Slides from a talk at Wilson Center, Washington DC, April 2014 Access to environmental information and use of it for environmental decision making are central pillars of environmental democracy. Yet, not much attention is paid to the question of who is producing it, and for whom? By examining the history of environmental information, since NEPA in 1969, three eras can be identified: information produced by experts, for experts (1969-1992); information produced by experts, to be shared by experts and the public (1992-2011); and finally, information produced by experts and the public to be shared by experts and the public. Underlying these are changes in access to information, rise in levels of education and rapid change due to digital technologies. The three eras and their implication to environmental decision making will be explored, with special attention to the role of geographical information and geographical information systems and to citizen science.

1. Environmental Information: The Roles of
Experts and the Public
Muki Haklay, Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) research group, UCL
Source: iMP

2. NASA 24/12/1968
1962 – Silent
Spring
1970 – USA
Earth Day
1972 –
Stockholm
Conference
1987 – Montreal
protocol,
Our Common
Future
1992 - Rio
Conference,
Agenda 21
1997 – Kyoto
Protocol
1998 – Aarhus
convention
2001 –
Johannesburg
Rio + 10
2003 – Aarhus
EU directives
2005 – UK
Environmental
information
regulations
2011– Eye on
Earth
2012 – Rio+20

3. Environmental movement -
themes
• From local pollution concern (Clean Air Act) to global
issues (Climate Change)
• Developing vs. Developed world discourse
• Role of government and civic society – growing
acceptance of many stakeholders in decision making
processes
• From specific environmental problem solving to
frameworks (e.g. sustainability, adaptation)
In all these, the role of environmental information
is undisputed, but who creates it? Who use it?
How it is being used?

4. Outline
• Three eras of environmental information:
– By experts, for experts (1969-1992)
– By experts, for experts & the public (1992-2012)
– By experts & the public, for experts & the public
(2012 on)
• Underlying trends that facilitated the change
• Where next?
• Open issues and future directions

5. National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) 1969
• Implementation instruments: environmental impact
assessment, state of the environment report, Council
on Environmental Quality (CEQ).
• Expectations from CEQ members:
‘…Each member shall be a person who, as a
result of his training, experience, and
attainments, is exceptionally well
qualified to analyze and interpret
environmental trends and information of
all kinds…’ (U.S. Congress, 1970, sec.
201)

6. Stockholm Declaration 1972
1972 Stockholm declaration, Principles 19 & 20 –
differentiating between experts and the public:
“It is also essential that mass media of
communications … disseminates information
of an educational nature on the need to
protect and improve the environment”
“In this connection, the free flow of up-
to-date scientific information and transfer
of experience must be supported and
assisted, to facilitate the solution of
environmental problems”

7. • 1972 – INFOTERRA – Mainframe based
directory of environmental expertise, used by
national nodes
• 1982 – Global Resources Information
Database – GRID – a global Geographical
Information System
with information about
the environment
Information Systems

8. First era: 1969-1992
• ‘Information deficit’ model towards the public
• Top-down attitude to environmental decision
making
• Environmental information by experts, for
experts

9. Widening participation
• As the environmental
movement evolves in the
1970s and 1980s, the role of
civil society organisations
increase
• With ‘Our Common Future’
(1987), the notion of
sustainable development
gained momentum

10. ‘Earth summit’, Rio 1992, Principle 10:
‘Environmental issues are best handled with
participation of all concerned citizens, at the
relevant level. At the national level, each
individual shall have appropriate access to
information concerning the environment that is held
by public authorities, including information on
hazardous materials and activities in their
communities, and the opportunity to participate in
decision-making processes. States shall facilitate
and encourage public awareness and participation by
making information widely available. Effective
access to judicial and administrative proceedings,
including redress and remedy, shall be provided.’

11. Aarhus convention (EU + post-soviet
countries):
‘…Improved access to information and public
participation in decision-making enhance the
quality and the implementation of decisions,
contribute to public awareness of environmental
issues, give the public opportunity to express
its concerns and enable public authorities to
take due account of such concerns...’ (P. 2)
‘…Each party shall ensure that environmental
information progressively becomes available in
electronic databases which are easily accessible
to the public through public telecommunications
networks...’ (Article 3.3)

12. 19971997

20. 19991999

21. 20042004

23. Second era: 1992 – 2012
• Public access to environmental information is
seen as a prerequisite to participation, civil
society organisations as intermediaries
• The Web emerges as the dissemination
medium
• Information by experts, for the public in
expert form: ‘this is not community
information in community language’

24. Widening participation, further
• Prof. Jacquie McGlade, head of European
Environment Agency, 2008 (Aarhus + 10):
‘Often the best information comes from those
who are closest to it, and it is important
we harness this local knowledge if we are to
tackle climate change adequately… people are
encouraged to give their own opinion on the
quality of the beach and water, to
supplement the official information.’

