CitiObs (Enhancing Citizen Observatories for healthy, sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities) is a EU Project aimed at fostering inclusive, diverse, and stable citizen participation in the observation, monitoring, and protection of urban environments. Through the use of low-cost sensor technologies and wearables, CitiObs supports the observation of air quality and other environmental measures, empowering citizens to take an active role in shaping sustainable urban policies.

• Overview
• Goals
• Environmental Monitoring Toolkit
• Contributing
• License

At a technical level, CitiObs aims to formalize, valorize, and legitimize the role of citizen observations in environmental monitoring. The project provides tools and methodologies to enable Citizen Observatories (COs) to transform co-created data into actionable knowledge that supports relevant policy and decision-making processes. These efforts are aligned with the New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative and other sustainability goals.

The key goals of the CitiObs project include:

• Enable Widespread Citizen Participation: Increase diverse and stable participation in urban environmental monitoring.
• Enable interoperability and use of standards: Leverage existing OGC open standards to favour interoperability of the data produced.
• Complement Official Observations: Enhance the temporal and spatial availability of citizen-generated data to complement official monitoring systems at local, national, and EU levels.
• Strengthen the Role of Citizen Observatories: Promote COs as a powerful tool for research, policy-making, and climate change adaptation.
• Large-Scale Demonstration: Showcase the effectiveness of CitiObs tools in enhancing Citizen Observatories across various cities and urban environments.

CitiObs utilizes and develops a range of technological tools designed to support the work of Citizen Observatories. These tools are focused on enabling data collection, analysis, and integration in an open and accessible manner.

• Air Quality Sensors: Used to monitor environmental factors like air pollution, particulate matter (PM), and gases.
• Wearables: Devices that collect personal exposure data, allowing for the integration of individual data into broader environmental observations.

• Cloud-Based Platforms: These platforms allow for the aggregation, storage, and visualization of citizen-collected environmental data.
• Mobile Applications: Allow citizens to easily contribute data through smartphones or wearable devices, offering real-time data collection.

• Machine Learning Algorithms: Used to validate and cross-check data for consistency and accuracy.
• Data Standardization: Methodologies to ensure that citizen data is comparable to official data sources.

• Geospatial Mapping Tools: Visualize the spatial distribution of environmental observations.
• Dashboard Tools: Provide users with interactive dashboards to analyze trends in real-time data.

• Decision Support Systems: Help policymakers use citizen-generated data to make informed decisions regarding urban planning, air quality management, and climate adaptation.
• Reporting Frameworks: Designed to help COs present their data and findings to local, national, and EU institutions.

We welcome contributions to the CitiObs project! If you would like to contribute to the development of the tools and methodologies, please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Clone your fork locally.
3. Create a new branch for your feature or fix.
4. Make your changes and commit them.
5. Push your changes to your fork.
6. Submit a pull request with a description of your changes.

Each tool is licensed on its own repository. Make sure to check them before hand.

For more information, visit the official CitiObs website.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.