP. We demonstrate how social media, webcams, discussion boards, and newsletters were associated with perception of learning, agreement with our conservation messaging, and participation in our box monitoring program. Our results thus help us to improve our outreach methodology, suggest areas where other citizen science programs might improve their outreach efforts, and highlight future research priorities.


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