25. EEA WaterWatch

26. EEA Work Programme 2014-18
• As Part of Strategic Area 3 activities:
‘to widen and deepen the European knowledge
base by developing communities of practice
and engaging in partnerships with
stakeholders beyond Eionet, such as business
and research communities, Civil Society
Organisations (CSO), and initiatives
concerning lay, local and traditional
knowledge and citizen science’

27. Citizen science
• While Citizen Science has a long history, new
formed emerged, facilitated by the web - ‘citizen
cyberscience’
• Types:
– biodiversity/conservation observations recording;
– volunteer computing;
– volunteer thinking;
– Do It Yourself (DIY) science;
– community/civic science
See Haklay, M., 2013, Citizen Science and Volunteered Geographic Information –
overview and typology of participation in Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge

28. Biodiversity/conservation

30. 20082008

32. 20102010

33. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
00:00 03:00 06:00 09:00 12:00 15:00 18:00 21:00 00:00
dBA
Sound Readings - No Flights
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
00:00 03:00 06:00 09:00 12:00 15:00 18:00 21:00 00:00
dBA
Sound Readings - Normal Flights
Source: Wikimedia
Eyjafjallajökull – April 2010

34. Mapping for Change

35. June 2012June 2012

38. July 2012July 2012

39. August 2012August 2012

40. 20132013

42. Air Quality
Pollutant Sampling Method
Nitrogen Dioxide Diffusion tubes
Metal particles Wipe samples

43. Third era: from 2012
• Increased proliferation of geographic
technologies, information sharing, ubiquitous
computing and the emergence of citizen
science
• Official data is opened and integrated with
community-led data collection activities
• Information by the public, for the public.
Experts in a support and facilitation roles.

44. Trends
• Technology and societal enablers
• Major societal transition:
– Increased levels of education
– Increased understanding of abstract concepts and
science communication
• Combined with:
– Web availability, with broadband access to resources
and information
– Collaborative, socially-based knowledge creation
systems (Web 2.0)
– Wide availability of location-enabled mobile devices
Haklay, M., Singleton, A., and Parker, C., 2008, Web mapping 2.0: the Neogeography of
the Geoweb, Geography Compass

45. Web availability and interaction
(CC) Ell Brown (Flickr)

46. Collaborative, socially-based
knowledge creation systems

47. Years of school completed by population 25+ years 1940-2009

48. Increased level of education
95 99 107 116 124 132 138 146 154 159 165
1
10
100
1000
10000
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
World population and students in tertiary education,
World Bank data
Tertiary Ed World Population

49. Understanding scientific
concepts
© Cambridge University Press
© Sanja Gjenero (sxc.hu)

50. Widening participation, still
• The new technologies enable people to go
beyond current group that are involved in
citizen science
• Appropriate design can allow low-literacy and
remote communities to participate in citizen
science

55. 55

56. Summary
• Public access to environmental information evolves
from authoritative, top-down to collaborative
contribution and use
• Citizen science provides communities with the ability
to collect and interpret data, but the need for experts
have not diminished
• There are further ways to increase engagement and
include more people in the process, both on data
collection, but also in interpretation and action

57. Open Issues and Future
Directions
• Characteristics of citizen-produced
environmental information – heterogeneous,
temporal & spatial variability, sources
• Balancing citizens and authoritative
monitoring and management – who should do
what?
• Addressing digital, social and educational
inequalities

58. Credits
Support for the research kindly provided by:
UCL Graduate School Research Fund
ESRC ‘Conserving Biodiversity That Matters: The Value of Brownfield Sites’ project
RGS/IBG Small Research Grant
UrbanBuzz: Building Sustainable Communities (HEFCE)
London Sustainability Exchange (LSx)
London 21 Sustainability Network
EPSRC Challenging Engineering Award ‘Extreme Citizen Science’
EPSRC Adaptable Suburbs project
EU FP7 EveryAware project
Google Research Awards
Amazon Web Services Education Grants
Our special thanks to the participants and the communities that work with us
And to our partners: Royal Geographical Society, ESRI, Helveta and U-Blox

59. • Follow us:
– http://www.ucl.ac.uk/excites
– Twitter: @UCL_ExCiteS
– Blog: http://uclexcites.wordpress.com